Lessons Learned in the House of Mourning
Life is short. I know that we all know it because those words have become a cliché. Perhaps that is a portion of our problem. A cliché is often a truth that has been repeated so many times that it has lost its impact and meaning to us. We know that life is short, yet we don’t really believe it. We don't live like it. We are surprised when it suddenly comes to an end. With all good intentions, our human natures tend to put certain things off until tomorrow. We postpone God's priorities in favor of our own with the underlying assumption that we have plenty of time. My friends, we don't.
Introduction
Solomon, the man to whom God gave supernatural wisdom, said something very significant for times like this. He said,
"It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man, and the living takes it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, for when a face is sad a heart may be happy. The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure." (Ecclesiastes 7:2-4)
We could paraphrase those verses this way: "Attending a funeral is better than having a good time at a banquet," or perhaps, "A thirty minute visit to a cemetery is better than an entire afternoon at a carnival."
The lessons we learn from pleasure tend to be shallow and easily forgotten. The lessons we learn from sorrow go deep, even into the bedrock meanings of our lives.
Frankly, a part of me would rather that circumstances dictated our being at a banquet or carnival right now, but that is not the case.
Solomon says here that when we are mourning, we need to take to heart the real issues of life. Seldom does a preacher address a more receptive audience than at a funeral.
I would like to suggest to you five truths that God wants us to take to heart during this time of mourning.
1. Life is Short.
Speaking about our physical lives, the writer of the book of James said, "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."
Life is short. I know that we all know it because those words have become a cliché. Perhaps that is a portion of our problem. A cliché is often a truth that has been repeated so many times that it has lost its impact and meaning to us. We know that life is short, yet we don’t really believe it. We don't live like it. We are surprised when it suddenly comes to an end. With all good intentions, our human natures tend to put certain things off until tomorrow. We postpone God's priorities in favor of our own with the underlying assumption that we have plenty of time. My friends, we don't.
A life that lasts 75 or 80 years seems short enough, but when it is ended during the teenage years, it is painfully short. Yet it is one of the lessons we must take to heart while in the house of mourning. Life is short.
2. Death is Certain.
In most of our minds, death is like a distant relative that we know little about. We know it exists somewhere. It visits the homes of others, but we see so little of it that we don't understand it. We don't even try to understand it. When it suddenly shows up on our doorsteps, we are surprised. Troubled. Dismayed.
God would have us be a little wiser than that about death. The Bible says, "It is appointed for men to die once and after that comes judgment." We need not be morbid about death. Just realistic. Unless the Lord returns before, every person in this room will die physically.
3. The Prospect of Eternal Life is Precious.
I'm sorry I must make you all uncomfortable by talking about death, but it is necessary that we face its reality because it is only against the backdrop of the certainty of death that the prospect of eternal life becomes important.
There is a true story that comes from the sinking of the Titanic. A frightened woman found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be lowered into the freezing North Atlantic. She suddenly through of something she needed so she asked permission to return to her stateroom before they cast off. She was granted three minutes or they would leave without her.
She ran across the deck that was already slanted at a dangerous angle. She raced through the gambling room with all the money that had rolled to one side, ankle deep. She came to her stateroom and quickly pushed aside her diamond rings and expensive bracelets as she reached to the shelf above her bed and grabbed three small oranges. Quickly she found her way back to the lifeboat and got in.
The incredible thing about that story is that 30 minutes earlier she would not have chosen a crate of oranges over the smallest diamond. But death had boarded the Titanic. Instantly, priceless things became worthless and worthless things priceless. Oranges became more valuable than diamonds.
One of the lessons of Solomon's house of mourning is that the prospect of eternal life is precious. When we come together to mourn the loss of one we love, the most important thing in the world to us is the prospect of eternal life. When we face death ourselves, only one thing will matter. Are we ready to meet our Maker?
Death makes us suddenly wise. Our priorities are shaken out. Our head is cleared. And in that clarity of priorities, nothing is more precious than the prospect of eternal life.
4. The Need for Christ is Real
Someone aptly wrote,
Man can give medicine when sickness comes,
Food when hunger comes,
Help when weakness comes,
Love when loneliness comes.
But when death comes, man can give
Only sympathy,
Only compassion,
Never the gift of life.
Only God can do that.
When we of accountable age come to the place of death, we must have prepared for it ahead of time. We cannot make preparation after the fact.
One part of that preparation involves the realization of the need for peace with God. Another part is realization that such peace can only come by accepting Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
There is no promise of eternal life to the person who has never become a Christian. One becomes a Christian by believing the message that Jesus brought to earth. He or she must take heed to what Jesus commanded. There must be a willingness to confess Jesus as the Christ, a determination to live with Jesus as Lord, to turn away from sin and turn to God, and be baptized to have sins forgiven. That one must continue as a saved person with a heart from doing the things God wants.
The need for Christ is real because the prospect of death is real. Yet many will only respond when it becomes real to them.
5. The Time to Prepare is Now.
Hebrews 4:7 says, "Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts."
Many of us have already made the preparation. If you are one who is prepared, I say, hold your course.
Live like tomorrow is uncertain - because it is. Live like life is short - because it is. Live like death is certain - because it is. Live like eternal life is precious - because it is. The most common attitude among youth is that of immortality. All of us either are or have been young, so surely we know that is true. "It can't happen to me," a young person thinks, if he thinks of it at all. But it can and does happen to young people. Please, while the house of mourning momentarily wizens us, take these issues to heart!
Some of you here have never made any preparation. To you I say the need for Christ is real. The time to prepare is now.
Conclusion
Someone noted that the Christian view of death is like a group of mourning caterpillars carrying a cocoon like a casket. Above there is a beautiful butterfly staring down in disbelief.
The prospect of new life in the midst of the reality of death is there for all who will take it. But you must be at peace with God.
In a few moments we will leave this house of mourning. Diamonds will again take on their temporarily inflated value. Oranges will again become common. Our focus on the issue of life's brevity will fade back into the background. Will the lessons fade away as well? Only you can make that determination and only for yourself. I encourage you to do so.
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
