Tomorrow we will attend the funeral of a friend who died of cancer and who leaves behind a wife and two young sons.

The Lord Jesus once spoke to a multitude of people, so many that they were trampling on one another’s feet. Faced with such a crowd, the modern-day preacher or politician would be advised by their speech writers to take great care with his opening words. This would be a time to tell a joke, or mention an event that happened when growing up – something to build empathy, to get the crowd on his side. But the Lord was not like other men and so His opening words that day were:

“Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

This is not the kind of language we are used to hearing public speakers use in 2024 but these were words of warning that came from a loving Saviour.

He encourages us to be open and honest in our dealings with God. The root of the word hypocrisy comes from the idea of wearing a mask while acting in a play. That will never bring us near to God, nor will hiding our sins from Him.

But to return to our friend who has died – his body will be placed in the grave but there is no more suffering for him. He is ‘absent from the body, present with the Lord’.

However, the Lord appealed to men and women in the crowd who had no faith, who did not believe in Him, to fear the God who had power after death to cast the soul into hell. Have you ever considered what will happen after you die? The Apostle Paul wrote, “for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. He had believed in Christ while he was living and so he viewed his death as a way of gaining even more of Christ.

This may fall strangely on the modern ear – it is far from being woke or politically correct but are you willing to gamble that it is not the truth?