It’s a Saturday morning, there’s a somber mood sweeping across the whole village. There I was among the mourners.
Reality is dawning on the mourners that actually they won’t be seeing their loved one again. In a few hours’ time, she’ll be laid six feet under and that is it… gone forever never to be seen in this life again. That’s the moment you realise that however much you, as a mere mortal, love someone so much, you can never bring them back to life again. Death is indeed an enemy!
At this time of bereavement, the family and friends of the deceased need nothing short of comfort, consolation and support. And there’s a way in which if you belong to a church congregation, you can definitely, almost certainly know that the church will be there in full swing to provide this kind of support.
All was going on well, with tribute after tribute pouring in, until something happened; When time came for the ‘church’ to take over and conduct the service and eventually bury the dead, they were nowhere to be seen! They had boycotted the whole thing because apparently the family didn’t play by the rules like no playing of music, no speeches, burial be at 9 a.m. e.t.c. So the best thing they could do was leave. What a disappointment! Is this how the ‘church’ behaves?? Seemingly, the church is more important than the people! But what really constitutes the church if not Christ and people!!
My disappointment wasn’t because they failed to give a proper send-off, we buried my aunt, 2 of us conducted the service. My disappointment was because of 3 things:
- Failure to Bear Witness for Christ
Romans 12:15b teaches us to “mourn with those who mourn.” And our Saviour Himself, in John 11:33 “When He saw her [Mary] weeping, & the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in His Spirit and greatly troubled. ” He couldn’t hold it in “Jesus wept” (John 11:35).
The ‘church’ here failed to witness for Christ. What does the Bible teach us about death & mourning? And how can we represent Christ to a watching world? Jesus is deeply moved & greatly troubled by Lazarus’s death and the weeping of those who were there… He identified with them… He didn’t shut Himself from the realities of the messy world around Him, which death is part of. This is exactly the reason why He came on earth, to restore this fallen world. Funerals provide a huge opportunity to speak of this Christ & His Mission and also to show people what the heart of Christ is. This we do not in theory but in practice.
- Failure to Present the True Hope found in Christ
Look at Jesus at Lazarus’s funeral. He would do more that just weep. He went ahead and raised Lazarus back to life. Of course Lazarus died again later but here Jesus was giving us a sneak preview into what He will do. He will later on go to the cross, die, be buried and after 3 days rise again, thus opening the way for us to enjoying eternal fellowship with God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.
Funerals are a great evangelistic opportunity. This is the opportunity that the Church has. Use that setting of funeral and death to speak about One who died to defeat death and thus give us hope beyond the grave.
- False Teaching
Yes, this is the genesis of the whole saga. The ‘church’ in question here is actually well known. I know in Kenya we don’t like calling by name but we know them- the Jehovah’s Witness. The thing here is not just about refusal to mourn with the family or bury the dead- it goes much deeper. What of causing some of the children to also skip the burial of their own mum!! And how about going and locking themselves in one of the sons’ house to ‘pray’ when people are waiting for you to speak to them!! How about being totally secluded from ‘the world’ and not wanting anything to ‘defile’ you! It has to do with what they actually teach (which is a thing for another day). Is this really biblical Christianity?
It’s either they are representing Christ wrongly and they need to be corrected or the Christ they are teaching is not really the real Christ, or both- if their actions are anything to go by!
Remember Christ’s warning,
“Be careful… Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees & the Sadducees” (Matthew 16:6).
A little yeast affects the whole lump of dough and given some time, you’ll see the dough ‘rise up’ never to flatten again. That is what false teaching does.
fidelnyikuri
iServe Africa Webmaster
Utumishi Blog 
Please be accurate in your portrayal of Jehovah’s Witnesses. You have no idea what we believe and why and you have no right to judge us.
Thank you for engaging and commenting Saffron. This whole issue is rightly emotive. Please do share with us what the Jehovah’s Witness position is on funerals. I have done some research on this but it would be very helpful for you to clarify and give reasons for your beliefs.
As I understand it a JW funeral tends to be relatively short (perhaps 30 minutes) and avoids long eulogies of the dead to focus on a Bible exposition of the resurrection hope. I have a lot of sympathy with this approach – the resurrection hope is lacking from many funerals and personally I don’t want the focus to be on me at my funeral but on Jesus; I don’t want anyone to be led to believe that I was a ‘good person’ and that’s why I have a resurrection hope – I want the source of my assurance to be clear – the death and resurrection of Christ and I want that hope held out to all who attend. In fact that was the intention of the Reformation liturgies for the burial of the dead – a move from a focus on the deceased to a focus on Christ and the resurrection for the comfort or challenge of the living.
Where I think we would differ might be in at least 3 key issues:
a) I am confident that I will not pass into unconsciousness or soul sleep or non-existence at death but I will be “with the Lord” (Philippians 1:23; Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 5:8).
b) I would want Jesus to be honoured as the fully divine Son who has taken the wrath of God on my behalf, saving me from hell and eternal torment so that I will be with him all his people forever worshipping Him in the restored New Creation.
c) I would not want to go beyond Scripture to insist on a particular form of worship or practice of funeral just so long as the gospel of Christ crucified is preached.