It’s hard to know what to say at a funeral.

At least I’ve never been very good at it. I suppose it depends on the life of the deceased. When a person lived a long life, knew the Lord, and died with family and friends intact, the service sits different than a gathering for one who’s life was cut short by tragedy. That’s when the words come harder.

Jesus stepped into a heart-wrenching situation when he arrived in Bethany to visit the sisters of his now dead friend, Lazarus. Jesus’s interaction with Martha sounds fairly typical:

Jesus: Your brother will rise again. Martha: I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

Then typical disappeared. Jesus looked into Martha’s eyes and stated, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

Eternity flared inside Martha. The resurrection arrived in the person of Jesus. Martha ran for her sister, and Jesus joined them in weeping for their loss.

Jesus, of course, did more than weep. Going to the tomb and ordering the stone covering the entrance removed, Jesus called in a loud voice, Lazarus, come out!

Lazarus exited the tomb, not like a zombie, but healthy and renewed. (I’ve heard it said that Jesus needed to be specific when calling Lazarus from the dead, because if he’d commanded a general come out!, all the dead people entombed there would have risen. Certainly an interesting conjecture).

What to say at a funeral? Still hard for me, but much easier when knowing the person we’re honoring now stands face to face with the resurrection and the life.

John 11 in week forty-five of reading the Bible cover to cover

Photo by Rosie Sun