Can Christians take part in ancestral rites (jesa)?

What the Bible says

Many Christians feel pulled two ways here: love and respect for parents on one side, and the desire not to give anyone else what belongs to God alone on the other. Scripture honours both. First, the Ten Commandments.

Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Exod 20:12

Paul calls this "the first commandment with a promise" (Eph 6:2). Jesus took it seriously too. Some avoided supporting their parents by declaring their goods devoted to God, and Jesus said they "nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition" (Matt 15:6). Honour, then, includes caring for living parents. Paul says that anyone who does not provide for his household "has denied the faith" (1 Tim 5:8).

But earlier in the same commandments we read:

You shall not bow down to them or worship them;

Exod 20:5

The New Testament text closest to our question is 1 Corinthians 8-10, on eating food sacrificed to idols. Paul says that an idol "is nothing at all in the world" and that there is no God but one (1 Cor 8:4). So market meat can be eaten "without raising questions of conscience" (1 Cor 10:25). About the pagan sacrificial feast itself, however, he speaks differently.

No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.

1 Cor 10:20

And if someone says, "This food was offered to idols," then "do not eat it, for the sake of the one who told you and for the sake of conscience" (1 Cor 10:28). Two tests follow: what the act means, and how it affects onlookers and my own conscience. When believers in Rome differed over food and days, Paul said, "Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind" (Rom 14:5), and warned that whatever is not from faith is sin (Rom 14:23).

Scripture has no sentence saying "hold jesa" or "do not." Deciding whether jesa is simple remembrance or the kind of sacrifice 1 Corinthians 10 describes means applying biblical principles to Korea today.

The church's witness

The question is not only Korean. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Catholics disputed at length whether Chinese rites for ancestors were civil courtesy, and Rome for a time forbade them. In Korea, in 1791, Yun Ji-chung held no Confucian rites at his mother’s death and burned the family’s spirit tablets, and was executed along with his cousin Kwon Sang-yeon. Joseon society saw this as abandoning one’s parents, though Yun is remembered as acting from conscience.

In 1939 an instruction of the Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, approved by Pius XII (Plane compertum est), judged that Chinese ceremonies honouring Confucius and the dead now had a civil rather than religious meaning. It allowed Catholics to attend them and to bow before the dead, their pictures, or a tablet bearing only their name. The Catholic Church in Korea applied it in 1940, and today accepts bowing before a photograph or the name of the deceased as an expression of filial respect. It rejects as superstition the idea that the dead come to eat or bestow blessings, and Catholics pray and offer Mass for the dead. Most Protestant churches chose another path. In place of bowing and food offerings they hold a memorial service (chudo yebae), where the family sings, reads Scripture, prays, and remembers the person. In most Korean Protestant churches the memorial service does not pray for the dead but gives thanks to God. Within Protestantism some theologians see room to treat the bow as custom, while some churches hold a stricter line.

The two positions come from different concerns. The Catholic aim is to keep filial respect so that family and neighbours are not driven away from the gospel. The majority Protestant aim is to keep bowing and food offerings from being mistaken for worship that belongs to God alone.

On Exodus 20:12 Matthew Henry says that "Honour thy father and thy mother, includes esteem of them, shown in our conduct" Matthew Henry. On 1 Corinthians 10 he explains that "Eating food as part of a heathen sacrifice, was worshipping the idol to whom it was made, and having fellowship or communion with it" Matthew Henry. And on Romans 14 he urges: "Take heed of acting against a doubting conscience" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The "honor" of the commandment is the Hebrew kavad (כָּבֵד). At its root is the idea of "heavy": to give someone weight and respect. The Greek of Ephesians 6:2, timaō (τιμάω), means "to set a value on, to hold precious." Either way, honour is more than words.

"Food sacrificed to idols" in 1 Corinthians 8 is one Greek word, eidōlothuton (εἰδωλόθυτος), "offered to an idol." Paul judges the same food by where it is eaten and what it means. The "demons" of 1 Corinthians 10:20 are daimonion (δαιμόνιον). And "conscience" is suneidēsis (συνείδησις), an inner "knowing together" with oneself about one’s acts. Paul keeps returning to conscience because the answer depends on what the act means.

Common objections

"Jesa is not religion but filial piety. Isn’t refusing to remember one’s parents the real unfilial act?" This deserves a serious hearing. In many Korean families jesa is less about worshipping anyone than about gathering to remember parents. The Catholic Church’s permission rests on that understanding. The Protestant reply is that the respect is shared, but the form, bowing to the tablet and laying out food, has long gone with the belief that the spirit of the dead comes to partake, and to someone who does not know the meaning it can look like idol worship. Many families no longer hold that belief and keep the day in remembrance, so the same act can mean different things in different homes. Neither side takes honouring parents lightly.

"Isn’t the memorial service just jesa renamed? And isn’t the Catholic way a compromise?" Each side does suspect the other, and form alone settles nothing. The centre of the memorial service is thanksgiving to God and remembering the person, while the centre of the Catholic bow is a sign of respect, and both say they are not seeking blessing from the dead. They differ in how they judge the gesture of honour. One holds that its meaning has changed, the other that it still invites misunderstanding. Romans 14 tells us not to despise or condemn one another in matters like this (Rom 14:3).

"If my unbelieving family holds jesa and I stay away, the family breaks. Must I pay that price?" Scripture tells us not to neglect family and not to act against conscience, so no single rule fits everyone, though some principles are clear. Do not do what you cannot do in faith. But, as 1 Corinthians 10:32-33 says, avoid becoming a stumbling block where you can and seek the good of many. Catholics may join the bow, following their church’s guidance. Protestants often distinguish attending from offering; some join the gathering, help with the work and share the meal, stepping back quietly only from the bowing. Loving action, not condemnation, is what counts; faithful care of parents in their lifetime is the clearest witness of honour.

Going further

Knowing the answer does not make this easy, least of all for the eldest child at the centre of family gatherings. Talk with your family early, before an occasion arrives, gently explaining that you love and respect them and that your faith makes you careful at certain points. Do not assume that relatives who keep jesa are idolaters; most act out of love for their parents. And do not judge Christians who decide differently; they read the same Bible and follow the same Christ.

You might ask yourself: Is my honouring of my living parents as serious as my argument about the form of jesa? Does the conscience I am keeping reach my family as love? Is my discomfort with jesa about faith, or about unfamiliarity?

On death and grief, see What happens after death? and How can I bear grief?; for the differences between the two traditions, see How do Catholics and Protestants differ?