I Shall Return!

It was several years ago that I stood at the head of a grave. Resting on its supports was the coffin containing the remains of a believer. As in rural Alberta the graveyard was in the proximity of the home farm.  That day as I lifted my head to the horizon, I saw the farm.  This was the farm that the deceased had lived upon all his life.  This was his last home before his death. In a strange sort of way I wondered, because of the promise of the New Heaven and New Earth, would this be the very site where my deceased Brother would return in eschatological glory, at the Second Coming?  That’s a little far out, I know, but still I relished the idea of this notion.  From then on, the burial of a Believer became significant to me.  In hindsight, in my capacity as a Christian minister I was required to conduct many funeral services.  But it was the burial service of a Christian that brought me the happiest of thoughts. “We will return and inhabit this earth, all new and perfect, dwelling in exponential glory.”

 

Now let me make two disclaimers before I continue.  This article does not engage the debate between body burial and cremation.  I assume here that whether the body is embalmed or not, cremated or not, a burial still takes place. Secondly, I assume an eschatological agreement that the final state of redeemed mankind is to be residents of the New Heaven and New Earth.  Although we speak of Heaven as home, it is not.  The current Heaven that is far better and with Christ is a staging area for all who die before the Second Coming, where at that time all of God’s people from all ages will dwell on earth in service to our King.  

 

“And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’” - Revelation 5:9–10 (ESV).

 

The point I attempt to make is that there is a direct connection between the burial of a Christian and the future hope of the Christian. As Dan Vos writes, “The practice of burial stems from our beliefs in the value of the human body and the reality of the resurrection of the dead.”[1]  Early Christian tradition also adds the important feature (important at least to this discussion) that burial take place on consecrated ground. “After the establishment of the parish as the centre of the Christian spiritual life, the possession of a cemetery, as well as the baptismal font, was a mark of parochial status. During the Middle Ages, religious orders also constructed cemeteries around their churches. Thus, the most common use of churchyards was as a consecrated burial ground known as a graveyard.”[2]

 

Undoubtedly the first Biblical illustration of burial is found in the story of Abraham.  Abraham never owned land in Canaan as his offspring did.  When Sarah died, he acknowledged that to the Hittites. He worked a deal with the Hittites to purchase “for the full price . . . A burying place.” (Genesis 23:9, ESV). One might say that the only land Abraham owned in the Promised Land was a burial plot (Genesis 23:20, ESV).  “Abraham’s purchase of the field and cave meant that his descendants would own this land in perpetuity. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebekah, and Leah would later be laid to rest in this cave.” Genesis 23:20 (ESV Study Bible).  Paul writing to the Romans extends that hope of Abraham further, when he writes, “For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13 (ESV).  We can assume then that in the mind of Abraham, he bought Sarah’s burial plot in faith that one day God fulfill His promise to give his descendants, not only the land of Canaan, but the world itself.  S.G. Degraaf notes, “Abraham buried Sarah. For him her grave was a guarantee that his seed would inherit the land and possess it forever. One day Sarah and her children would be glorified there.”

 

The hope of the promise of possessing the land, also is found in a future heir of Abraham, Joseph. We read in Genesis 50:25–26 (ESV): “Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.’ So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.”  Joseph is confident that the God who brought His people to Egypt will most certainly lead them out. When Joseph died his body was embalmed and entombed in a coffin.  Later, after hundreds of years of slavery and oppression, Moses led Israel out of Egypt and we note: “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.’” - Exodus 13:18–19 (ESV). Later we read in Joshua 24:32 (ESV

 

“As for the bones of Joseph, which the people of Israel brought up from Egypt, they buried them at Shechem, in the piece of land that Jacob bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money. It became an inheritance of the descendants of Joseph.”

 

It was Shechem where Abraham pitched his tent and built his first altar in the Promised Land and received the first divine promise (Genesis12:6, 7).  It was here that Joseph’s body was buried.  The writer to the Hebrews records:

 

“These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.” - Hebrews 11:13–16 (ESV).

 

Why did Joseph desire to be buried in the Promised Land?  One important reason is that Joseph’s choice of burial site was an act of faith in the promise of God that Abraham’s descendants would possess the land where he had been buried.  But Hebrews 11 expands our understanding to include the reality that the patriarchs believed not only would God give them the land of Canaan but in fact the whole world. Most people read Hebrews 11:13f and think that these men of faith were desirous of heaven — heaven being that intermediate state.  But it is far more likely that the patriarchs were looking for heaven on earth.  Nick Batzig, pastor of Church Creek PCA in Charleston, North Carolina and Associate Editor for Ligonier Ministries, Table Talk, writes: “God promised Abraham land, but--contrary to the opinions of many--this was a promise of the inheritance of the New Heavens and the New Earth that believers get in union with Christ. Abraham actually never inherited any of the land.”[3]

 

Therefore, Joseph set a typological pattern within the Old Testament story of Redemption, to insist his body be buried in the land of promise. Christians therefore can, in faith, seek to be buried in the hope of the promise, that is the earth, which is the Promised Land of the New Covenant believer.  “Burial,” as Batzig affirms, “Is an act of faith” “In short, a burial of the body of a believer is, in the truest sense, the last great act of faith that a believer may exhibit with his or her life.”[4]

 

Now let me be clear: I am not trying to invent or enforce a new doctrine.  Far be it from me to do so.  But I do propose that because of the compelling illustrations from Scripture, combined with the doctrine of the New Heavens and New Earth, there are sufficient implications to encourage a Christian to look upon his or her’s final wishes and affirm that their burial be viewed by friends and family as their final confession of faith.  As said by General MacArthur, “I shall return.”  On Oct. 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur waded ashore on Leyte Island in the Philippines and fulfilled his promise to return. General MacArthur’s forces in the Philippines were nearly decimated.  On withdrawing in seeming defeat, he arrived in Australia making his famous declaration: “I came through and I shall return.”  Return he did.  

