Does this scripture mean that we should not bury our loved ones? What is the spiritual implication of this verse?
Answer:
In Matthew 8:22 Jesus said, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead." He was responding to a request from one of His followers who asked to be excused from his responsibilities to "go and bury [his] father" (verse 21).
It might seem that he was asking to make funeral arrangements for his recently deceased father. However, he was actually asking Christ to excuse him from his spiritual responsibilities, so that he could return to live with his aging father until after his father died. Of course, that could mean the disciple would be gone for a long time. 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).
God wants us to care for the needs of our families (Mark 7:10-13; 1 Timothy 5:8), but not to neglect our spiritual calling in the process.
I would love to learn more about this. I understood it to mean the man wanted to go bury his recently deceased father and Christ told him "Let the dead bury their dead" because of the importance of following him vs the need to bury a dead person.
Where/how is the verse interpreted as the man trying to get out of his duties to live with his still alive father?
I am eager to learn everything I can about the Word and look forward to learning this.
I believe Jesus was saying to the guy, look I'm living, I'm alive and taking care of all the daily things that need to be taken care of while I'm still alive, which is what you should do instead of mourning over a dead body or maybe one that is dying.
So follow my example and be alive and active, do not sit and waste precious God given time on dead things and let the dead bury the dead. There are many living who need help.
What I mean by dead is he is saying there are plenty of humans around who love misery, trouble and mournful things, who will never see the light or the kingdom around them. Who will never renew their minds to better things so let them bury your father and you go about life like me...
To waste our precious Earthly time on dead things/bodies instead of continuing to live our lives and care for those who are alive is foolish.