I don’t now remember what the title was, but when I was a little boy I watched a movie in which a man awoke to discover that he’d been buried alive. His family and friends, assuming he had died, though really he’d only been in a sort of comma, had a funeral, paid their last respects and lowed his casket down into a grave.  I think it’s fair to say that ever since then I’ve had an emotional affinity toward being cremated when I die! That way, I thought, at least there’d be no chance of me “waking up” in the ground!  And I’m sure that my claustrophobia doesn’t allow me to be too objective about the matter. But, my anxiety disorder aside, what does the Bible have to say about the subject of what we do with the human body after death? Is there a biblical mandate, or even a model, for choosing burial verses cremation?
A culture’s burial customs and ceremonies are often a reflection of its views about death and the afterlife. For instance, the ancient Egyptians buried their dead along with their material possessions, as they expected an immediate physical continuation of existence in the afterlife. The emphasis in death for the ancient Hebrews had more to do with the deceased being united in relationship with the righteous who have already died. Its practice of washing and dressing the body for burial reflected the intermediate, disembodied state of the soul, and looked forward to the future physical resurrection of the body (the reuniting of soul and body). The eastern worldview—largely Hindu—tended toward cremation, as it saw the body as much less important, since the soul would inhabit various “houses” as it transmigrated or reincarnated from one life to another (Romans also practiced cremation, but not for the same reasons). Historically, the Christian practices of burial tended to follow the Jewish pattern, as it shares in the same hope of the soul being reunited with our transformed, resurrected bodies upon Jesus’ second coming.
In his book, Resurrection, Hank Hanegraaff shared an interesting statistic among Americans. By the year 2010, it’s estimated that 1/3 of all Americans will cremate their loved ones. It’s suggested that the primary reasons for the increased popularity in cremation over burial is due to (1) emotional, (2) economic, and (3) ecological concerns. As I stated above, it’s draw on me would be purely emotional!
CREMATION IN THE BIBLE:
There are few examples of cremation in the Bible (an exception to burial). The bodies of King Saul and his sons were burned. (1 Samuel 31:12-13). The reason for so few instances is because under Mosaic law, burning a body was reserved as a sentence of judgment (Leviticus 21:9; Joshua 7:25).
So, what should Christians choose today—burial or cremation? I guess the most important question to consider is, “What will the mode of disposing of the body (burial or cremation) be symbolically saying to the unbelieving culture?” I could imagine that a particular mode might speak louder or be more meaningful in one culture than another. Though the most predominant biblical example in the pages of Scripture is burial, there is no absolute mandate given to us for burial.  So, I think this decision is a matter of an individual Christian’s conscience.Â
Whichever option we choose for ourselves or our loved ones, the decision should be made based upon our convictions as followers of Jesus. It should come after much prayer and thought. Then, whatever mode we choose, we should reflect upon how we can best use it to share our future hope that one day our bodies, which currently are mortal, perishable, and corruptible, will one day be reconstituted into immortal, imperishable, and incorruptible resurrected bodies.
What do you think?
For more on the resurrected body read 1 Corthians 15:35-58
6 Comments on “Should Christians choose burial or cremation?”
It appears to me that creamation is becoming more and more widely accepted. In the 1960s even the Catholic church decided it was acceptable, with the right motives, to be cremated. I wonder, however, is it also acceptable to scatter the cremated remains, or are they to be treated reverently, like a body, and kept in tact? Is there any scripture that speaks to this point?
Lisa, good question. No, I’m not aware of any scriptural passage that directly addresses the scattering of ashes. Again, to decide this I would ask: (1) what is the purpose of spreading ashes vs. keeping them together, and (2) what does each action symbolically say to both the community of believers as well as the unbelieving culture?
I for one am a huge supporter of cremation but I truly understand the struggle many embrace as they question the appropriateness of such a decision. This is especially confronted by one who grew up in the south where the events of “viewing” and the “family plots” hold deep seeded historical significance.
My mother passed away over 10 years ago. Her life was taken prematurely. She was a very devout Christian, and lived her life to not offend family, friends or community.
Prior to her discovered illness, she and I had meandered over the concept of cremation. She had asked my thoughts on it, and I shared that it was my choice of what to do with my body. She wondered about how God would feel and we gave serious consideration to the “resurrected” body when the New Earth is established.
My thoughts expressed to her were simply that “if God put me together the first time, I’m not really concerned with His getting it right the second time. That’s His business. I believe He’s God and can do anything, He won’t get confused!”
She liked the response and further commented that with the reality of war, fires, sailors lost at sea, etc… it really shouldn’t be our concern as to how God figures all that out.
When she died, nobody else in our family had been privilege to that conversation. But, when it came time to make the decision, I shared with my surviving brothers (my father had passed away when I was a child), that Mom really didn’t want to be in a “box.” (she had those fears like yours Brent) Furthermore, I informed them that she wanted to be cremated and planted.
