Blind Man's Fancy

This will conclude where Parts 1 and 2 started.  Together with them, I outline five reasons why I prefer to be buried, unless otherwise providentially hindered,  rather than cremated.  In no way do I subject anyone else to my convictions, but hopefully my wife will remember them should, because of my death, do we part!

4.  Jesus was buried and I want be like Jesus.  This isn’t the same thing as saying Jesus wore sandals so I wear sandals, or Jesus grew a beard so I grow one (Amy wouldn’t let me be like Jesus in such case!).

But Jesus’ burial is of significant importance to the glory of the gospel.  Jesus wasn’t merely redeeming the souls of all those who would believe, but suffered sin’s curse on the totality of the human condition.  He was buried  as a dead man (1 Cor 15.4), with all the care and compassion afforded him by those who loved him (Mk 16.1; Lk 24.1; Jn 19.31-42).

Our union with Christ is displayed through baptism in our being buried (not cremated) with him (Rom 6.4; Col 2.12).  If burial was irrelevant or unimportant then why the emphasis on our being buried with Christ?  I realize this is a salvation metaphor, but it’s a useful metaphor because of the reality behind it.  Jesus was buried.  The Light and Life of heaven and men (Jn 1.4) entered the darkness and death of the tomb.  And our union with him means we must die to ourselves and see our old man buried with him in that tomb.

I want to be buried because Jesus was buried, and I’ve testified to being in Christ by being baptized into him.

5.  The bodily resurrection is predicated on the correspondence of the body that is buried (or “sown”).  We care for the body at death because of our conviction about our own bodily resurrection.  Jesus was raised physically and corporeally from the dead; therefore, so shall we be by the same Spirit (Rom 8.11).  We don’t throw away the corpse as though it has served its purpose.  We care for it because it will be raised.

This does not mean God won’t or can’t raise cremated or incinerated or incomplete bodies.  He will indeed raise every body that has already turned to dust.  However, we leave that up to God and, insofar as we can, commit ourselves to the care for the entire person.

Paul wrote gloriously of the resurrection in 1 Cor 15.42-49.  Throughout this passage the “it” that is buried (metaphorically, “sown” as seed that will soon sprout and bear fruit) is the “it” that is raised.  In burial, we “sow” perishable, dishonorable, weak, natural, earthly bodies knowing God will one day raise those bodies imperishable, glorious, powerful, spiritual and heavenly.

What those bodies will look like remains to be seen.  We know that Jesus gave us a preview in his own resurrected body.  There will be some correspondence between our earthly and heavenly bodies but without the restraints of sin.

As a farmer plants in the spring in hope for the autumn harvest, I want to be “sown” in hope for the angelic reaping one day.  I don’t want may ashes scattered on a golf course or displayed on a mantle.  I want my body sown to the earth (from which we came) so that God will finally complete what he started.  I want to be there when the words of Ezekiel finally ring true:  ”Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel.  Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people’” (Ezek 37.12-13).

So give me my grave and plant me firmly in the soil.  God’s fertilizing grace will make sure he brings forth a beautiful harvest to the glory of Jesus Christ: the one who died, was buried, and on the third day rose again.

Read Part 1 to catch up, but here I continue the reasons why I intend to be buried, unless providentially hindered, instead of cremated. Cremation is certainly no cardinal sin, but we should allow Scripture to dictate how we live and die.

2.  In Scripture, the burning of the body was an expression of disgrace toward the person who died.  Though not without possible exception (perhaps 1 Sam 31.12), the burning of a body (either alive or after being stoned to death) was a sign of desecration.  It was a declaration of shame (cf. Gen 3.24; Lev 20.14;  21.9; Num 16.35; Josh 7.15-25; Judg 15.6; Jer 29.22; Amos 2.1).  In burning the body the people were essentially stripping the subject of his/her personhood.  Even in such practice, those performing it recognized the unity of body and soul (see Part 1).  In burning the body they were making a statement about the person’s soul.  Even inanimate idols were to be burned as an expression of the people’s hatred toward them (cf. Exod 32.20; Dt 7.25; 2 Kgs 10.26).

