37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.
No one likes funerals, no one who loves life, that is. Funerals signal to us our own mortality. It is just a matter of time before we too are laid out in a box. Various cultures deal with death differently. Here we read of the standard preparations of that day. It is amazing that this is the standard for much of the world even today. Wash the body, dress the body, visit the body, and then bury the body. We here in the West have made it into an industry. But the elements are very much the same. The difference is that we think that we must preserve the body. We emulate the Egyptian practice of mummification. We do it with fancy embalming fluids, but our thinking is similar. We want the body to remain as it was. I view my body as a temporary home. I am going to get a new one when I arrive in heaven. I won’t need this one anymore. It is wearing out even as I type. I know I will be known by others in heaven, but I don’t think that knowledge will be limited to my outward appearance. Others will know ME, not just my portrait. We also embalm here because we wait days for the funeral itself. It is almost a necessity these days with families spread across the country, and perhaps even the world. Dorcas, the women in our text today, was loved by many. She had ministered to many people through her use of her talents. She was a servant of the poor, a Mother Theresa of her day. But even though she was revered, she still had the standard funeral arrangements. When I die, hopefully many years from now, I want my funeral to be simple. I would rather use my wealth to help the poor rather than impressing those who come to pay their respects and say their goodbyes. Simple is better.
The Arnold Journey 