I have awesome brothers, and they supported the idea completely. With that, we had to determine what to do with her ashes. We all wanted a “piece” of her. And thus, she was divided into “5” packages and taken off in our separate directions. In my mind, she spans the East to West.
We each planted her, and some of her ashes were placed on my father’s grave. Personally, each spring when my Iris’s bloom which I brought from her flower garden, and when my geranium blooms year round in my window, my children and I laugh and comment that “Grammie is blooming.” She shall forever bloom in the hearts of those who knew her, and for our friends who are privy to the information, we laugh and invite them to celebrate in what we believe as the representation of a beautiful life that is now eternal.
As for me, I’m going to be cremated and cast into the channels of the Tennessee River that flowed the seasons without interruption by my house as a young girl and woman. I have spent many an hour on that river bank contemplating life, considering stories the waters could tell, many early mornings in a boat searching for the “big catch” avoiding the best planned lure. I hope to symbolically travel those deep waters to places I longed to know as a child. (and finally learn where the “big ones” hide!!!)
Once a “river rat,â€? always a “river rat.â€? God will find me when it’s time!!!
If anything, my parents taught me to be a non-conformist. They didn’t do so itentionaly, it was a side-effect of their fleeing a lifestyle, a church, a God, that was based entirely on conforminity.
My wife & I will likely both be be cremated probly 3-years after our deaths.
My wife being a medical provider wants to donate any needed organs & then have her remains go to a reputable medical school. In such cases, the remains are usually cremated & returned to the next-of-kin about 3-years later.
While my wife never pushed me to make the same decision, thru my own trials I too have chosen a similar course.
In this case, if the organs are donated & spread across the country, cremated remains are not complete anyway, so keeping them together or scattering shouldn’t matter.
On a personal note:
A few years ago, when my wife was being treated for breast cancer, we had legal documents drawnup with our wishes as part of our wills. We then traveled to south-east Kansas to visit my parents, let them know of the wife’s cancer, & to also tell them of the decisions we made regarding our remains.
My parents are staunchly against cremation, this I already knew. They were offended that I would consider such an action. They were even offended that I would donate my organs. Then by whatever means of revelation you may want to call it, a thought came to me.
I asked them to sit around the table with us & then I asked them why they left the amish-mennonite community in Ohio, the only world they had ever really known, all those many years ago.
I watched the tears surface in their eyes. 30-some years ago they had watched my older brother die when I was just 11, knowing that me & 2 younger brothers had the same medical condition. They had only peripherally experienced the “outside world”, though they believed that with such vastness beyond that community, there really must be some means, some medical treatment that could help us. So they packed what they could & left, never to return. In a way, the weeks tending to my brothers needs & ultimately his death caused my parents to “loose their faith”. They never stopped believing in God, they just went in search of a God, or rather a church teaching of a God, that they could have faith & believe in.
They simply could not believe that God intended for man to live in a world so conservative that they could not go seeking any reasonable means by which they could save their sons.
So, in my wishes, amoung the basic donations & kadaver wishes, is identified an Institute where my brain & brain-stem is to go. They are dedicated to better understanding & hopefully finding better, more advanced treatments, even cures through examaining the actually brains & comparing them to normal brains. Even with all the scans & monitors they can apply to the living brain, there is much more to be explored.
If my parents fled their community, their church, their lives, hoping to ensure the lifes of their children, then why shouldn’t my remains go to helping further understand this disabling condition?
As for keeping ashes together or scattering, my opinion is that it is a personal decision.
In my early 20s I worked for the forest service fighting forest fires. I met a beautiful young lady doing the same & over a few years we decided to marry. That summer she died while working a fire. Her remains were already badly burned, so her parents decided to cremate her. When we got the ashes back her mother asked if we could scatter them around the “monument”. We made the hike into the burned blackened area to the pile of rocks where she had been found made by those who recovered her body . It was in fact a very peaceful, calming, moment of closure for me & I believe for her parents as well.
Each year I still hike into that spot on or near the anniversary date. With the 17 years that have past, it’s getting more & more difficult for me to do & in a few years it may well be impossible. I have watched as the grasses & wildflowers & forbes & shrubs & trees have each grown back in. I have watched the animals reinhabit the area. The area has made a full circle.
RFH, that sounds like a great parallel example you gave to your parents as a way to justify/explain your desire to donate your organs to science. Good teaching tool! Thanks for sharing the personal story about your fiancé.
In this day and age, cremation is not done ceremoniously, as in ancient customs and rituals.
Whatever a person feels is appropriate for them, I think it’s important to remember that what is being buried is the physical body. The spiritual body is no longer there and isn’t affected. The people who are affected by the method chosen are the loved ones here on earth. And as long as they have a healthy way of coming to closure and moving through the grieving process, it really shouldn’t matter.
And the matter of organ donation is something that needs to be taken into careful consideration. If you want your organs donated, don’t think that your driver’s license is enough to make sure that your wishes will be carried out…make sure that you have a living will if you want your organs to be donated. That way no one else can supersede your decision.