Articles
The House of Mourning
It is better to go the a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, because that is the end of every man and the living takes it to heart…The mind of the wise is in the house of mourning, while the mind of fools is in the house of pleasure” (Eccl. 7:2, 4).
We’ve been to the house of mourning often recently. No one enjoys attending a funeral; there is always a deep emptiness and grief when we realize that our loved one is gone. This is true whether the bereaved is a believer or not. Sadness is there, but still we go.
What does it mean that it is better to attend a funeral than a party? To many this proverb seems morbidly skewed, while some simply raise an eyebrow and say, “That’s debatable.” But consider: it is far better to come face to face with death than to turn a blind eye to it. Reality says all of us will die. One day the funeral folks attend will be ours. One day the body in the casket will be ours. As frightening as our impending death may be, it is more frightening to ignore it because you know—deep down—it will find you unprepared.
There is nothing like facing your own death to bring home the meaning of life. Ever witnessed a fatal accident on the road and felt shaky the next few hours, knowing it could have been you? It wasn’t until Ebenezer Scrooge saw an empty grave in the ground and his name on its headstone that he fell to his knees in repentance. There is a lesson to be learned there. “The living takes it to heart.”
One of our problems is that funerals affect us for a day, maybe two, but then we forget. While we carry the memory of the bereaved loved one with us, after we return to our regularly scheduled lives we go on largely unaffected by our recent contemplation of death. This is just as foolish as ignoring death altogether.
The rich farmer in Luke 12:16-20 should have attended more funerals and taken them to heart. If so, he may not have been caught unaware when God said, “Tonight your soul is required of you.” Though he may still have built larger barns for storing his crops, he would have done so with a far better attitude than, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink, and be merry!” Funerals give us the foresight to see that such thinking is utterly foolish. Better to live like you’re going to die than live as if you never will—death will come whether you’re ready or not. Heed that warning from the preacher of Ecclesiastes.
