I am not the best sleeper, so I will often wake up at night and have these random thoughts which I think, at the time, are rather profound. The following morning I recall my insomniac insights, and generally discard them as unusable, wacky, or just plain moronic. You can decide to which category this one belongs. I apologize in advance for the negative and somewhat gruesome tone of what follows.
We have softened the enemy. In our quest to discover peace in our souls, we have convinced ourselves that even the harshest moments and circumstances of life have a silver lining.
I hear people say, "Everything happens for a reason." The implication is that there is some "hand" (God, destiny, the Force, etc.) which oversees every event and has caused it for a positive purpose. Sorry. I disagree. Sometimes things happen which are purely evil, disgusting, destructive and have absolutely no redeeming value. I will consent (and believe intensely) that God can take the worst mess and bring blessing and glory out of it. But some of the horrific things that occur have, at their core, the intent to decimate.
Last weekend I heard a veteran missionary clarify it. In regard to first-time missionaries entering the mission field, he said, "Satan will not simply cause you some problems. He will try to destroy you." The enemy is DEAD serious. Ask Job someday.
During one of my sleepless moments I thought about our attempts to soften the devastation of death. Every year two million American funerals, at an average cost of $6000, are held. Most of the expense has little to do with disposing of the body.
We have someone clean the body, restore (especially facially) the healthy glow by injecting fluids, filling voids, repairing cuts and scrapes, sewing eyes and mouth shut, and painting on makeup. We have the body clothed in his/her nicest outfit.
The corpse is laid in an ornate box, lined with fluffy, pastel satin with a pillow for the head. Surrounding the loved one we have beautiful floral arrangements (another huge expense), soft pink lighting and soothing music.
The cemetery in which the loved one is buried is likely one of the most beautiful pieces of land around - freshly mown, dotted with flowers, and adorned by polished and ornately engraved granite stones set in neat rows.
All of this is done to provide comfort for those suffering the loss. It makes death bearable.
I realize that these efforts help to calm our raging emotions. I have conducted and attended enough funerals to know how painful this time can be. Providing comfort is an important practice in which we must be engaged.
What we have done, however, is to soften brutal reality. In many other cultures, the corpses, probably due to a lack of financial means, are much more "natural" as they lie on the funeral bier. The injuries suffered or the signs of disease are unmistakable. The discoloration of death is gruesomely evident. Those who mourn are not duped. Before them lies another victim of the specter.
Have we, through our funeral technology, so softened the punch of death that we do not just provide comfort for the grieving, but we actually have begun to view death as a terrorist with which we can negotiate?
Have death and sin and Hell and Satan become so cartoonish that we accept them without crying out to warn their victims that they are the enemies of a conquering Kingdom?
How much more passion might we possess if we faced death in all of its ugliness? The shrinking of our world through worldwide media has helped us to see some of the horror more consistently and graphically, but we are still able to dismiss it with a click of the mouse or the remote. And the appearance of the enemy closer to home has been masked by soft lights and rouge.
The only One who is justified to soften the power of the enemy is Jesus Christ. He sometimes referred to death as "sleep." To the power of the Life-Giver, such a view is understandable. To we who are weak, death is strong. But praise to the Resurrected Lord that through Him we conquer.
At the same time, the destructive power of death was never lost on Jesus. At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus was "deeply moved" (John 11:33, 38) which has been understood as a physical manifestation of grief and/or anger. Jesus, knowing what He was about to do, nevertheless is emotionally stirred by the ugliness of death and its ability to devastate. Though He has come to conquer it, He does not underestimate its power and pain.
And so followers of Jesus Christ walk in the light of victory, but we can never lose sight of the darkness from which we have been delivered, or in which others are trapped. We walk in the light of hope in a land of darkness and death.
2 comments:
Hey Dave, I loved the post. Even the gruesome parts.
How would cremation work into your theory? And is it better for us as believers to simply have a rotting corpse that smells more than a little in view of everyone at the funeral?
I think the pastor could say something along the lines of "although we know by sight and smell that Bob is no longer with us, we believe that he is in heaven with the lord. Comfort your hearts and noses."
And what should pastors say when they officiate the funeral of one who is not a believer?
Ok. Enough questions.
Thanks for everything,
Aaron
Man, you thought this through even more than I did!
It appears that, as in so many issues, our technological advances have outpaced our ability to think through the moral ramifications.
Actually, I have thought through the cremation thing and have decided my personal preference is to be cremated and have my ashes disposed of in some fashion so that no one can point to a spot on this earth and say "Dave is there," because I won't be. Destroying the image of death (a corpse) with fire seems fitting, too, in keeping with 2 Peter 3:10. That way death is not dressed up like "Bernie," but is annihilated.
As for the other suggestions, since we have developed a culture of "dressing up death" I suppose moving back to a more realistic, confrontational culture should be done gently. Less civilized cultures avoid(ed) the smell and rot by burying quickly, so maybe that should be our method.
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