Ezekiel 44:25-27. In the midst of Ezekiel's vision of the new Temple, God tells him the rules and ordinances for worship there, including setting forth the behavior of the priests. Here he says that the priests "shall not defile themselves by going near to a dead person; however for father or mother, for son or daughter, for brother or unmarried sister they may defile themselves." If they do become defiled in this way, they must count seven days before considering themselves clean. On the seventh day they are to go into the inner court of the holy place and offer their sin offering.

One meaning of this really is that having contact with the dead does make one unclean, especially before our modern sanitation methods. So God's prohibitions and rules for dealing with the dead make sense in a practical way. But this is also a prohibition against the priest entering the inner court of the Temple after having had contact with the dead. So it is not only about protecting others, since no one else is allowed in the holiest place of the Temple, it must also be about being clean before God.

In that sense, we can look at death as sin, or the consequences thereof. A priest who has exposed himself to someone who is has given himself over completely to sin is fairly likely to be corrupted in some way himself. Remember, we are talking not just about sinners, which we all are, but someone who is dead because of sin - someone who has completely turned away from God. These people can influence us in very bad ways. They are can very easily lead us astray, even if only in small things. In such a case, the priest must spend seven days (maybe in prayer and contemplation!), and then may re-enter the Temple and offer his sin offering.

The whole thing really does work both ways - with both the reality of a dead body and with the reality of a dead soul! And notice the exceptions - the priest must always tend to his parents and certain relatives, even if doing so will defile him. This is the order that God created. He gives us family members and loved ones for a reason. Even if they go bad, even if they die to sin, we must still minister them and honor them in accordance with the commandments. It doesn't mean that they don't hurt us, they still can and do, but then we must go through the cleansing process. I changed to "we" in the last part of this because we are all priests, prophets, and kings. In our priestly role, we must minister to our family members, especially our mothers and fathers, in accordance with the commandments.