"Let the dead bury their own dead" — what Jesus meant

• Is there a "but first" in your life — something you insist on before obeying God?

Ben (addressed by name on air) works through the passage where a man says "let me first bury my father" and Jesus answers "let the dead bury their own dead": he argues the father was not freshly dead (in that culture the dead are buried within a day, and the grieving stay home), so the man meant either waiting for the year-later ossuary reburial or simply deferring indefinitely until his father eventually dies. Jesus' reply is deliberately offensive — only Jesus could tell someone to set aside the fifth commandment's honor-your-parents duty — and it reframes the question for the listener: is there a "but first" between you and what God is asking?