The Bible teaches that life does not end at the cemetery. – Billy Graham

In one of his blog posts Tim Challies shared his thoughts about graveyards behind churches. He wrote: There is one thing churches used to do that they no longer do, and I often wish we could recover it. So, if I could change anything about the modern church, perhaps it would be this: I would return the graveyard to the churchyard. It got me thinking, particularly as we approach Memorial Day. 

When I’m home in Atlanta, I visit the graves of my parents. They’re buried in Westview Cemetery, a large cemetery in Atlanta. It helps me stay connected with my roots and their graves often need a little upkeep and care. It does something for me to place flowers on them. 

But my grandparents are buried in a graveyard behind their church in South Georgia. The difference between a graveyard and a cemetery is that graveyards are connected to a church while cemeteries are not. 

Though my grandfather never attended the church to my knowledge, he donated the land the church is built on. When I visited their graves a few years ago, I met the custodian who was a distant relative of my grandmother, and she shared some of the church’s history with me. 

Visiting the graves of those that I love always touches my heart and keeps me grounded with the brevity of life. There’s value in visiting cemeteries. As I walk through a graveyard, I’ll visit the graves of saints that have passed on. Visiting a cemetery has benefits for all of us.

It reminds us of our own coming death. 

We Americans rarely think of our own mortality, especially if we’re young. We know in the back of our minds that we’ll die someday, but it’s still a long way off, right? Wrong.

In a cemetery, there are graves for those of all ages. You’ll find ones of infants buried, some only a few days old. Children are buried there. Many graves are of those who died in middle age. My own mother was killed in a car accident when she was forty-seven. She was on her way to a wedding and had no idea that she would meet Jesus that night.

Every person in the cemetery that died in old age was at one time my age and now they’re gone. Someday I will be and so will you. Cemeteries remind us that we will all die one day. They should cause us to consider our lives and value what’s important. It should cause us to focus our lives on what truly matters and not miss it. 

It provides you with Church History in a physical way. 

An older cemetery has ancient tombstones in it, perhaps of people born even before the Civil War. There are tombstones where you can no longer read the inscription because they’re too weathered. You’ll often find the graves of Christ-followers are obvious because of their epitaphs. Graves connect us with those who believed what we believe, and faithfully served our Savior. 

Hebrews 12:1-2 reminds us: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 11 is referred to as the Hall of Faith. It goes through the story line of the Old Testament, showing how God worked through the faithfulness of His people. It concludes with the verses in Hebrews 12, implying that it’s not just Old Testament saints, but every believer. All the believers who’ve gone before us are cheering us on to continue running the race and not give up. They urge us to not only start well but end well. 

Christ-followers in a cemetery are part of that cloud of witnesses. We have loved ones whom we’ve buried that are now Home, cheering us on, urging us to stay faithful. Graves of Christ-followers act as a cloud of witnesses encouraging those of us in Christ still living to persevere.

Cemeteries give mourning people an opportunity to continue processing grief. 

It’s common to see family and loved ones of the deceased visit the grave of a loved one in those weeks and months after a loss. If you know that a Christian friend is visiting the grave of a loved one, offer to go with them. We’re to weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15). 

God is the God of all comfort, and He wants us to be the shoulders others can cry on. Often in the months after a loss, friends and loved ones move on, yet those closest to the loss are still working through the grief. After my mom was killed when I was ten, a family in our church sent me a card each month to let me know they were thinking of me. It meant so much to me! 

It’s a continual preparation for the return of our Savior. 

On the day Jesus returns, the graves are going to burst open. What a glorious sight it’s going to be! Both the born again and those who don’t know the Lord will be raised, but in different ways. The saved will be caught up in the clouds with Jesus. A cemetery in a city might have various pockets of saved people come forth. Imagine a church graveyard where hopefully the majority of those buried there are believers. Imagine the sight it will be when the whole field erupts like a resurrection volcano! Church graveyards are not a sign that the church is dying, but that it is alive and well in glory!

I love the story of Winston Churchill who planned his own funeral. His plans called for a bugler, positioned high in the dome of Saint Paul’s Cathedral to play Taps after the benediction. Taps represented that Churchill’s physical life was over. Then, there was a dramatic turn. As soon as Taps was finished, another bugler, placed on the other side of the great dome, played Reveille: “It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up. It’s time to get up in the morning.”At the end of history, the last note will not be Taps for the child of God, it will be Reveille because we’re all going to get Home before dark and we will arise forevermore to be with Jesus.