Mccane Majority Interpretation Analysis

In a similar way, McCane presents what he calls the “majority interpretation”, which similarly interprets Jesus metaphorically. The ‘majority interpretation’ claims Jesus “means, ‘Let the spiritually dead bury the physically dead.’ With these words Jesus calls his followers to leave behind all worldly commitments, including even the most intimate family ties.” Just as in Origen’s interpretation, the ‘majority interpretation’ finds Jesus to be commanding his disciples to “leave behind all worldly commitments” even those involving “family”, such as the obligation of secondary burial. Additionally, just like Origen, the ‘majority interpretation’ seems to assume that the burial will fall on the shoulders of someone else, in this case the “spiritually …show more content…
First, I stand with the likes of Sanders and McCane in that I believe this passage should be interpreted as completely literal. With Sanders’ refutation of the ‘proverbial interpretation’ of these verses, it seems that Jesus’ commandment provides a ‘negative thrust’ and ‘ironic twist’ in order to almost mock the issue of secondary burial as the primary issue of the passage in Matthew. For, as we have seen, it obvious that Jesus would never set Old Testament Law in meaningful conflict with his call to discipleship, for he is the human embodiment of God, who delivered to us the Old Law, while he is also the very Creator that demands our loyal discipleship. Therefore, Jesus makes the decision of demanding the disciple abandon any other obligations on the consideration of a spectrum. Reducing his prioritization of the call to discipleship to solely this instance, Jesus is only able to do so because of a consideration of the disciple’s specific situation. That being said, Jesus’ sole intent in my focus verses was to demonstrate the radical discipleship necessary for right relationship with