# “The Christians changed a funeral into a feast” by Herman Bavinck

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2022/02/11/the-christians-changed-a-funeral-into-a-feast-by-herman-bavinck/
- Published: 2022-02-11T12:00:10-06:00
- Author: tollelege

“Holy Scripture gives us no specific prescriptions with regard to burial. We have
an example in the tender way Jesus was buried by his disciples; the same is true
of Stephen (**Acts 8:2**).

We are allowed to mourn and to be sad as appears from both the Old Testament (**
Gen. 23:2; 37:34-35; 50:1-3; 1 Sam. 25:1**) and the New Testament (**Luke 7:12-13**).
Jesus himself (**John 11:33-35**), Mary (**John 20:11**), and the disciples (**Mark
16:10; Luke 24:17; John 16:20**) mourned, and the church at Ephesus mourned for 
Paul (**Acts 20:37**).

Death is an evil. Yet Christian mourning is different from pagan mourning. No sorrowing
without hope (**1 Thess. 4:13**), no worldly sorrow (**2 Cor. 7:10**).

The Christians changed a funeral into a feast of celebration and triumph.

They buried their dead not at night but during daytime, in the full light of day,
dressed in white robes, accompanied by retinues and spectators, without wailing 
women, without wreaths on the body or the coffin.”

–Herman Bavinck, [_Reformed Ethics,_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/080109822X?tag=toletaupanre-20)_
[ Volume 2](https://www.amazon.com/dp/080109822X?tag=toletaupanre-20): [The Duties of the Christian Life](https://www.amazon.com/dp/080109822X?tag=toletaupanre-20)_,
Ed. John Bolt (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2021), 2: 433.

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