Blog: Max Dawson
November 21, 2016
Funerals are strange things. Here are some reasons why I think that.
1. Almost everyone who goes through the funeral home makes it to heaven. Yet, Jesus said “there are few who find the way of life” ().
2. No matter how bad the person was, everybody wants something good to be said about the deceased. That reminds me of a story about two brothers in a small town. Bill and Bob were both mean men who would cheat, lie and steal to get ahead.
Bill died. Bob went to the preacher and offered him $1000 to preach Bill’s funeral–with one condition. The preacher had to say “Bill was a good man.” He could work that into the lesson any way he wanted, but he had to say that! The preacher consented, but worried how he could work that phrase into the funeral sermon.
At last, it was time for the service. The preacher said, “Everybody in this town knows what kind of man old Bill was. Bill would kick your dog, steal candy from little kids, cheat widows, and had the foulest mouth imaginable. But compared to his brother Bob…Bill was a good man!”
3. The strangest thing of all at some funerals–is that God is judged! You think not? I heard one man, speaking at his father’s funeral, who said, “If I get to heaven and find that my father is not there, I am going to have to have a talk with God!” That’s right. He was going to straighten God out if his dad was not in heaven!
While this man’s blasphemy was bold and outrageous, is he really much different from others who set up their own standards of right and wrong? Is he different from others who have determined who should go to heaven and who should not?
The idea in the minds of such people is that there would be something wrong with God if he did not let “my loved one” into heaven! “I know God would never keep my (mother, father, etc.) out of heaven.”
Can you see how that is judging God? Can you not see that is dangerous business?
THE FINAL WORD
I like what I saw on a bumper sticker a while back. It said “THERE IS A GOD, AND IT IS NOT YOU.”
We have forgotten who God is and who we are. Abraham called God, “the Judge of all the earth” ().
Be careful what you say about God–whether at funeral services or whatever the circumstance may be–because there is coming a day when He will judge you. You will have no word to say against Him or in judgment of Him!
Fear Him!
May the Judge of all the earth be with you today, my dear friends,
–Max