Recently I had the privilege of helping to conduct the funeral of my cousin-in-law, Tat Teik. He had been residing in Melbourne and passed away after a gallant fight against cancer. His widow, Bernice’s cousin, told us that Teik had been baptised the day before he passed on and had agreed to Bernice and me helping with the funeral. We were honoured and went to Melbourne early in Holy Week.
Tat Teik had become a follower of Jesus later in life. Many of his friends and family were not followers of Jesus. We estimated that they made up about 80 percent of those at the funeral. Teik was also a wine connoisseur. Some of his closest friends were fellow wine connoisseurs. I prayed and thought about what to say in my sermon that would both help the grieving, and point people to Jesus.
In retrospect, it was inspired and a no-brainer. I preached on Isaiah 25:6–9 (NIV):
On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine —
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Many in the gathering smiled when I mentioned “a banquet of aged wine — the best of meats and the finest of wines”. Here was language they understood. I figured that some in the congregation may not be too happy about the wine part so I said that maybe the language was metaphorical, but even if that were so the reality it points to must be even better. That brought smiles too. If Isaiah 25:6–9 described the afterlife in some way, Tat Teik’s family and friends would find it easier to release him to go there. I hoped that some would consider going there too.
I think the church should work harder at communicating a more attractive picture of the afterlife. Too often the pitch has been how we need to escape from this life of tears. Too often the popular picture of heaven is an existence of floating around in white robes where the only activities available are singing in choirs and playing on harps. Boring. In what way would this image of the afterlife appeal to anyone?
But if the afterlife is a new heaven and a new earth, then we can and should use earthy imagery to help us understand the life to come. And so the Bible talks about rivers and fruit trees, and streets of gold and good friends knocking at the door and perhaps the most common of images — a great feast to which we are invited, a feast with the best of meats and the finest of wines.
But I also went on to make a few other points. The passage also speaks of death being swallowed up. The heavenly party would be no fun if death were one of the guests. Death is the universal reminder of the pathos of human life. Since the funeral was at the beginning of Holy Week I mentioned that Christ came to die on our behalf and rose again to show that death had been conquered.
I also mentioned that our presence at this great feast is contingent on our trusting God (v. 9) and went on to share the gospel — John 3:16, and the need to trust Christ and to follow Him. This was a funeral service. There was no altar call. I don’t know how many people decided to trust Jesus to be assured of a place in God’s great banquet. But I like to believe that the seed of the gospel was planted in many hearts and I trust that many of those seeds will bear fruit.
PS: Good-bye, Tat Teik. Thank you for blessing us in so many ways. We will miss you. We will meet again. Will look out for you at the banquet.