Mission Venture Ministries

Jesus said to another man, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59-60) 

One day Jesus invited a man to follow Him and become His disciple, but the man refused. He said he would follow Jesus later, but first he wanted to go bury his father. Jesus responded, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” As we see, nothing is more important than responding to the gospel. This however requires that the gospel be preached (Romans 10:14) as Jesus is saying to this man. It appears however that this man wanted not only to bury his father but in Jewish tradition also get his inheritance. It seems he was skirting his spiritual calling and wanted Christ to give His blessing to this action. 

Instead, Christ told him to focus on his calling. A better sense of Jesus’ statement would be, “Don’t neglect the high spiritual calling I’ve given you; let the spiritually dead attend to the routine tasks of life.” Certainly, Christ would not forbid the man from attending to the funeral arrangements for his father. Christ Himself went to visit the family of His friend Lazarus after Lazarus’ death—even at great risk of His life (John 11:1-16). 

Regardless of the reason, this man was missing the meaning of the urgency in Jesus’ command. Without Christ, each and every one of us is a walking dead person. We are dead in our sins; we may be alive, strong and healthy physically, and yet be spiritually dead, which is very serious. 

Jesus was forcing this man to face reality and make a decision. He was telling him, “If you’re going to follow me, do it right now, today (read Luke 12:13-21). Don’t waste another second; who knows what could happen in a few hours?” Countless people assumed they could postpone following Jesus until later, but tomorrow never came. Therefore, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrew 3:15). 

Once we make the decision to follow Jesus and preach His good news, we must deny worldly pursuits and comforts, and do the Lord’s work. Jesus wants spiritually alive followers to be instruments in the Lord’s hands to call others to life in Christ. 

Human beings are composed of a body by which they interact with the world around them; however, we need to understand that everyone since birth is spiritually dead because of their sin nature inherited from Adam. Even though we are physically alive, anyone who is not a true born again Christian believer is spiritually dead in God’s eyes. 

Adam’s sin separated us from God, but Christ’s sacrifice gives eternal life to those who admit they are sinners and put their trust in Him for the forgiveness of their sins. Christ is our Savior and the only way to salvation. 

Jesus was very clear when He talked of salvation. The purpose of His life on earth was to offer us salvation and to be our Redeemer. When Adam chose to sin, fellowship with God was broken. No longer could Adam and Eve live in Paradise. Adam’s sin had condemned mankind to be separated from God and we are still under that curse. 

This is why Jesus came down from heaven to be a Man among mankind, living a perfect and sinless life and to be that perfect sacrifice that God’s law demanded. Once He did that, He rose from the dead on the third day, and currently sits at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for those who place their faith and trust in Him. 

Those who have accepted God’s free gift of salvation will live eternally with Him and will avoid the lake of fire. Don’t ever think that eternity separated from God in the lake of fire is going to be one big party. It is eternal torment as Jesus said: “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life” (Matthew 25:46). This is why anyone that does not believe in God’s plan for Salvation through Christ Jesus is a walking dead person. 

When someone is born again, that person is spiritually revived through the power in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. When a person, comes to the knowledge of this understanding, yet rejects the free offer of salvation, they are in effect walking dead.  

Just as Jesus confronted the Pharisees of His time, who were walking, talking, living and breathing, but who were actually spiritually dead; Jesus didn’t mince words when He called the ‘religious leaders’ of His day “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27). Jesus was not harsh to be mean; rather, love guided His actions. Jesus spoke firmly against the deception of Satan out of a desire for people to know truth and find life in Him. 

Jesus’ words were harsh because there was so much at stake. Those who followed the Pharisees and scribes were being kept from following God. So much of the teaching in Jesus’ day was in direct contradiction of God’s Word (Matthew 15:6). The religious leaders made a mockery out of following God. They did not truly understand God’s ways, and they led others away from God. Jesus’ desire was that people would come to know God and be reconciled with Him. 

Anyone who rejects the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, and dies refusing, are actually committing spiritual suicide. By rejecting Jesus, they have condemned their eternal being, their spirit and soul to eternal death in hell, separated from God forever. 

You see, Jesus came down from heaven and sacrificed Himself to give walking dead people life. You and I were dead in our sins before we put our trust in Christ for salvation. Ephesians 2:4-9 tells us that:  Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. 

The very instant we believe by faith that Christ died and paid for our sins, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise: And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14). 

The walking dead have been around for the last two thousand years, as they refused to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They also existed before Jesus came to earth because they refused to believe in the promise of the Messiah that was to come. Now, once these died they were sent to Hades (hell), the only place they were fit for, a temporary holding place, until they are cast into the lake of fire at the time of the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 20:11-15. 

Are you part of the walking dead? It is our hope that you are not, however, if you are, you still have time to become spiritually alive in Christ. Remember, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). But you have a choice, whether to become spiritually alive in Christ or to be part of the millions of spiritually dead who are already separated from God by dying without Him. What will your decision be? What is holding you back? 

This Scripture is full of urgency. Be urgent about following Jesus. Be urgent about responding to His calling. Be urgent about doing His will. Don’t assume you will have a chance to do it later. That day may never come. Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). 

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