Remember all the people Jesus kept outside when he raised Jairus' daughter? (Luke 8:51ff) Most commentators tell us all about the professional mourners of the time. It still goes on. What's new is an article in the Daily Mail, which I have researched and it is accurate(!). I'm not linking. You can look this up for yourself, just Google it.
What bothers me is what it tells us about our current approach to death. We have seen an explosion in roadside shrines, what used to be called grave goods and offerings and the like. Just opposite where I live is a cemetery.
[We have an agreement. They stay on their side of the road and we keep an eye out for robbers and vandals. It works. ;-) ]
It is the municipal cemetery and many recent graves now have mementoes of the deceased, and, especially in the case of children, toys and other such items. This speaks, if you will pardon the pun, of a monumental failure on the part of the Church, of Judaism and of Atheism. All these creeds are quite clear that we cannot take anything with us. (http://bible.cc/job/1-21.htm and http://bible.cc/luke/12-20.htm). Apparently, people are now behaving as if they think that something can go with the deceased. Well, stuffed toys are better than mummified retainers, I suppose.
It seems to me that the people who should be beating their breasts and wailing are our pastors, preachers and teachers, evangelists and all other ministers of the Gospel because we have failed to show our nation the true hope of life before and after physical death. (John 3:16 and 1 Thess 4:13ff )
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