DOES IT MATTER IN WHAT WAY I AM BURIED?
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Maak dit saak hoe ek begrawe word?”
LUK 16:22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried,
Some time ago there was quite a controversy about how a Christian should be buried.
There were people who wanted not to be cremated, etc.
I believe that our Lord is showing us here that He is not concerned in whichever way I’m buried.
Let me explain:
According to Jesus, the rich man had a funeral.
LUK 16:22 … The rich man also died and was buried,
It was probably a big funeral too, because if you are rich you have many friends.
Lazarus, according to Jesus' testimony, did not have a funeral.
LUK 16:22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
You see, people like beggars who died were not buried in those days. They were taken out of the city – to the place which we today will probably call the ‘City waste dump’, and left there. But when Lazarus opened his eyes on the other side of his open waste dump tomb, he was in Heaven.
LUK 16:22 The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
Remember, it is Jesus who tells us these facts.
The rich man's funeral may supposedly been beautiful and expensive. However, in whatever method his funeral happened, it didn't keep him out of hell.
I told my wife that if I die before her, she must please let me be burried as modest as possible, without offending any people. How she does it doesn't matter to me, because at that time I will be rejoicing in Heaven.
You see, it's not the way I'm buried that determines where I'm going to spend eternity. It is whether I repent to God and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour and through baptism identify myself with His death and resurrection.
ROM 6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
ROM 6:4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
So, in the end, it is not how I died and are buried what matters – but how I lived and arrived on the other side of the grave – because that will determine where I will spend my eternal life.
To put it differently:
Whether I arrive with Jesus on the other side of the grave and the gates of Heaven opens to me, or whether I arrive without Jesus on the other side of the grave and the gates of Hell opens to me.
If you have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, and you want to, you can now pray the following prayer right where you are:
“Dear Jesus Christ, I know that I am a sinner and that You died for me to save me from sin and death. I believe that You are the only way to the Father. I now open my heart and receive You to be my Lord and Saviour. I pray this in Jesus Name. Amen.”
JOH 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Greetings,
Sakkie