Thoughts from a Funeral
Thoughts from a Funeral
I hope this doesn’t sound unpleasant, but I think it would do us all good to imagine our deaths.
Although death is an inevitability for everyone, there seems to be an aversion to peering into it, maybe like turning your eyes away from other unpleasant things. “I can’t look!”
Previous generations placed more value on contemplation of death. The father of Alexander the Great, Phillip of Macedonia, had a servant remind him every day that he would one day die.
There are famous paintings of great men meditating on death - several of St. Francis. In previous centuries, it would not be uncommon for a businessman to have a symbolic skull on his desk as a reminder of the inevitable end of mortal life. These symbols, called memento mori, from the Latin which can be translated “remember, you must die,” are mostly forgotten.
Resolution 9 from Jonathan Edwards’ Seventy Resolutions goes like this:
Resolved, to think much on all occasions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
Two Questions
At a recent funeral, I was reminded that one day, they would be laying me to rest. One day, my body will be room temperature and motionless.
Two big questions followed:
How should I live between now and then, and
What will the next life be like?
Contemplating our deaths, we should seriously examine our present earthly pursuits. As we do, much of what we think to be all important will come up “weighed in the balances and found wanting.” As I write this, I’m feeling a bit uncomfortable.
If any of us whose lives are defined by possessions, popularity, or power would seriously contemplate our own deaths, I would guess we would likely be more inclined to other pursuits, like gaining wisdom, practicing faithfulness, or serving the weak.
“Teach us to number number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Ps. 90:12).
But the second question is equally important: how should we envision immortality; what’s on the other side of our mortality? Of the two realms - the mortal realm and the immortal realm - we know one well, and the other, very minimally. Fortunately, the Scripture has much to say about this mysterious other realm. Let’s look at just a little of what it tells us.
Sown and Raised
The dead physical body, in 1 Cor. 15 is compared to a seed to be sown.
So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. (vs. 42-44)
For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (vs. 53-54)
The “seed” is mortal; the resulting “plant” is immortal. What was weak comes up in power. The perishable becomes indestructible in the resurrection.
In our world, when a planted seed comes up out of the earth and becomes a plant, it is unimaginably different from the seed. Consider, for instance, how amazingly different the oak tree is from the acorn. How could that happen? Our transformation will be even more amazing. It won’t be just 100% different; it will be thousands of times different.
Reading assignment: would you go find your copy of C. S. Lewis’ The Last Battle, which is the last book of The Chronicles of Narnia, and read the last chapter, Farewell to Shadowlands. I just did. Lewis’ words will surely take you to a place very similar to where you're bound.
In the New Narnia (the resurrected earth), you can run so fast that it’s like flying, and you never get tired. You can swim straight up a great waterfall. Everyone is young. Mountains and rivers look similar to the Old Narnia, but then you realize that what you knew of the mountains and rivers of the Old Narnia were just shadows and copies of the New Narnia.
Death as a Passage
Such a new world requires a passage way into it, and our death is that passage. It is much like the passage called birth.
Image if an unborn baby about to be born could talk. “I’m getting the feeling that something is about to happen for which I have no words. Some kind of a new world. Will I miss this warm, cozy home that I have grown up in? How possibly could it be better than it is? Let’s see… here goes…”
Our death will similarly take us to a world beyond our ability to anticipate.
Entropy
Built into the world in which we currently live is a law of decline called entropy. Entropy is the fixed trend of the universe toward death and disorder. In a closed system, matter and energy naturally degrade. Houses need painting. Bodies age.
Paul acknowledges entropy, but speaks of a time when it will end:
For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Rom. 8:20-23)
Can you imagine what creation itself will look like when it is freed from this law? The apostle John said in Revelation 21 that in this new order there would be no more tears or sorrows, no more death or pain, no more days of darkness, no more guilt or shame! No more weariness. No more doctors visits. (John didn’t mention doctors visits. That was me.)
A Caution and a Plea
A caution: contemplating death should not in any way lead to attempts to communicate with the dead. That’s called necromancy, and it’s definitely forbidden in Scripture. (See Deut. 18:10-11.) King Saul ignored this prohibition and consulted a medium when God was not talking with him. It did not end well for him. (See 1 Sam. 28-29)
Acknowledging that there is a spiritual realm is important, but we also need to acknowledge that both good and evil exist in that realm. Evil spirits are real and they disguise themselves as angels of light. You will run into some very unpleasant characters if you have a careless curiosity about it all.
That’s the caution. Here’s the plea. If, as you think this about your death, you are uncertain about your post-death future, nothing could be more important than taking some time to settle that uncertainty.
The only two options are eternally enjoying the presence of God, or eternally suffering the absence of God. If you persist in saying to God, ”I really don’t want you involved with my life,” you’re taking a chance that he’ll comply, and grant you his absence.
It’s been said that we either say to God “not my will but yours be done,” or he says to us, “not my will but yours be done.” Although he has an incredible love for you, he won’t impose himself on you. My plea is that you would choose his will and his presence for the sake of this life and the next.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you (James 4:8).
To Die is Gain
But for those who are in Christ, thinking on these truths has the power to remove the dread of dying. Anticipating the resurrection of our bodies into a resurrected world should stir thrilling thoughts, removing death’s bleak tone. It’s such a good future that we should say with Paul, “to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21)! This amazing “joy set before us” allows us to endure the difficulties of this life. (See Heb. 12:2.)
We’ve only just opened the door to begin to consider what awaits us. So go ahead, fast forward to the day where your mortality ceases. Now work back and live between now and then with new priorities, and with a wondrous expectation of a new body in a new world.
Imperishable, instead of perishable; glory, instead of dishonor: power, instead of weakness; a spiritual body, instead of a natural body. Sounds like a considerable upgrade to me!
This final quote from The Last Battle speaks of the glorious drama awaiting us in the New Narnia.
..the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.
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