8 sentences that are banned from my funeral

  If, at some future date, you read this article.. and if you happen to know that I have just died...  and if you also happen to know the man who will be conducting my funeral...  Would you please pass this on to him?
 
         Here are 8 sentences that are banned from my funeral:

 1.  “Rhett was the best guy I ever knew.” 
Obviously there is not a lot of danger that someone will actually say this at MY funeral, but this is the sort of thing people often say at funerals.  It’s almost as if we think that death qualifies people for sainthood or something.  Here’s the unpleasant truth though – death is the final proof that the person in the box was a sinner. (Romans 6:23)
 
2.  "Death is just a part of life.” 
No it is not.  Death is the end of life and in the beginning God did not intend life to end.  Death is a foreign invader.  Death is unnatural.  Death was introduced to this world as the consequence of our first parent’s sin. (Genesis 2:17)  Claiming that death is just a part of life is an encouragement for folks to grow comfortable with it.  Whatever you do, don’t do that!
 
3.  "Oh, doesn’t he look good.” 
Is it just me or is there something incredibly off-putting about people at calling hours praising a corpse for its beauty?  Corpses aren’t beautiful no matter how much makeup and greasepaint a funeral director puts on them.  As Christians especially I think it is important to squarely face the ugliness of death. 
 
4.  "Rhett wouldn’t want us to cry at a time like this” 
Yes I would!  Death hurts.  The loss of a loved one is painful.  Grief invokes deep emotions...  and it’s ok to express these things to God and to others - even with tears (Psalm 56:8).  We Christians are NOT stoics and there is therefore, nothing particularly brave or spiritual in acting like we are.
 
5.  “We have lost a friend but God has gained an angel.” 
Where do I even begin with this nonsense?  People do NOT become angels when they die!  So if a pastor were to actually say something like this at a funeral we could only conclude: A) He is in an advanced state of intoxication and not responsible for his words.  B)  He’s intentionally trying to get stripped of his ordination credentials.  C)  He’s the pastor of one of those ‘anything goes churches’ where they bless dogs and cats, waive rainbow flags, and generally ignore the Bible altogether.
 
6.  “What’s in that coffin is not Rhett, but just his shell.”
Nope.  That actually Rhett in the coffin, not just a shell of him.  His body – like all people’s bodies – will rise up out of the grave one day to meet Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, bodily we will all live on in one of two places for eternity.  Either bodily in Heaven or bodily in Hell.  Therefore, that body in the coffin is pretty important.   (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
 
7.  “I know Rhett’s looking down on us right now.” 
Don’t count on it.  When my spirit goes to be with Christ I’ll have much more interesting things to look at. (2 Corinthians 5:8, Revelation 7:9-17)
 
8.  “At this funeral I’ve decided not to tell you anything about Christ’s resurrection.”  
Yes!  I realize no one conducting a funeral would actually say these exact words...  but I’ve been to many ‘Christian’ funerals (maybe the majority) where the resurrection of Christ was not mentioned at all.  Going away I wondered, did the man in the pulpit forget that there is only one hope in the face of death?  Did he forget that to be a Christian is to be in the protective hands of a Savior who knows His way out of a tomb?  The preacher took time to recite clichés, to share amusing stories, to wander down memory lane offering a kind of flavorless sympathy to the mourners...  But he seemed to have forgotten that Christ has defeated death.
 
 Whatever else might be said at my funeral when I die, let these words of the risen & reigning Savior fill the ears of each and every mourner:
 
            “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”
 (John 11:25-26, ESV)