We can learn things anywhere. Truly it can be said that all of life is a classroom and we end up learning more things out of the schoolroom than in it. Perhaps we are more attuned to learning things when the mood is sober, and if so, perhaps we learn some of life’s greatest lessons in a cemetery. What do we learn?
We learn that death is real. It is not a figment of the imagination or an illusion as Mary Baker Eddy (the founder of Christian Science) said. The Bible says that Lazarus died (John 11:14), the rich man died (Luke 16) and Jesus died! Death is as real as life! They say that seeing is believing. I have seen people die, seen their bodies lying in caskets, graves dug, funerals conducted and the caskets buried or burned. Death is real.
I have noted that death is no respecter of persons – young, old, and in between. I remember looking at some graves out at Baking Board on the rail line to Charleville, when with my father on an historical research trip some years ago. A number of children all died within a day or two of one another back in the 1870’s – the cause wasn’t given but it seems likely it was some sort of plague. We expect the old, not the young, in the cemetery. Walk through a cemetery and look at the headstones – it won’t take you very long to find someone who died at your age! People die in Christ (Rev. 14:13) and people die out of Christ (1 Thess. 4:13). Heb. 9:27 is true – it is appointed unto man once to die.
Often people are not quite ready for death. A 99 year old wants to get to 100. John 21:18 records Jesus’ prediction of Peter’s death. He would be led where he would not. He probably still had some places he wanted to go, things he wanted to do, and people he wanted to see. How many people die on a trip to somewhere, or on the job? Jesus said, it is finished, bowed his head and died. Not many people, if any, get to do that.
Go to a cemetery and you are reminded of what it is to hurt. Cemeteries can be places of great interest. Historical groups often use headstones to gather information for family genealogical trees. I remember playing in the cemetery at Mt. Morgan when I was a boy whilst my parents cleaned up the graves of their parents. I found an old scooter just outside the fence which I took home to fix up and I was so pleased. The cemetery was a great place! But cemeteries are awful places on funeral day. Jesus stood outside the tomb of his friend Lazarus and wept (John 11:35).
Cemeteries teach us the meaning of regret. How many “if only’s” are said in a cemetery? Regrets that one had not taught someone the gospel whilst opportunities remained. Regrets that bad blood had not been cleared up before that awful day. I have seen men and women regret that they did not appreciate their spouse, their children, their siblings, parents or friends – that the flowers they had brought in death to adorn the casket had not been given in life.
I am always reminded by trips to cemeteries that materialism doesn’t count. Have you ever seen the mound of earth that is left devoid of grass that marks the grave-site when the grave has been back-filled after the funeral? Usually it takes some time to get the headstone and all the trimmings done, but that lump of raised soil that slowly sinks to ground level is really a great teacher – when one is dead the sod is all that remains. A Caesar of Rome was about to die and taking the urn in which his ashes would be put he said, Little urn, you shall contain one for whom the world was not big enough. In the cemetery it doesn’t matter what income the person had, or how fancy the clothes he or she wore in life, or how impressive the house that was lived in and the car that was driven. What matters then is how rich the person was toward God (1 Tim. 6:18). Materialism cannot prevent death or bring one back. You will never see a hearse pulling a removalist’s trailer. We brought nothing into the world and we shall carry nothing out – 1 Tim. 6:7
Cemeteries remind us that man desires to live after death. In the cemetery all the bravado and nonchalant talk about death, and trite comments about having plenty of mates down there and pushing up daisies is gone. When the last prayer is said at the service and people return to their cars and ready themselves to face the duties that lie before them, or go back to an empty house, there is that yearning to be reunited with their departed loved one. They would like to be able to wind the clock back, or failing that, meet again. This is only possible for those who make preparation (Amos 4:12).
And another thing – death cannot be made beautiful. We have an aesthetic sense which has its uses. Visit the hospital and things are clean, painted, pictures on the wall, polished floors, gleaming stainless steel fixtures etc. Go to the funeral home and pick out the clothing, the lining of the coffin or casket, the timber grain and so on. It’s all very nice. But go to the cemetery and they are digging holes in the dirt! It’s hard to beautify a hole in the ground! You cannot make dirt clean! Jesus talked about whited sepulchres , referring to the practice of white-washing the outside of tombs. We put lovely sandstone or marble headstones on the grave and we bedeck them with flowers. But who would want to live there? The madmen of Gadarea lived among the tombs. Paul called death the last enemy (1 Cor. 15:56)
Are you ready for your last trip to a cemetery? Is that morbid? Maybe, but it’s pertinent. Someday people will take your body to the cemetery, bury it and walk away. Will they walk away with with a wonderful hope or total sorrow? That depends on who you are, and those who will bury you. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.