The general scope of Scripture suggests that burning is an expression of disgust toward that which is burned.  It is public display of shame and disgrace.  That said, we cannot hold God to that same standard.  When, in his wise providence, allows one of his sons to be incinerated by bomb he is not shaming his child. Although, we should cry out against the wages of sin and the sting of death while retreating to Christ who will put the world to rights soon enough.

Now, I do not suggest everyone views cremation as dramatically as ceremonial shaming.  In fact, everyone I know considers cremation an act of mercy on the family who are relieved of burial expenses.  However, the church must uphold the value of the body as part of her love for the resurrection.  Part of that commitment is making sure everyone who can be buried should be.

I simply don’t want to be treated (and in treating my dead body you are in some sense treating me; see Part 1)  like God’s enemies were treated.  I don’t want to be burned to ashes and thereby join the ranks of liars, adulterers and idols.

3.  Burning of the body is how hell is described.  Of course, hell is described as the “lake of fire” (Rev 19.20; 20.10, 14, 15) and all who go there suffer 6th-degree burns for eternity (Lk 16.24).  Their bodies will be raised and prepared to endure fatal punishment without ever dying (Is 66.24).

God’s wrath is often personified as a consuming fire (Dt 9.3; Is 29.6; 30.27, 30; 33.14; 66.15; Heb 12.29; Dan 7.9).  Fire is also used to describe God’s favor, power or glory (Is 4.5, for example), but in such cases the fire is never to consume.  God’s fierce anger toward his enemies is that of a consuming fire, complete judgment of both body and soul.

I want to be buried because I don’t want my body to be treated like the bodies of those in hell are treated.  Even in my dying I don’t want to hell any “props.”  I don’t want to credit what is the eternal destination of unredeemed sinners with being a cost-saving measure in this life.  If I’m to return to ashes then it will be by God’s hand and according to his timing.  As in life, so in death.  Jesus bought me, body and soul, with a price and therefore let us “glorify God in [our] body” (1 Cor 6.20).

Reasons four and five coming soon, Lord willing.

Several months rarely pass before I am asked about cremation.  It’s a good question.

Believing all Scripture is breathed out by God to adequately equip us for every good work (2 Tim 3.16-17), and considering how we care for the body at death falls within the realm of “every good work,”  then I submit Scripture adequately equips to answer this question.

What should Christians think about cremation?  Should we think about it?  Is it simply a matter of individual Christian liberty or prudent financial stewardship?  Or, should we consider it more deeply as a theological issue at least as much, if not more than, a financial or cultural issue?

Let me say at the outset this issue certainly isn’t one to threaten Christian fellowship.  Along with my convictions about it also comes latitude to those who would disagree.   That said, I will insist on being buried, unless providentially hindered, because I think it best reflects biblical teaching.  While not going so far as to consider cremation sin, I do consider it a strain on biblical principles.

I say “unless providentially hindered” because God may not allow me (or my family) the option.  Space Shuttles explode and bodies are incinerated.  Sleeping homeowners don’t wake up inside their burning house.  Terrorists fly planes into buildings, immediately incinerating bodies.  So, there are certainly occasions when burial is impossible because there is no body to be entombed.  However, we are to leave such occasions to the sovereign hand of God, knowing the biblical principles, and therefore our posture, are toward burial.

Let me also answer another preliminary question before getting into specifics.  If God promises we return to dust anyway (Gen 3.19), then how could cremation be a “strain on biblical principles” since God himself ordained the decomposition of our bodies?  Doesn’t cremation simply accelerate the process God would do anyway?  Be it natural decomposition or cremation, don’t our bodies all wind up in the same state anyway?

God also promises that we will all die one day due to sin, but are we to accelerate that process as well?  Since we’re all  going to die anyway, should we all hasten our own deaths?  Of course not.

