An unforgettable movie line comes from the OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. Wales is busy tracking down Captain Terrill, a man with a bad habit of slaughtering the unarmed. After Wales, played by Clint Eastwood, shoots a pair of Terrill’s killers, he refuses to stop and bury the dead. To make his disdain for the dead men clear, he spits tobacco on one dead man’s forehead and tells his friend, “Buzzard’s gotta eat, same as a worm.”
Though few would leave bodies to the buzzards, different cultures handle the deceased in different ways. Burial is probably the most common. But for every western movie with characters on their knees scratching out a grave with a metal camp plate, the modern world boasts ten thousand buried six-feet deep in 200-pound caskets of stainless steel. Recently, whether motivated by the cost in dollars or in real estate, many have begun choosing cremation instead of burials. Nevertheless, my friend Bruce told me he is against cremation, believing it to be a largely pagan practice not worthy of Christians who expect to receive a resurrection body in the last days. For years, I agreed. I was appalled at the thought of cremation. Until I wasn’t.
After the Philistines defeated Saul’s armies, they committed what Texas law describes as “abuse of a corpse.”
“They cut off Saul’s head and stripped off his armor, and … fastened his body [and those of his sons] to the wall of Beth-Shan” 1 Samuel 31:9-10.
The book of First Chronicles adds new information: Saul’s head and armor were sent from city to city in the land of the Philistines before they “fastened his head in the temple of Dagon” 1 Chronicles 10:10.
Israel may have lost the war, but the honorable warriors in the city of Jabesh-Gilead refused to let the bodies of the royal family remain a rotting spectacle in the Philistine cities.
“They arose, all the valiant men, and took away the body of King Saul, and the bodies of his sons, and brought them to Jabesh, and buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh, and fasted seven days” 1 Chronicles 10:12.
So Saul and Jonathan were buried? Yes and no. The book of First Samuel adds new information: the men “took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-Shan, and … burnt them. And they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh and fasted seven days” 1 Samuel 31:12-13.
The bodies of Saul and Jonathan were burned first, then buried.
And the men who did this were honored by King David in one of his first official acts. He sent them a message, writing:
“May you be blessed by the Lord that you have showed this kindness to your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him. May the Lord show kindness and truth to you, and I will reward you also because you have done this thing” 2 Samuel 2:5-6.
Though burial is more common, the Bible does not forbid cremation.
The important thing is to handle the bodies of the dead with respect not only for them but for their loved ones. The Texas Penal Code indicates “A person commits an offense [a crime] if the person … treats in an offensive manner a human corpse” §42.08. There is more to the law, but this simple phrase sums it up: our care for the bodies of the deceased must not offend.
If, like my friend Bruce, you believe Christians should be buried to symbolize that death is a temporary sleep before rising with a resurrection body, then you will appreciate this article: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/cremation-burial-choice/
If, on the other hand, you would like to know more about what the Bible says (or does not say) about cremation, consider this: https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/cremation-a-biblical-perspective/
God, guide us as we address weighty end-of-life decisions. May we treat each other with grace, understanding, and wisdom.
ΑΩ
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