I like to go on vacation to old family cemeteries. I remember on a Sabbatical taking my mom to Kemp, Texas on a hot summer day. She waited patiently as I located her ancestors’ graves. We were lucky that day and walked right to the spot. Mom asked me if it was always that easy to find graves. “Not exactly,” I responded. My travels have taken me on a few wild goose chases.
Each culture has its own burial practices. Abraham and Sarah were real people who lived in ancient Canaan. When she died, he bought Ephron’s field and the cave of Machpelah near Mamre. This made me wonder if the place still exists. It does! Historians locate it in the ancient walled city of Hebron, where David had his first capital. According to scripture Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob and Leah are buried there. Jacob instructed Joseph and his other sons not to bury him in Egypt, but to take him back to the cave.
On our trip to Israel in 2000, we did not make it to this spot. Looking back, I wondered why. Hebron is located in the West Bank, an area controlled by the Palestinian people. There a large rectangular building marks the Tomb of the Patriarchs. The building was built in the first century during the reign of Herod the great. The walls are thirty-nine feet high. The cave has not been excavated and it is inaccessible to archaeologists. The crusaders found bones there in 1116 A. D. and thought they belonged to the patriarchs. Three different religions consider it sacred.
Melanie and I passed by a few cemeteries on the way to Waco this past weekend. It reminded me of conversations we have with my dad about his burial someday. He has been diligent to visit and decorate the graves of his ancestors on Memorial Day Weekend. Sometimes I have gone with him. At Shiloh cemetery in Douglas County, Missouri are the graves of my great-great and great grandparents on the Brooks side. Our trips reminded me that we not only came from somewhere but from someone, others who lived in real places. We honor their lives and give thanks. Melanie wants to organize our information about our ancestors for the sake of our grandchildren and their families someday.
When Jesus returns, he will find his people, wherever we are interred or inurned. Bodies will reunite with our souls and we will live with the Lord in real bodies forever when the city of New Jerusalem comes down to earth. Then there will be no more cemeteries, because we will never, ever die again.
