Honoring the Dead

1 Corinthians 6:19 ESV

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body.

2 Kings 25:8-9 ESV

Nebuzaradan…a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the Lord…

Recent events have pushed the question upon us of what is an acceptable way to “dispose of” human remains? Even the question lends itself to a faulty understanding of the human condition. The question was not “how can we honor the dead?” or “how do are the bodies of our loved ones to be treated after they are separated from their souls?” Yes, framing the question is important. Which is the most accurate(biblical) understanding of the situation presented when a body lies separated from its soul? To say that the question is one merely of how to “dispose of human remains” is to assume that they need disposed of like trash and garbage, that there is no inherent difference between a human body and say a piece of wood.

Yet, Paul clearly outlines that a Christians body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Genesis tells us that man was created in God’s image (with body and spirit), nor did Jesus leave his body behind instead taking it up again, the resurrection of the dead is a hallmark of Christian doctrine and that resurrection is bodily (1 Cor. 15:12-19). How then are Christians to treat the temple of the Holy Spirit when the spirit is no longer present? How are Christians to honor half of the union that once was the imago dei (Image of God?

The recent events at the forefront are dual. The first is the rise in cremation services (last year the majority of Americans were not buried); the second is the rise of the new “greener” way that is liquification, the body is placed in an acid tank dissolved, (California recently became the 15^th state to outline the practice in law, Kansas already has).

The second text was chosen to bring to mind the sacking of the Temple of Solomon and then ask the question, is this how the temple of the Living God is to be treated by his servants? As Josephus is writing his history of the fall of Jerusalem he attempts to paint Titus in the best light by being opposed to the burning of the second temple and events simply getting out hand. The lack of burial and grave was seen as a curse on those it fell. Committing the body to the fire was seen as symbolic beginning on earth what would be completed in eternity, the immortal torment of the soul in the Lake of Fire, by the medieval church. Which it was reserved for those seen as already damned.

As biblical Christianity falls to the wayside, is not a burial the best way to stand and state what is believed of both the present and eternity? Standing over the body of our brothers and sisters as they are confined to the ground waiting in expectation of the day they will be reunited with that body as they greet their savior in the sky? Would this not also be the best way to show that mankind is inherently different from all of creation? To testify of the hope that lies within us, the hope of resurrection (not reincarnation) and the coming Christ, even in death?

CRUCE, DUM SPIRO, FIDO