20. Imagination and Comfort
Imagination and Comfort
Early in my ministry, I was encouraged to buy and read The Funeral: A Source Book for Ministers by Andrew W. Blackwood. I’m grateful that I had sense enough to heed the admonition. That one book gave me the right start on how to prepare the kind of funeral messages that would do more than fill up time and carry on tradition. If Dr. Blackwood were writing his book today, he would no doubt make some changes because of the changes in society; but I think his basic philosophy would remain unchanged. It’s a philosophy I heartily recommend.
“The appeal should be mainly to the imagination,” says Blackwood about the message. “In a few minutes there is time for only a single truth. It should be luminous. . . . Since the time is short, there should be little exegesis, and no argument.”[1]
Most of the mourners at a funeral aren’t capable of following a doctrinal argument, complete with Greek and Hebrew vocabulary. Of course, every message must be doctrinally sound; but the best way to communicate God’s comforting Word to broken hearts is not with an argument but with a picture. The effective funeral message calls for sanctified imagination.[2]
The funeral message is not like any other message that the minister proclaims. It must be biblical, and it must be organized; but it must not “sound like a sermon,” either in organization or presentation. The message must present one truth, in a vivid manner, so that the listeners may understand it and appropriate it for themselves.[3]
A pastor friend of mine shared a funeral service with a minister who used 2 Corinthians 5:1-5 as the text, but apparently hadn’t done his homework. Instead of seeing the “eternal house in heaven” as the Christian’s glorified body, the minister related the text to John 14:1-6; and the result was a grotesque picture of Jesus and the deceased, climbing up and down ladders and building a heavenly mansion. That’s the kind of homiletical fantasy we can do without at funerals—or anywhere else.
When we surveyed the images found in Scripture, you undoubtedly noticed how many images there are in the Bible of both life and death. Some of these images emphasize the hopelessness of the unbeliever without God, but others are radiant with hope for all who have trusted Jesus Christ. It’s the job of the sensitive pastor to find the biblical metaphor that best fits the situation and use it to meet the needs of the people.
While attending a funeral, my wife and I patiently endured a thirty-minute academic doctrinal discourse on the Christian view of the resurrection of the human body as explained in 1 Corinthians 15. Instead of trying to expound the whole chapter, the preacher could have focused on one of Paul’s telling metaphors in that passage: death as sleep (vv. 6, 18, 51), Christ as the firstfruits (vv. 20, 23), burial as sowing and resurrection as the harvest (vv. 35-44), and glorification as the changing of clothing (vv. 50-55). Our minds just weren’t in the right mood for logic, but our hearts would have responded quickly to pictures.
Some Biblical Pictures of Death
Death as sleep is one of the repeated images used in Scripture (Deut. 31:16; Job 14:12; Pss. 13:3 and 17:15; Jer. 51:39; Dan. 12:2; Matt. 9:24; John 11:11-14; Acts 7:59-60; 13:36; 1 Cor. 15:6; 1 Thes. 4:13-18). The image speaks, of course, of the sleep of the body which is no longer functioning because the spirit has departed (James 2:26). For the believer, to be away from the body means to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6-8) while the body is sleeping in the dust.
Both death and sleep are universal experiences and therefore the image of sleep has universal significance and appeal. From the baby in the nursery to the senior citizen in the nursing home, all people need sleep; and when the body is weary, that sleep is eagerly sought. We don’t fear sleep; we welcome it and anticipate awakening to a new day. For the Christian, the parallels between death and sleep are clear and comforting.
When Jesus told His disciples that Lazarus was sleeping, they misunderstood Him (as they often did) and thought He was describing symptoms of recovery (John 11:11-14). To Jesus, the death of believers is like sleep, and the resurrection of believers is like awakening people from sleep. Paul agreed with this metaphor and used it. The one great difference, of course, between us and Lazarus is that our “resurrection awakening” will mean a new and glorified body, a change of clothes![4] “When I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness” (Ps. 17:15). Not only shall we see Him, but “we shall be like Him”! (1 John 3:2)
Jesus compared His own death to an “exodus” (Luke 9:31), and Peter borrowed this metaphor (2 Peter 1:14-15). The word “exodus” reminds us of the experience of the people of Israel when they left Egypt, an experience of mingled joy and fear, triumph and trepidation, but one that ultimately led to victory. Death is an enemy (1 Cor. 15:26) that would like to conquer us and hold us forever, but Christ leads His people victoriously from bondage to freedom (Heb. 2:14-15). What most of us fear isn’t death itself but the mysterious experience of death, and the Word assures us that the believer’s death is an “exodus” of victory.
In his “psalm of recovery after illness” (Isa. 38:9-20), King Hezekiah used three striking images of death: walking through gates (v. 10), taking down a tent (v. 12), and cutting a weaving from the loom (v. 12). The phrase “the gates of death” is found in Psalms 9:13 and 107:18 and is an image that suggests walking into a city. The word “death” is Sheol in the Hebrew, the realm of the dead; and in the Old Testament, Sheol is pictured for the most part as a gloomy place of shadows where hopelessness abounds. If this were the only image we had of death, we would have every reason to be discouraged. But the gates of Sheol cannot prevail against Jesus Christ! (Matt. 16:18) He has “destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Tim. 1:10).
