I spent Easter weekend attending and watching two memorial services. The one we attended last Saturday was to celebrate the life of my cousin’s husband who was ushered into heaven at the end of February, four days after Billy Graham entered eternity. I had saved an email with the link to Billy Graham’s funeral service, and on Easter Sunday evening watched that service from afar.
Perhaps it sounds strange to talk about funeral memorials, but both were so uplifting that it was hard to shed a tear. My cousin will be missed, as he already has been for over a month. But it was such a blessing to worship the Lord as we celebrated Jed’s life.
Solomon once said that it was better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting because the righteous will take it to heart. Funerals make us stop and look at the brevity of life.
My cousin was only in his early 70s. Billy Graham lived until 99. But in the eyes of Scripture, our days are but a breath. We just don’t think about that very often.
And for some of us, we don’t want to think about how short life is here. I get that. Both my husband and I come from families with good longevity genes. So in human terms, we might expect to live as long as Billy Graham did. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, how long I live here doesn’t really concern me. That fear of death left me a long time ago – when I was eight years old and gave Jesus all the rooms in my heart. He became my Lord and Savior, and I never feared death or hell again.
But that’s another thing we don’t like to talk about, right? Sin. Hell. Those subjects aren’t pleasant, so we tend to avoid them. We don’t like to use those words, because if we actually believed in sin and heaven and hell and judgment, then we would have to look deeper into our hearts and that’s not easy. I know it’s hard to admit need. Pride gets in the way and we decide to either deny these things exist or we just ignore them.
Jesus faced this. He came preaching a gospel of repentance from sins and the coming Kingdom of God. He talked about it everywhere He went and people seemed to have one of two responses. Either they denied their need of repentance because they carried a self-righteous view of themselves, or they admitted that they were in desperate need of a Savior and turned from their sin to embrace Christ’s message.
And really? Those are the only two responses we can take when we come face to face with Jesus’ message. We can either believe His words and be saved from sin and hell and judgment or we can turn away, deny we need a Savior, and wait to face that judgment. I didn’t make the rules, but this is what Scripture teaches.
But sin and heaven and hell have come to offend our Western sensibilities over the years. Interesting that most religions teach some concept of an afterlife and a judgment. It’s as though we know deep down in the place where truth meets our hearts that this life is not all there is. And we will face One greater than ourselves someday.
Jesus came to die and rise again in order to give God’s image bearers an escape from hell, from judgment. As we just celebrated last weekend, resurrection gives us a reason to hope beyond this life.
It’s why my cousin’s memorial service and Billy Graham’s service could truly be celebrations of hope because when we truly know Jesus in that experiential, saving way, we know we will be with Him forever.
That doesn’t mean we don’t concern ourselves with the things of this world while we are here. Actually, once we settle the question of our future, we have a great purpose to live and love and share Jesus with everyone we know while we are still here. We might live that purpose in different ways – there are myriad ways to live our lives, but our underlying reason for being is answered in how we respond to Jesus.
So while you may think me strange for finding funerals opportunities for celebration, I think it depends on where you place your trust. Jesus said that he didn’t come to call the righteous who don’t think they need help, but to call sinners who know they do.
I would rather take my seat with the tax-collectors and sinners and dine with Jesus than turn away and lift my chin in defiance. I long for that day when heaven comes to earth and I get to see my Savior with my own two eyes. When I can hold tight to His feet or be held in His arms and finally see an end to sin and death and evil.
Who would you identify with? I hope your response is the one that leads to life. Jesus offers heaven and eternal life freely to EVERYONE who will trust Him and believe.
~Selah
