by galaxy7 6 Replies latest jw friends
someone in our community died and i asked the people that study with me if they were going to go.
They said no and quoted a scripture about Jesus saying "let the dead bury the dead"
So I took this to mean anyone who is not a witness is considered "dead"
however they said they would attend the tea after the funeral service.
This didnt make any sense to me, why would they eat their food but not pay their respects at the funeral?
When the young man asked for hime to wait until for him to bury his father, among the Jews this basically meant wait until my father dies before I go follow you (at least this is what a Phd. said). So they take the bible out of context, as many do.
It all comes down to hipocrisy; can you imagine how angry the JW would be if the tables were turned?
Due you are paraphrasing a Watchtower!
w87 6/1 p. 16 Practicing Godly Devotion Toward Elderly Parents ******
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For instance, when a man declined an invitation to be Jesus? follower, saying: "Permit me first to leave and bury my father," Jesus replied: "Let the [spiritually] dead bury their dead, but you go away and declare abroad the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:59, 60) Since the Jews buried their dead on the day they died, it is unlikely that the man?s father was actually dead. Likely the man simply wanted to stay with his aging father till the father?s death. However, since other relatives evidently were on hand to render this care, Jesus encouraged the man to "declare abroad the kingdom of God."The reason is JWs have a reverent phobia of sharing in any out non-jw religious ceremony. Also that "resurrection" disposition actually disarms the traditional grieving process to the point of a cherished friends death becomes a depressing inconvenience.
Go to any JW funeral it will shock most people, it is basically a regular meeting with a talk on the resurrection with an obituary tacked on, how you really should grieve too much for the person doesn?t exist anymore, and you might even loose face if you carry on too much because obviously you must not believe in the resurrect or you may be guilty of something that?s going to get you axed in Armageddon. Unlike other religions where you go to meet the dead in the heaven, the dead are the ones that come to you on earth. This means that a Jehovah?s Witness could expect the dead to be raised anytime. As faithful JW dieing is like cheating the system for everyone else is suck with the drudgery of life and you will pop up fresh as a daisy in paradise.
Sorry about the loss but the psychology is not meant to be disrespectful. You know they cared because they came. Most deaths go totaly off our radar unless kinship is involved.
As faithful JW dieing is like cheating the system for everyone else is suck with the drudgery of life and you will pop up fresh as a daisy in paradise.
XQ...Remember the old saying it is easier to die for Jehovah than to live for Jehovah? Another one of those cheery little JW quotes that used to make me feel like jumping off a cliff.
JWs can be so insensitive when it involves death. Over the years I had many experiences with this, such as when a close relative dies and somebody just says" well at least now they have a the hope of the ressurection." and act like your greiving is a unwarranted.
After a very dear and close relative of mine (not a JW) died I spent time with my family in another state. It was a very emotional time for all of us and when I returned a month later an elder came up to me and just said laughingly as if it was a big joke "Ya got the old lady buried, huh? That is all he said and it hurt my feelings to say the least and I didn't have any respect for him after that. This callousness is something I noticed among many JWs in regards to the death of those outside and even inside the group at times.
Burying - it's of penance
She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for burying.
Basically, it was there way of saying it was wasting their time which should be spent in the preaching work. They are misapplying a scripture. If we look at that scripture at Luke 9:60 Jesus was talking about this to a man whose father was not dead yet but was postponing following Jesus until after his father died. If his father had 20 to 30 years left to live, this man was proscratinating. Jesus was not saying that the man should not go the funeral of his father who has just died.
Blondie
Actually, a Professor of Jewish/Christian Theology had a much better explanation for this scripture than what I've ever heard before.
We're all familiar with the James Ossaury which received alot of media attention over the past few years with the inscription "James son of Joseph Brother of Jesus" engraved on it's side. In Jesus' day, (amongst the Jews) when a family member died, their bodies were placed in a cave for one year where the flesh fell off during that time. One year to the day, the family members would then gather the remaining bones and place them in the ossaury which was then buried. This particular practice amongst the Jews ONLY took place from about 20 or 30 BCE to around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. In other words, it was a common practice during Jesus' day. When this man suggested to Jesus that he first had to bury his father before he could follow Him, Jesus basically was saying to him "it's going to be a year before the actual burial of your father. I'm saying to you that you should follow me NOW, and not wait a full year to be my disciple (after all, Jesus could very easily be dead by then and alot can happen in a years time). There could easily have been other family members who could have performed the duty of collecting the dead fathers bones, putting them in the ossaury and seeing to the burial of it in a years' time. "Let the dead bury the dead" could be interpreted as meaning from the initial laying of the dead body in the cave, to the dead persons bones being collected a year later and then buried. (unlike today where generally it's only a few days between the time someone dies and when they're actually buried).
To me, this makes far more sense than any other explanation I've heard. To me, it never fit in to Jesus' compassionate nature to be so callous as to suggest that you couldn't even bury a dead relative.
