- Psalmody: Psalm 86:3, 5; 1; Psalm 102:15-16; Psalm 114:1-2; Psalm 40:13b–14a; Psalm 71:16b–17a, 18a
- Lection: 1 Kings 17:17–24; Ephesians 3:13–21; Luke 7:11–16
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. This is part of the doctrine of man; defining what we are: body and soul. God formed the very first of us from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils a soul. This is God’s very good intention for us. A complete human being is one with body and soul. Yes, the body that you are now in, God intends you to have for all eternity. Do not fear. To those of us in the latter parts of life, this sounds horrific, because we are actually looking forward to being done with all of the bodily suffering and ailments. Yes, you will have the body that you are in now, but, no, it will not be like it is now, for there will be no more slow signs of death creeping into your minds, knees, stomachs, backs, hearts, eyes, or ears. There will be no more tears. There will be no more sin or its effects. Behold, I tell you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Therefore, let us prepare to die well while holding to a solid confession in life and in death.
Death is the severing of what God put together, as it is written, “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb.” Other than Adam and Eve, we all have had the same fashioning by our Maker; body and soul coming together at conception to form a living being, a real human person. By God’s grace, He has brought us to the beginning of this day, many, many after those of conception and birth, but still we are intact as He has made us. This is why death hurts, not in a hurt that is to be feared, but in a hurt that is nevertheless to be acknowledged, endured, and comforted over as that hurt comes upon those who die and upon the loved ones who continue on to live in this valley of sorrow. We are left with what remains of loved ones and the decisions of how to mourn, how to adapt, how to bury and carry on.
Death is the separation of the body and soul, as is seen to have happened to the man in Nain. His lifeless body was being carried out; a cause for his widowed mother’s deep, tearful grief. It hurt. Death hurts. She hurt and Christ hurt for her. He sympathizes with all our weaknesses. He Himself wept at the tomb of His dear friend Lazarus. All death needs neither death nor the dead to be celebrated or venerated, but Jesus to be exalted, just as when He stood victoriously alive over His own empty tomb on the third day.
But before that, here He is at Nain, encountering a funeral procession. Behold how death is treated here and in other parts of Scripture. It is a sleep, indeed, but what is done, even in the midst of dark grief, to confess the Truth that stands alive over the grave? What do the living do that holds to the truth about the resurrection of the dead? It isn’t to discard the body as if trash. It is to remember Who knitted the body together and what He still intends to do with it on the Last Day. This doesn’t mean that death isn’t painful, because it is, and it’s a difficult time that must be dealt with when the Lord brings it near. We look to this large crowd and see people loving people in a time of need. The dead man was being carried out by friends, family, neighbors, we know not whom exactly, but that they were there, helping, caring. They were carrying the man’s body out of the city to a grave to lay him reverently, painfully, peacefully to rest. It may have been a tomb like the one Abraham purchased centuries before in the land of Canaan so that he could lay his beloved Sarah’s body in it. It may have been like the one in which Lazarus was laid out of which Jesus commanded him to come forth; or it may have even been like the new tomb in the garden outside Jerusalem where our dear Lord Himself was laid, in the body, after His crucifixion. There is a clear pattern and confession in Scripture. The body is to be treated reverently after death, in honor both of the deceased and those who mourn.
As the dead man was being carried out of Nain, the Way, the Truth, and the Life Himself intervened, that is, Jesus the Christ. Do not weep, for the keys to death and Hades are in His hands. He is both God and Lord and when He speaks, even the dead obey. “Young man, I say to you, arise.” So he who was dead sat up and began to speak. What did he say? We’re not sure, but if the Holy Spirit thought near-death or after-death experiences were credible and important to be shared for us to marvel at more than God’s faithful promise, here’s where He would’ve had Luke tell us what this man saw and heard after death. He would’ve had the widow of Zarephath’s son’s story, or Jairus’ daughter’s, or Lazarus’ account from “the other side” written down. But God the Holy Spirit didn’t. The Scriptures give no validity or importance to such stories. They instead exalt Christ and prepare us to live and die according to what He says and does according to His word, that by it we live by faith.
Yet, it would be difficult not to imagine that the young man spoke words to his mother, telling her how much he loved her. And that his soul now praised his Maker, for even after death, he now had a voice that could echo the large crowd who glorified God, saying, “A great prophet has risen up among us”; and, “God has visited His people.” Being presented back to his mother by the word and touch of the Lord stirs up a grateful heart that cannot help but confess the truth and goodness of the Maker of heaven and earth. Being delivered unto a peaceful rest in a Christian grave until the trumpet’s sound gives cause for us to confess, even after death by what is done with our body, the words of the prophet Job, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth; And after my skin is destroyed, (after I return dust to dust) this I know, That in my flesh (there’s the resurrection) I shall see God, Whom I shall see for myself, And my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!”
There is absolutely no chance that the Lord Jesus, in His state of humiliation, walking up to your funeral procession, will command you to arise, raise you from the dead (for a time) and give you words to speak again in this life. But He does promise the resurrection of the dead and guarantees it by His own rising again. And though He will not raise you until the Last Day, He does give you a voice after your death. Your legacy, your love, your confession of the truth about eternity will be heard no matter what, so may we all be intentional and diligent about what we shall say. Will it be that we have little regard for the body once our soul leaves it, as if they shall never reunite? Or shall we have it laid to rest, to a peaceful sleep, in the sure hope of the resurrection as Jesus has promises?
The Lord gives us all opportunity in our death, how we die and how we are buried, to confess the Truth in Whom we die and what we believe about life, death, and the resurrection, even after our soul has left the body. Throughout Christian history, going all the way back to Abraham at least, reverence and honor were given to the body both in life and in death. There is no account of using fire to consume the body.
Does that mean that cremation is a sin then? Or that I won’t officiate your funeral if you’re cremated?No. It doesn’t. Do not be burdened by this over what has been done. Go in peace. But also consider that the mass, utilitarian-focused, money-driven disposal of our loved ones’ remains by fire wasn’t even around in our own “advanced” nation until the late 1800s. Before that, the practice of burning the body to ashes was only common in unbelieving, pagan cultures who had no semblance of what is to come. Also, we should never live and make decisions based upon minimal, bestial distinctions as to just whether something’s a sin or not. For example, a rock band, emotionally-manipulative contemporary songs, TV screens, infrequent Holy Communion, and me leading worship in a sports jersey and jeans from a stage are not sins. We are free to do them. But we’re not going to, because what would that confess about what we believe and hold dear? What would that say about how we view God Almighty and therefore how we worship Him? It would say that we don’t care much about His holiness, His gifts, His glory, His majesty, and honor. It would say that we value our entertainment more than His reverence.
So, what does cremation, and especially the scattering of ashes, confess about what we believe about the body, its Redeemer, the resurrection, and the life of the world to come? It confesses that we’ve considered this life more than eternity. The better practice, for the sake of your confession of life everlasting that shall come again to that very body, and for the sake of the living who will hear what you speak in such a way after your death, is to return the body reverently to the earth from which the Lord your God formed it. It is to have a Christian funeral here in the church where you attend; where God prepares you to die well. It is to have a mournful procession to the gravesite where the gift of your knitted and redeemed body may be reverently given a rest in peace. Though Jesus does not promise to stop your procession as at the gate in Nain, or to end your loved ones’ mourning, He stands watch over your grave until the Last Day, when He, in His resurrected flesh, will come again with glory at trumpet sound and raise it incorruptible and you shall be changed. If this is our hope, if He is our hope, then may our confession in death resound it in how we treat the body at death. Lord have mercy.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.