Matthew 8:22

Plain English Version

Jesus said to him, “No. You come and follow me now. You see, some people are spiritually dead, so they can bury the dead bodies of their own people. But you come and follow me.” (We have not yet translated 8:23—9:26. You can read those stories in Mark 2:1-22; 4:35-41; 5:1-43.)

Cross References

Matthew 8:21

There was another man that was already a follower of Jesus. He said to Jesus, “Sir, I will come with you. But my father has died, so let me go home to bury him. After that, I will come with you.”

Mark 2:14

At that time, the Roman people were the bosses over all that country, and they got some Jewish people to take tax money from the other Jewish people and give it to the Roman government. One of those tax men was called Levi, and his father’s name was Alfius. Jesus walked along, and he saw Levi and said to him, “I want you to be one of my followers. Come on, follow me.” And straight away, Levi stood up and went with Jesus.

Luke 15:24

You see, my son got himself lost, but now I have found him. I thought he was gone for ever, like he was dead, but now he came back to me, and it is like he came alive again.’ So those workers did what he told them to do, and they had a big party.

Luke 15:32

But your brother got himself lost, and now I have found him. I thought he was gone for ever, like he was dead, but he came back to me, and now it is like he came alive again. So we have to have a party and be happy together.’ ”

Luke 9:59

And Jesus said to another man, “Come and follow me.” That man said, “All right, I will come with you. But my father has died, so let me go home to bury him. After that, I will come with you.”

Luke 9:60

Jesus said to him, “Some people don’t want me. It is like they are dead to me. So those people can bury the dead bodies of their own people. But you have to go and tell people that God wants them in his family.”

John 1:43

The next day, Jesus wanted to go north, to Galilee country. But first he found a man called Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”

John 21:19

Jesus said that to tell Peter how Peter will die, and when Peter dies like that, he will show that God is really great. Then Jesus told Peter, “Keep on following me.”

John 21:22

Jesus said, “Don’t worry about him. Maybe I want him to stay alive until I come back again, but you don’t have to worry about that. You just follow me.”

Ephesians 2:1

You know, in the past you mob did lots of bad things. You couldn’t be friends with God. It was like your spirits were dead.

Ephesians 5:14

The light shows us what something really is. So some people say this, “Stop doing bad things. It’s like you are asleep, so wake up now. It’s like you are dead, so come alive again now. Then Jesus will show you the right way to live, it’s like he will shine light on you.”

Colossians 2:13

You did bad things before. Your spirits still had that bad part that made you go wrong. It is like your spirits were dead. I will use picture talk to show you what I mean. Whenever you did bad things, it is like somebody wrote it down on paper so they could blame you later. But God let them blame Jesus instead of you, and then God chucked that paper away. It is like he nailed that paper to the cross when he let people nail Jesus there. And then God made your spirits alive again, just like he made Jesus alive again. Now he doesn’t blame you for the bad things you did.

1 Timothy 5:6

But other widows don’t think about God. They only want to have fun. They might think they are alive, but really, their spirits are dead.