A Funeral for a Stranger Teaches Me about Funerals

Funerals.

They are a part of life.

They are not a part of life that we look forward to.

 

Our pastor says we learn more about life at a funeral then we do at a party. I have been to my share of funerals. I have heard my share of eulogies. But tonight, I heard a funeral that exemplified the idea that my pastor was trying to make. Traffic was jammed and my husband was trying to figure out what event was going on at the church down the road that was causing this traffic jam. He found a live stream to a funeral going on at that church. We were sad. Then we were intrigued. It looked as if there were two people in the casket. That was something that I had never seen before. In my tiny mind, my first thought was Siamese twins. No, that can’t be possible. One was male and one female… you can’t have Siamese twins of different genders.

 

We googled the name… oh my… we knew this story. This story was in the news and had deeply saddened us. But this story contained three deaths. Back to the livestream…. The perspective changes… there are three in one casket (I didn't even know you could do that). This funeral was for that story. At this time the funeral was not in English.  But God had pulled at my heart and I was glued to the screen. As if they knew I was intrigued but unable to understand parts were translated and others just in English. Even the parts in Ukrainian sounded beautiful. I only understood some words, but it was beautiful. The English parts were beautiful on a whole different level and make me wish I knew what the other parts said.

 

This part of the funeral was what I thought funerals should be. These eulogies were something I had never heard before. I never met the dad in the casket, but I know that I will see him heaven. I don’t know that based on some feeling the family has about him. I know this because of the life he led. The stories the family shared told me unequivocally that this man devoted his life to the Lord. The eulogy the wife gave was the most poignant yet honest talk I have ever heard at a funeral before. She and the director of the school the children went to did exactly what I long to hear at funerals.  The desire to hear those in attendance come to trust in Jesus and come to salvation as the deceased did. The desire for the love and hope the deceased had and his prayers for those in attendance to not be in vain.

 

We go to too many funerals that make us feel fuzzy when we should feel sadness, longing, and the desire to share the gospel with those in attendance who need to know the Lord. We hear too many clergy speak words to make us feel good. They tell us what we want to hear. They fill the air with platitudes and paint pictures of a beautiful afterlife when, in reality, some people at the funeral need to understand that they must come to trust in Jesus to see that beautiful afterlife. I have left some funerals angry at what was said and even more angry at what was not said. Don't get me wrong they have not all been bad, but more of them that I have gone to have been the opposite of this one.

 

I was so taken by this funeral. I just sat and watched over an hour and a half of the funeral that lasted over two hours for a stranger. A stranger that I look forward to meeting. A stranger that convicted me in his death more than many alive ever had. I looked at my husband and told him two things. First, if he outlives me, I want a funeral like that. Not that I want it to be in another language, I want my death to point others to Christ. And second, I want to live my life so that comments like what people were saying about this man could be said about me. While I believe, I will be praying that God help me live out my faith more like this man did. I want to be remembered in the way this man is being remembered. I may tune in tomorrow to the second part of the funeral and since they are being buried at the cemetery Gabriel is in, I think I will stop by and visit his grave the next time I am there.