Christ's Way of Running a Funeral

By Pastor Benjamin Glaser - Posted at Thoughts From Parson Farms:

Maintaining Purity of Worship and Abstaining From Superstition at the Grave

Howdy,

As I noted last week in this space we are moving on to a new section in the Directory of Public Worship. I must warn that is not any happier a subject than the visiting of the sick. That being said we who rest in the resurrection of Jesus Christ mourn not as the world morns, for our hope is built on the cross and the empty tomb. This section of the DPW is rather short, and to the point.

Here it is:

WHEN any person departeth this life, let the dead body, upon the day of burial, be decently attended from the house to the place appointed for publick burial, and there immediately interred, without any ceremony.

And because the custom of kneeling down, and praying by or towards the dead corpse, and other such usages, in the place where it lies before it be carried to burial, are superstitious; and for that praying, reading, and singing, both in going to and at the grave, have been grossly abused, are no way beneficial to the dead, and have proved many ways hurtful to the living; therefore let all such things be laid aside.

Howbeit, we judge it very convenient, that the Christian friends, which accompany the dead body to the place appointed for publick burial, do apply themselves to meditations and conferences suitable to the occasion and that the minister, as upon other occasions, so at this time, if he be present, may put them in remembrance of their duty.

That this shall not extend to deny any civil respects or deferences at the burial, suitable to the rank and condition of the party deceased, while he was living.

This chapter more than any other shows some of the keenest differences between the day in which the DPW was written and today. The opening sentence seems quaint, if not odd. In the twenty-first century we have things like embalming that do not make the concern here quite so necessary. However, that being said what is the actual concern here other than the obvious bio reasons? Notice what the second paragraph says. There is an anxiousness on behalf of the divines that people do not misunderstand the biblical doctrine of death. When people die, they are moved directly to heaven by the power of the Holy Spirit. They do not remain with us until a minister is there to pray them into the throne room of God. Men and women are not watching over loved ones waiting to say goodbye. Funerals are for the living, not the dead.

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