Since the day of Michael Jackson´s death several American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.  Unnoticed.  The Danish TV has with the rest of the world made a non-stop hysterical coverage of a wretched idol´s  commemoration. Even his miserable body in a gilt coffin has been cheered with religious undertones (read:  with Satanic powers).
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How different is the funeral of a child of God!  Here the worship is directed to the great Conqueror of sin, death and grave, our glorious Lord and Savior.  Nobody will say to themselves after a Christian funeral:  ”O, what a great man he was!”  But rather:  ”O, what a great Savior He is!”

One of my old friends said to me last night in the telephone concerning a well known Christian´s funeral this coming Saturday:  “I wish they would announce:  The solemnities are finished at the grave!”  He feared that the commemoration fellowship after the funeral would be a biased praise of the qualities of the departed brother.

I´ve noticed that at even Christian funerals a lot of empty tribute is paid to the dead person.  It doesn´t have to be that way though.  At the funeral of one of my very close preacher friends, one of his unsaved daughters stood up and with tears expressed her wish to become a Christian.  Funerals like that were often meetings of awakening.  At least it was so in the past.  I usually left such funerals with a renewed desire to follow our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Let the dead bury their dead”, our Savior said.  At the Jackson commemoration shows dead people (Eph. 2:1) try to keep alive what already belongs to an eternal death under God´s just judgment.  But:  “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints!”  (Psa. 116:15).  Whether they get a funeral or not (poor Lazarus in Luke 16 probably didn´t get any funeral!), they are precious to the Lord because they have been redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus.

So let the world put on their foolish acts when this and that “king of po