A few years ago, for reasons that are unbenknownst to me or to my barber or my dermatologist, I started losing my hair. At first, it was just a shallow widow’s peak, but that eventually transitioned into a small, developing bald spot in the back of my head.
When I saw it, I did what any reasonable person would do—I panicked.
I just turned forty recently, so, in hindsight, I shouldn’t have been surprised that my hair would slowly start going away. It’s just a feature of age. It happens to almost everyone. It’s not premature; it’s just somewhat unsettling.
But there is a difference between losing your hair naturally and losing it intentionally, at least in the opinion of Deuteronomy 14.
And even in that verse, it’s not so much that you cut your hair, but why you cut your hair.
Two statements in these verses should clue us in to what’s happening.
The first occurs in Deuteronomy 14:1, when it says that we should not cut ourselves or shave our heads “for the sake of the dead.” As almost every commentary in the world will tell you, shaving your head is a very common mourning rite of the pagan world. Specifically what kind of pagan rite is hotly debated, but at least everyone’s agreed on that.
The second comes from Deuteronomy 14:2, where God explains that the reason for this is because we are a “holy people unto the Lord.” The rest of that verse is a standard statement about how Israel was chosen, and how they were for God’s own possession.
Put those two ideas side by side. If God doesn’t want us to engage in pagan rites for the dead because we are a holy people, what is really the problem here? Is it idolatry? Sure. Is it false worship? Absolutely.
But, at least for our purposes in the modern world, could it not also be due to an improper view of the afterlife?
When you think of other common “death rituals”—things like putting a coin in the mouth of the deceased or burying warriors with their weapons—the living have always had an obsession with helping the dead along.
It’s not unrealistic to think that shaving your head or cutting your skin is done for the same reason, possibly even to strengthen the ghost on their way to the afterlife.
Practically speaking, though, for a group of people who believe adamantly in the power of God, the resurrection of the dead, and the reality of eternal life in Heaven, are these things Christians should be involved in? Pagan practices and idolatry aside, do we honestly feel like we should “help” the deceased in the next world?
At the very least, this argument is egotistical. None of the living knows truly what it’s like to be dead, so how do we know that cutting hair or placing weapons in a coffin helps anything?
Instead, why don’t we rely on the testimony of God Himself, who tells us over and over again that He is the God of both the living and the dead? Put your trust in Him, rather than some ritual that we go through on this side.