We know it’s going to happen, but hope it’s not too near.
We keep it in the background; We think if we ignore
Its dreadful implications, we’ll live a little more!
And so we sanitise it; put flowers round a grave.
Speak kindly to the relatives and tell them to be brave.
Then when we’ve left the funeral and gone back home again,
We’re glad we’ve done our duty; and some of us complain,
About how long the service took; then think of it no more.
It’s back to trivialities, like what’s the rugby score?
Don’t think I’m being callous with what is written here,
It’s true that the departed, we once held very dear.
But life was made for living. We can’t turn back the clock.
But funerals are times for us to quietly take stock,
And get a new perspective of why we have to die.
We’re monsters of iniquity and few of us know why.
We die because we’re sinners. That is the bottom line.
We may believe that we are good and we are doing fine.But deep within the inner man, we know that it’s not true.
If you were really perfect, death wouldn’t come for you!
But what if it was possible for sin itself to die?
Then death would not be able to come for you or I.
If we could deal with sin itself and put it in the grave,
Then we would all be free from death and we would all be saved!
But who could ever do it? It had to be a man.
And someone supernatural to put in place a plan,
To deal with sin forever. And if that someone died,
Then He would take death with Him; it couldn’t be applied!
But let’s go one step further. If He included me
And you, down deep within Him. Then miraculously,
If He was resurrected and brought to life again,
Then death would lose all meaning, along with sin and stain.
There’s one more implication that we must still explore.
If you and I are in Him, then death can reign no more!
We would be resurrected. In Him we’d be alive.
Then sin would be defeated and death would take a dive.
But this has really happened! Christ Jesus beat man’s fall!
God’s Son defeated sin and death. He is the Lord of all.
So when we go to funerals now, we needn’t say good-bye.
For if that person is in Christ, he cannot ever die!
Jim Strickland – written Wednesday, 22 June 2011
