Dead Is Dead

AS A minister, I oversee many funerals. As a part of this duty, I’ve been at funeral homes many times and even a couple of times have been to the back and seen the undertakers working on the cadavers. One time, an undertaker said to me, “You know, these cadavers are really interesting. Even after they’re dead, they show semblances of life.

Their fingernails still grow. So does their hair. I’ve even been working on a body in the middle of the night and have seen one blink. Sometimes there are muscular retractions and the body will quiver.

One had such a violent muscular reaction that it threw itself right onto the floor.” By now, the undertaker was having a good time, at my expense, telling me all of these “interesting facts” about cadavers. I said, “Now, you know I couldn’t do this job. If I did, there would be two cadavers on the floor.

This job doesn’t bother you even the smallest bit?” He said, “Uh-uh.” I said, “Why not?” The undertaker smiled and said, “Because dead is dead.

Even though these bodies exhibit semblances of life, I know better.” A lot of people exhibit semblances of life, but we know better.

We know that what we are doing right now is not true living; it is merely a quivering of life. We do not truly live until we are living the life Christ lives in us.