Death is also like taking down a tent. Like a tent, the body is but a temporary dwelling place; and one day we shall have our glorified permanent dwelling place (2 Cor. 5:1-8). The Greek word analusis, translated “departure” in 2 Timothy 4:6, carries the meaning of “a sailor loosing a ship to set sail” or “a soldier taking down a tent and breaking camp.” (See also analuo in Phil. 1:23.)
Hezekiah also pictured death as cutting a weaving from the loom. In our discussion of the images in Isaiah 38, I have shown how this image relates to Psalm 139. Life is a weaving (see Job 7:6), and only God knows the pattern on the loom of life and when it will be completed. We see the underside of the weaving, which doesn’t always make sense; but one day we shall see the picture that the Lord was making, and then all shall be well. All of this would be pure fancy if we didn’t have a biblical image to back it up.
The image of the loom is a helpful one to use when mystery surrounds the death of the person, and people are asking, “Why should this happen? What is God doing?” After all, we don’t see the pattern from God’s point of view; and we must trust Him to do what is best. On the other hand, the weaving image is also a good image to use at the funerals of those whose lives have been “completed” and were ready for “display in heaven” (Eph. 1:12-14). How we thank God for the devoted “senior saints” who have allowed the Lord to weave their lives into something beautiful for eternity![5]
Psalm 23 is probably the favorite psalm for funerals. I see it quoted on the memorial folders I pick up when I sign in at the funeral home, and many people request the use of Psalm 23 when they discuss funeral plans for their deceased loved one. It was the first psalm I memorized in childhood and it has “grown up” with me all these years. The image of Jesus the Shepherd, believers as His sheep, and life as a journey to the Father’s house, comforts and encourages us, no matter what the circumstances may be.[6]
However, the emphasis in the psalm is not death but instead what the Shepherd does for us “all the days of [our] life” (Ps. 23:6).[7] No matter what our circumstances, the Shepherd is adequate to handle them and see us through. Only when I get to the Father’s house[8] will I be able to look back and see fully that God’s goodness and love have indeed followed me all the days of my life. Until that time comes, I’ll have to walk by faith in the Good Shepherd and believe Romans 8:28.[9]
F. Crossley Morgan sees in the psalm the ministry of the Shepherd to His own from childhood to old age. More than one commentator points out that the various “Jehovah” names of God are found in Psalm 23: “I shall lack nothing”-Jehovah-Jireh, “the Lord will provide”; “he leads me beside quiet waters”-Jehovah-Shalom, “the Lord our peace”; “he restores my soul”-Jehovah-Rapha, “the Lord who heals.”[10] You probably don’t want to use this kind of material in a funeral message because it’s too esoteric for the average congregation, but it does show what imagination can do when applied to a familiar text.
I suggest that you make a notebook of the biblical images that strike you as ones having a message for broken hearts. As you meditate on them from time to time, study them and pray over them, the Lord will give you thoughts that you must write down and later develop into funeral messages. Very few funerals are scheduled; most of them come as interruptions. The pastor who captures ideas when they come is the one who is best prepared.
Consider the images hidden in a text such as Psalm 90:12—“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” In our review of the images in the Psalms, I suggested that Israel’s experience at Kadesh Barnea is the background for this psalm (Num. 13-14). The days indeed were numbered for the older generation in Israel as they embarked on history’s longest funeral march!
Yet, for each person born on earth, life is a funeral march. Even we believers will die unless the Lord returns in our lifetime and takes us to glory. But when we trusted Jesus Christ, He invited us to leave the funeral march and come to the wedding (Matt. 9:14-15); and that changed everything! Now we’re waiting for the Bridegroom to appear so we can go to the wedding supper!
Most people don’t really number their days “aright” because we count our years and not our days. We live a year at a time when everything else in the universe lives a day at a time. Too many people are like the successful businessmen that James wrote about, making grandiose plans and paying no attention to the authority of God’s will or the reality of death (James 4:13-17). In preparing for one funeral service, I took time to calculate how many days the deceased person had lived; and when I mentioned this number in the message, it sounded like a terribly short time. If you want your days to count, then count your days.
Life is a school (“teach us”) in which we must learn arithmetic (“to number our days aright”) and practical wisdom (“gain a heart of wisdom”). “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov. 4:23). “My son, give me your heart” (Prov. 23:26). What a text to preach at the memorial service of an educator or a faithful Sunday School teacher! What an opportunity for the preaching of the Gospel!
Sometimes the vocation or even the hobby of the deceased can give us a hint for the message. At the funeral of an amateur gardener, I spoke about the three gardens in the Bible: the garden where sin entered (Eden); the garden where sin was defeated (Calvary; John 19:41); the garden where sin shall never enter (Rev. 21-22).[11] The memorial service for a carpenter focused on Jesus the carpenter who is building a home for His own in glory.[12] With so many luminous texts available in the Scriptures, we shouldn’t be tempted to turn verses into mottoes by wresting them from their contexts. As you read and study the Word, texts will jump out at you; and you must add them to your notebook. By diligently cultivating what Blackwood called “the sermonic seed plot,” you will always have a word in season for those who need encouragement.
“Though the view from my door was still more contracted, I did not feel crowded or confined in the least. There was pasture enough for my imagination.”
“Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitudes of things.”
“The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.”
“My imagination takes its strength and guides its direction from what I see and hear and learn and feel and remember of my living world.”