To Die is Gain
What does a Christian gravestone look like?
Our church sits next door to a funeral home and cemetery. I wandered through the cemetery one day and was impressed by the blankness of most of the headstones. Most have merely the name and lifespan inscribed. There might be an inscription noting the branch of the military or the war that a veteran served in. Maybe a "beloved wife and mother." There was one stone for a young serviceman with the logos of his favorite pastimes/hobbies: NASCAR, a football team, the Marines, a baseball team -- a strange combination of altar and shrine, but ultimately meaningless and empty.
We know that our culture fears death. We belittle the old who look and act old, who "turn in their sexy card." We hide them away in special homes. We market "anti-aging" and "life-extension". It's strange to look at the empty headstones over the remains of (let's assume) a full life. Our expectations for the after life are equally blank: our loved ones become benign presences occupied with observing us, wispy ethereal beings floating with the clouds.
Old gravestones (that I've found on Pinterest) show long inscriptions about mortality and brevity of life. But how does a headstone attest to the resurrection? ... How can it be an ebenezer to the glory of the Christian hope: new life with Christ eternally?
Instead we look forward to the carbon atoms reassembling into bones and sinew and flesh, bodily ascending from the earth, transcending our caskets (also, getting rid of all that nasty formaldehyde we've been pickled in!), and standing like Ezekiel's army in Ezekiel 37. With eager and curious eyes we will behold the Son of Man, the Lamb that was Slain, coming on the clouds with all His hosts. We will live with Him forever -- in renewed and recognizable bodies! -- in a new heavens and a new earth.
How do you put that on a gravestone?
My parents just updated their will and made me executor. My dad's attitude towards death and burial has become, "whatever's cheapest." But I would like them to await the Resurrection in a beautiful place that will become even more beautiful in the last day, resting under an inscription that testifies that these saints await the coming of their King. Isn't that better than putting your hope in NASCAR?
Our church sits next door to a funeral home and cemetery. I wandered through the cemetery one day and was impressed by the blankness of most of the headstones. Most have merely the name and lifespan inscribed. There might be an inscription noting the branch of the military or the war that a veteran served in. Maybe a "beloved wife and mother." There was one stone for a young serviceman with the logos of his favorite pastimes/hobbies: NASCAR, a football team, the Marines, a baseball team -- a strange combination of altar and shrine, but ultimately meaningless and empty.
We know that our culture fears death. We belittle the old who look and act old, who "turn in their sexy card." We hide them away in special homes. We market "anti-aging" and "life-extension". It's strange to look at the empty headstones over the remains of (let's assume) a full life. Our expectations for the after life are equally blank: our loved ones become benign presences occupied with observing us, wispy ethereal beings floating with the clouds.
Old gravestones (that I've found on Pinterest) show long inscriptions about mortality and brevity of life. But how does a headstone attest to the resurrection? ... How can it be an ebenezer to the glory of the Christian hope: new life with Christ eternally?
Instead we look forward to the carbon atoms reassembling into bones and sinew and flesh, bodily ascending from the earth, transcending our caskets (also, getting rid of all that nasty formaldehyde we've been pickled in!), and standing like Ezekiel's army in Ezekiel 37. With eager and curious eyes we will behold the Son of Man, the Lamb that was Slain, coming on the clouds with all His hosts. We will live with Him forever -- in renewed and recognizable bodies! -- in a new heavens and a new earth.
How do you put that on a gravestone?
My parents just updated their will and made me executor. My dad's attitude towards death and burial has become, "whatever's cheapest." But I would like them to await the Resurrection in a beautiful place that will become even more beautiful in the last day, resting under an inscription that testifies that these saints await the coming of their King. Isn't that better than putting your hope in NASCAR?
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