 

In a sense the act of burial is a declaration, “I shall return.”   It is a final act of faith.  

 

As we place the remains of our loved ones who have died in Christ in the ground, it would be theologically sound, liturgically fitting, and pastorally encouraging to re-iterate this act of faith, “They shall return.” Often the minister’s words go something like this:

 

“Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change the body of our low estate that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.”  

 

Why not consider this amendment?  “. . . in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal fellowship with God, when Heaven comes to Earth, when the Christian hope is realized, and “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. . . . His servants will serve him. They will see his face” (Revelation 21:3; 22:3–4). 2 Peter 3:13 (ESV)[5], tells us that the new heaven and new earth will be “where righteousness dwells.” The creation of the new heavens and new earth brings the promise that God “will wipe every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 21:4).[6]

 

The intermediate state is not our final hope. Our hope is found in the Final State, dwelling with God forever and ever on Earth. Like Abraham and Joseph, we temporarily bequeath our remains to the earth, in burial, believing the promise, “I shall return.”

 

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[1] https://wearefaith.org/blog/why-christians-bury-their-dead/

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churchyard

[3] https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/a-biblical-theology-of-burial

[4] Ibid 

[5] “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”

[6] Adapted from https://www.gotquestions.org/new-heavens-earth.html

Lament for a Son

 In Lament for a Son[1] Nicholas Wolterstorff writes not as a scholar but as a loving father grieving the loss of his son. The book is in one sense a narrative account of events--from the numbing telephone call on a sunny Sunday afternoon that tells of 25-year-old Eric's death in a mountain-climbing accident, to a graveside visit a year later. Lament for a Son gives expression to a grief that is at once unique and universal--a grief for an individual, irreplaceable person.

Quotable Quotes

“Often, I am asked whether the grief remains as intense as when I wrote. The answer is, No. The wound is no longer raw. But it has not disappeared. That is as it should be. If he was worth loving, he is worth grieving over. Grief is existential testimony to the worth of the one loved. That worth abides.”

“It’s the neverness that is so painful. Never again to be here with us—never to sit with us at table, never to travel with us, never to laugh with us, never to cry with us, never to embrace us.”

“IT’S SO WRONG, SO profoundly wrong, for a child to die before its parents. It’s hard enough to bury our parents. But that we expect. Our parents belong to our past, our children belong to our future. We do not visualize our future without them. How can I bury my son, my future, one of the next in line? He was meant to bury me!”

“His death is things to do not done—never to be done.”

“THERE’S A HOLE in the world now. In the place where he was, there’s now just nothing. A center, like no other, of memory and hope and knowledge and affection which once inhabited this earth is gone. Only a gap remains. A perspective on this world unique in this world which once moved about within this world has been rubbed out. Only a void is left . . .  A person, an irreplaceable person, is gone. Never again will anyone apprehend the world quite the way he did. Never again will anyone inhabit the world the way he did. Questions I have can never now get answers. The world is emptier. My son is gone. Only a hole remains, a void, a gap, never to be filled.”

“I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and resurrecter of Jesus Christ. I also believe that my son’s life was cut off in its prime. I cannot fit these pieces together. I am at a loss. I have read the theodicies produced to justify the ways of God to man. I find them unconvincing. To the most agonized question I have ever asked I do not know the answer. I do not know why God would watch him fall. I do not know why God would watch me wounded. I cannot even guess.”

“WITH THESE HANDS I lifted him from his cradle—tiny then, soft, warm, and squirming with life. Now at the end with these same hands I touched him in his coffin.”

“And at the end, that we now must learn to live as faithfully and authentically with Eric gone as we had tried to do with Eric present.”

“I will indeed remind myself that there’s more to life than pain. I will accept joy. But I will not look away from Eric dead. Its demonic awfulness I will not ignore. I owe that—to him and to God.”

“I cannot fit it together at all. I can only, with Job, endure. I do not know why God did not prevent Eric’s death. To live without the answer is precarious. It’s hard to keep one’s footing.”

“Will the family all be home for Christmas?” . . . “What are your children doing now?” . . .  “How many children do you have?”

“HIS YOUNGER brothers had begun to ask him for advice. To Claire and me he had become an equal, no longer a child to be cared for. Now he’s gone, and the family has to restructure itself. We don’t just each have a gap inside us but together a gap among us. We have to live differently with each other. We have to live around the gap. Pull one out, and everything changes.”

“The mourners are those who have caught a glimpse of God’s new day, who ache with all their being for that day’s coming, and who break out into tears when confronted with its absence.”

“Lament is part of life.”

 

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[1] Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Lament for a Son. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition.