This question gets asked quite often. It is a common question because our conscience naturally wonders about burning our bodies after we die. Our bodies are just as much us as our souls are. Our bodies are a gift from God. Upon death no one would light their trophies or accolades on fire. In fact, many people want their awards and recognitions pointed out and shared in their obituaries. The way they used their gifts from God for the glory of God is an important thing to treasure. So too our bodies. In fact, the women on Easter morning were going to Jesus’ tomb to take care of his body.

The women on Easter morning knew that dead people don’t rise but they still wanted to honor their friend Jesus in one last way. They wanted to care for his body, a gift of God. But of course, you know the story and how they weren’t able to do this because Jesus was alive! This account though does show how the body is to be honored as a testimony of God’s goodness.

So, there is a natural wonder and question about burning our bodies because we believe the body is a gift of God and we treat it with respect, dead or alive.

In addition to our conscience, the word of God speaks of fire burning up bodies as a punishment. Gen. 38:24. In Joshua 7:25, ““Why have you brought this trouble upon us?” said Joshua. “Today the LORD will bring trouble upon you!” And all Israel stoned him to death. Then they stoned the others and burned their bodies.”

Lev. 20:14, 21:9, these verses contain commands of God to burn people who commit extra evil sins in Israel.

These commands are for Old Testament Israel, so they do not apply to us, however, these verses show how burning of bodies was looked at in the Old Testament. Cremation was an act that showed the reality of God’s judgment.

The Bible does not specifically condemn cremation, nor does it require that Christians be buried. The Christian is free in this regard. As long as the cremation is not done as a denial of the resurrection, there is no sin. So how does one deny the resurrection?

When people say, “My body is not really me. My soul will live forever.” They deny what we confess in the Creed, “I believe…in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.”

The resurrection is denied when someone chooses cremation to say, “I want to show everyone that this body will not be raised because Christianity is a lie.” Or as a challenge to God, “I am being cremated so God can’t raise me and send me to hell.” These sound extreme, but they have been said and given as reasons for cremation.

In addition, in the infant centuries of the New Testament church believers were commanded by governments to renounce the kingship of Jesus and worship earthly kings. The Christians refused were then threatened with death and after death their bodies burned and ashes scattered. This was done to prevent the church from having a funeral with a body to show how powerless the Christian God was to save his followers.

The martyrdom of Blandina is presented in the Historia Ecclesiastica of Eusebius (V.1), who quotes from a letter written by the Christian communities in Lyon and Vienne, recounting the persecutions that had occurred there in the summer of AD 177.

Blandina, a slave girl, was arrested and tried for not honoring the secular king. She was ensnared in a net and trampled beneath the feet of a bull in the coliseum. Her body, and those of others who had been martyred, were left unburied, guarded by soldiers. After six days, the remains were burnt and the ashes cast into the Rhône.

So, for these reasons cremation has historically been looked down upon by Christians. But the scriptures do not specifically forbid cremation nor command burial. We should, however, treat the body with respect and care. Which brings us to the modern practice of embalming.

Embalming could also be seen as a process that does not honor the body. The dead person is covered in make-up and made to look as close to what people remember their loved ones looked like before they died. This process is not always so honorable. The body is poked, prodded, filled and then itself is a biohazard because of the chemicals. Some consider embalming just as cruel as cremation. But again, the scriptures do not call embalming a sin.

So as a matter of Christian freedom we should ask ourselves how we want to confess with our bodies a couple of truths:

1. Our bodies are a gift from God to be treated with respect and dignity. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?” 1 Cor. 6:19.
2. Our bodies will be raised, Phil. 3:21, “who, by the power that enables Him to subject all things to Himself, will transform our lowly bodies to be like His glorious body.” 1 Corinthians 15:42-49 – So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.
3. Christ’s forgiveness covers and sustains us if we in our past have said things that deny the resurrection or did things deny the resurrection for the burial of others. Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
4. Just as we honored our bodies while we are alive, we should also do so in death.

Our Lord forgives the contrite heart no matter the sin even if we have lived foolishly concerning end of life issues. So do not fear your past, “Lord remember not the sins of my youth.” We are preserved and protected by the promises of Christ and his word of forgiveness.

Keep Romans 14:7-9 in your heart, “7For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.”

If you have any questions concerning the topic of life or death, burial or other end of life issues, do not shy away from asking me. In adult Sunday School we discussed matters like, Medical Aide in Dying, Assisted Suicide, Living Wills, Medical Power of Attorney and other matters we Christians should be informed on since our world promotes a culture of death.

In Christ, Our risen Lord who has defeated death,
Pastor Ottmers