God promises inscrutable judgment on all his enemies, who will suffer eternally, painfully and consciously for eternity.  Are we to accelerate that process by exercising vigilante justice against all nonChristians?  If God has promised to judge all his enemies anyway, why not get a head start on what God is already going to do anyway? Ludicrous, of course.

Though God has promised certain things, we are to also trust him to work out those promises according to his own will.  And if the normative way God has promised that we “return to dust” is through natural decomposition, then we let God have his way.

That said, I humbly offer the following five reasons why I intend to be buried, unless providentially hindered.

1.  God values the body as much as the soul.  God created Adam and Eve with physical bodies that were very good.  Part of what it means to be truly human is to be both body and soul, material and immaterial.  And when we see a soulless corpse in a bejeweled casket festooned by flowers there is something in us that screams, “That’s not right!”  There is something fundamentally wrong with a soulless body, or a body-less soul.  Our sin has cleaved what otherwise should be inseparable.

That’s why, along with all of creation itself, “we ourselves, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8.23, emphasis mine).  The souls of Christians now in heaven are crying out, “O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on the hose who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6.9-11).  Even in heaven, right now, there is still a sense of groaning, a realization that all is not yet right.  And it will only be right when the bodies of God’s people are reunited with their souls for eternity.

Our Christian loved ones who’ve died are indeed in a “better place,” but it’s not yet the best place.  There is still something wrong; still something that needs to be done to complete what God started in Christ.  They still need their body back to be human.

Those espousing cremation often do so with good intentions, but to the detriment of a well-rounded biblical theology of what it means to be human.  Many would say, “Man, this body is just an old carcass anyway, my soul with be with Jesus.  So I don’t care what you do with my body, it’s the spirit that really matters.”  That is a gnostic, Manichaen view of humanity that considers the spirit the “real” part of our humanity and our bodies a shell to house it.  Yet, this is neither how God created us nor how we are to interpret our deaths.

Our physical bodies aren’t “disposable wrappers” but are part and parcel of what it means to be human.  If God was only concerned with our souls then Jesus’ resurrection was irrelevant as would be the hope in our own.  More on this in a later reason.

Woven into the fabric of Israel’s life was a profound care for the body.  ”Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, ‘God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here’” (Gen 50.25).  And five hundred years later we  read, “they buried the bones of Joseph, which the sons of Israel brought up from Egypt, at Shechem, in the piece of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for one hundred pieces of money; and they became the inheritance of Joseph’s sons” (Josh 24.32).  They honored Joseph’s body by preserving what could be preserved of it (undoubtedly naturally decomposed!)  for five hundred years until they could be buried with his people in their land.  And we want to incinerate the body in days for the sake of expediency and cost?

If in redeeming humanity, God needed only to redeem the soul then there was no reason for Christ’s incarnation (much less a bodily resurrection!).  Yet, as it is, “human” is to be both body and soul, material and immaterial.  Therefore, there is no redemption of any human that does not also involve redemption of the human body.  Hence, “since the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] likewise partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives” (Heb 2.14-15).  Jesus came to reverse the curse of sin for all those who believe in him.  That curse involved the physical death of the body as well as the estrangement of the soul from God; therefore, Jesus came not only to redeem souls from slavery to sin but sin-enslaved bodies as well.  There is not one without the other.

God created us wholistic beings and as such values the body as much as the soul.  So much so that he came to us in “flesh and blood” not merely so that our spirits “go to heaven when we die,” but so that He “will also give life to [our] mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in [us]” (Rom 8.11).

I want to be buried because God values my body and my soul.  He sent Jesus in bodily form so that this earthly “tent” will one day be raised in Christ’s glory (2 Cor 5.4).  God isn’t throwing my body out like an old carcass but will bring it to life in the Risen Lord.  So at my funeral I hope you’ll be groaning with me.  I may look at peace in that casket, but I’ll be crying out for the avenging power of God to crush Satan and demand the grave give me back my body.

Stay tuned for the other reasons coming soon.