Burial, Baptism, and Cremation

Several Sundays ago I had the opportunity to preach on “Baptism for the Dead,” a concept taken from Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, (1 Cor 15:29). One particular religion has built an entire theology from incorrectly interpreting the words of Paul, while placing the passage in its proper historical and cultural context brings clarity to our understanding. In short,

1) Each person is created in the image of God. Human bodies retain their honor, dignity, and holiness even when the soul has left. The body of a person is not simply a container for holiness, rather it becomes sacred similar to a Torah scroll.

2) Burying a dead body is one of the 613 commandments, (Deut 21:22-23).

3) By example, Abraham bought the cave at Machpelah to bury Sarah (Gen 23:19), God buried Moses (Deut 34:6), and the disciples buried Jesus (John 20:42).

4) A body that is not buried is seen to be cursed (Deut 21:23) (Eccl 6:3) (Matt 24:29) (Rev 19:21). All that was left of the wicked Queen Jezebel when they went to bury her were her hands, feet and her head, (2 Kings 9:34).

5) Preparing a body for burial in considered a great mitzvah (good deed), but any person who touches a dead body becomes unclean making them unable to worship in the temple, (Num 19:13), i.e., approach the LORD.

6) Even walking over the grave of a dead body makes a person unclean, (Luke 11:44).

7) To be restored to a clean condition, a person must be baptized twice over seven days, (Num 19:11-12).

8) “Baptism for the dead” is simply the process of restoring those who have handled a dead body, in obedience to the commandments, back into a clean condition.

“Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?” (1 Cor 15:29)

- Who are the dead? = People who have died
- Who are baptized? = Those who have prepared a body for burial
- Why bother to prepare bodies for burial? = It is a commandment and a demonstration of faith in the resurrection.

A Demonstration of Faith In The Resurrection:

In addition to fulfilling a commandment, burying a dead body is a demonstration of faith in the resurrection. You might ask, “How is burial a demonstration of the resurrection?” In countries dominated by eastern religions that believe in reincarnation, such as Japan (Buddhists) and India (Hindus), cremation is the primary mode of handling a dead body, 90% and 70%, respectively. On the other hand, the Catholic Church banned cremation for over fifteen hundred years. “In general, burial followed the belief in one God and cremation followed the belief in multiple gods, or the weakening of belief in any god.” (Cremation or Burial?, Doron Kornbluth, 2010 Edition)

A belief that supports a return to life in a different body, does not require resurrection of the original body. Joseph is commended in the chapter of faith because he “gave orders concerning his bones,” (Heb 11:22). The orders Joseph gave were to return his bones back to Israel when the Exodus was over. Why back to Israel, because in Jewish belief the resurrection will begin in the land of Israel at the eastern gate of the temple.

In preparation for the lesson I gave at church, I ordered a book on Jewish burial practices, which, of course, arrived the week after the lesson. Doron Kornbluth, wrote the book “Cremation or Burial?” to argue against the current trend in America and Europe where 30% of Jewish deaths are being cremated. He argues effectively against all the typical non-religious myths: “Creation is not better for the environment, does not resolve mobility problems, and is often not significantly cheaper.” (Sentences shown in quotations are taken directly from the book.)

More importantly, Kornbluth argues the need for burial from a Torah perspective,

1) As already stated, burying a body is commanded by God (Deut 21:23), a body that is not buried defiles the land (Deut 21:23), and God demonstrated the importance of this commandment when He buried Moses, (Deut 34:6).

2) “Human beings contain a spark of holiness – and human bodies retain their honor, dignity, and holiness even when the soul has left…The body of a person is not simply a container for holiness…rather it itself becomes sacred…similar to a Torah scroll.” Jewish bodies are typically buried in a linen garment placed in a wooden casket. “Viewing the body is seen as disrespectful to the memory of the deceased.”

3) Kornbluth takes a page from Paul’s play book to say that “Judaism teaches that our bodies don’t actually belong to us. They belong to God and are on loan to us.” Since your body is not your own (1 Cor 6:19) , you do not have a say in how the body is handled after death. That decision is God’s call and He has commanded that a body be buried.

4) In Jewish thinking, the body and soul are united like husband and wife. Burying a body gives the soul of a person time to separate from the body. Some Jewish circles believe that the soul remains near the body until it sees the body start to decay (about the third day). Realizing that the body will not regenerate itself, the soul leaves the body to go toward the place of souls with God.

5) In scripture, the flesh is seen as the embodiment of sin, “I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh,” (Rom 7:18). The decay of the flesh is a natural process and seen by the rabbis as a picture of the final and complete removal of sin from a person’s life. When a person is embalmed, the natural process is slowed down and will greatly lengthen the time for removing sin. To cremate a person accelerates the process potentially bringing additional suffering to the soul.

6) The dead are a part of the community of the living because they laid the foundation of the world where the living reside. Cremating a body eliminates a person from the presence of the community. It’s a way of “sanitizing death,” making the dead as if they never existed. “Cremation reflects and promotes a worldwide view of death denial.” “By burying our dead together in communal cemeteries – rather than scattering one person’s ashes alone in nature – we declare to others and remind ourselves of the importance of community.”

7) “Eastern religions and ancient pagan Greeks viewed fire as a type of purifier…In monotheistic thought, it is water that purifies (mikveh). Fire punishes.” In scripture, fire is used for judgment: Moses commanded idols to be destroyed by fire, (Deut 7:25). Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire, (Gen 19), the prophets of Baal by fire on Mount Carmel, the future destruction of Babylon (Rev 17:16), the place of eternal torment (Rev 20:10). “Burning has historically been a primary means of eliminating Jews (the Inquisition and the Holocaust are only two examples.)” For the Jew, “Choosing burial declares that the forced cremations of the victims of the Holocaust were an unforgivable attempt to destroy the identity of millions of Jews, declaring that they – and thus we – had never existed.”

The question that naturally comes up, "What about the people who die in fires or where burned in the ovens of Auschwitz?" Like the thief on the cross who did not have the opportunity to be baptized, the exception should not be taught as the rule. Some individuals are not given the choice. To the ability we do have the opportunity, we should follow the pattern set forth for us in the Bible.

Scott