Mexican Funeral
About the Author
Ben spends most of his time working with underprivileged kids in Tijuana, Mexico, encouraging them to continue their education. He's an unofficial member of Iglesia Bautista Monte Horeb, which runs the elementary school, Centro Pedagógico Didaque.
I just returned from the funeral of my uncle-in-law. He died suddenly of a heart attack. Didn’t know the man too well, I think we’d met three or four times. Other than a few cultural twists, the funeral was fairly straight forward—last night we had the viewing followed by the burial today. The scene crossed cultural lines. There were people openly crying, others dry-eyed. Somebody said how great it was he went so quickly. “Didn’t hardly suffer a thing—hope I can go that fast, without suffering.” Many chimed in. “We are the ones that are sad. He’s in a better place.” And on and on went the usual funeral small talk.
My wife introduced me to another uncle I had not yet met. Hermogenes is his name (and it’s not Mexican…check out Paul’s Asian acquaintance in 2 Tm 1:15). Well, Uncle Hermogenes is a nice old man—a former fisherman from Mazatlan; can’t read or write. We hit it off well and swapped a few fishing tales.
I felt pretty good about our meeting, like we made a friendship. Then came Pastor Coly (my wife’s former pastor). He greeted me and then introduced himself to Hermogenes. Coly immediately worked the talk into the four spiritual laws. He realized that a funeral is a mission field—that the attendees are sensitive and open and searching; and instead of making small talk about tropical fish, Coly was on a mission trip. He didn’t drive to the graveside just to pay his respects or support the family in Christ that was present. It was obvious through his sermon up front, and the follow up one-two with Hermogenes, that this was an opportunity to seek and save the lost.
I found myself on the defensive thinking, Coly!, you can’t evangelize so quickly, these things take time and thought. You’re cheapening salvation. You’re playing on his emotions. Maybe, maybe, maybe—but maybe not. Had Coly not shown up with a mission in mind, Hermogenes would have left thinking about snapper and tuna. Now at the very least, he’s thinking about repentance and forgiveness, Christ’s death and Second Coming.
Pastor Coly went on a short-term mission trip. He didn’t need a bake sale or car wash—just showed up prepared to talk about something more important than fishing for fish.