Let the dead bury their dead.

I am currently reading the Bible. I am starting with the New Testament because I want to really try to understand what Jesus was all about. Mainly I want to understand why C.S. Lewis said that if Jesus were not the Son of God he was a "lunatic... or the Devil of Hell".

Obviously as an atheist I do not believe that he was the Son of God (although of course this position may change after I finish the Bible), so I want to know why he would be a Devil of Hell. I get the lunatic part, in that it was possible that he was delusional. I think Lewis is indicating that if he was not delusional and not Divine, then he was conning everyone on purpose.

So far I have only read Matthew, and oh my, so many questions! I have had to Google almost every line, and never fear, there is an apologist to answer every query I may have!

The first major thing that bugged me - when a man who was told to follow Jesus asked if he could first go home to bury his father, Jesus says "Let the dead bury their dead"  (Matthew 8:22).

The man must rather go and preach the Good News of the Kingdom of Heaven.

My first thoughts : That was a little harsh, no? Also, Zombie Apocalypse, hello!

But after I moved on from the image of zombies with shovels digging graves I asked some sensible questions of Google.

Surely Jesus, although he is the Son of Man, yes, can allow a man to mourn? To attend his own father's funeral? Even I, a heartless atheist, can appreciate that the ritual of the funeral is one of the most desired rituals of those left behind, one that brings comfort to some and closure to others. He can preach the Gospel as soon as his father is in the ground, right?

Well, according to the apologists, Jesus is speaking in Metaphors, which is similar to Tongues, in that it makes little sense. Whenever there is a tricky line in the Bible, the apologists resort to metaphor. Which is weird, considering they are Bible literalists and take the clearly metaphorical Genesis (which is written with as much detail as to explain the world's origins in fable-form to six year olds) to be literally true.

They say that the man's father was not really dead (although I can see absolutely nothing in the text that suggests this) and he is asking to go and be with his old father until he dies, which may take ages, possibly just to get his inheritance.

The man literally just asks if he can bury his father. That is it. I can see only one interpretation of that sentence. Anyway, the apologists claim that Jesus was not literally saying that the dead would bury each other (ok, duh, I thought he was just being rude) but he was saying that the spiritually dead, those who are not Gospel followers, should attend to such things and that the one and only aim of Gospel followers is to preach and only preach, no mourning allowed! After all, you will see your father in the Kingdom of Heaven!

Only that is probably not likely, considering the poor man died just as Jesus got going. But anyway.

Anyone else out there have any thoughts on this verse?