EULOGY PART 2 - CULTURAL AND ETHICAL DIMENSIONS

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  So far, we have learnt a little about the origins of the eulogy. I hope that it was not morbid, but that you learnt something from it or, at the very least, that it gave you a new perspective on what a eulogy is and what it is intended to achieve.

In Part One, I wrote about certain Gnostic traditions concerning Jesus. If I were a Gnostic writing a eulogy about Jesus, I might say that He turned a sculpture into a living bird and spoke when He was born.

In death, however, we should be ethical.

Jesus said to His mother at the wedding in Cana:

“Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” John 2:4

The implication is significant. Jesus was indicating that His public ministry and the signs associated with it had not yet begun. Contradicting what a person said or demonstrated about themselves in life, particularly after their death, without evidence or proof, is wrong.

WHEN “SPEAKING WELL” BECOMES DISHONOUR

By speaking only good of a person's life, we can actually dishonour the dead.

I will use another clear and well-known person as an example: the historical figure behind the legend of Santa Claus—Saint Nicholas of Myra.

Saint Nicholas was a devoted Christian who lived during the third and fourth centuries, approximately 270–343 AD, in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. He served as a Christian bishop and became famous for his secret gift-giving and his defence of his faith.

The Christian practice associated with his gift-giving connects with the teaching in Matthew 6:3:

“Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.”

Today, many people want to focus on Saint Nicholas's good deeds. But in doing so, we can lose the meaning of his life—the principle by which he lived and the essence of the man himself. What is even worse is that we use his life to pull others away from the Christian beliefs that inspired his works by replacing Jesus Christ with Santa Claus.

We actually dishonour him by turning him into Santa Claus and, worst yet, by capitalising on his story when the man himself practised piety and secret generosity. He did not want his story to be used in such ways.

There is a lesson here.

When we reduce a person's life to the parts that are convenient, entertaining or profitable, we can distort the very life we claim to be honouring.

THE ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE EULOGIST

There is another ethical dimension to the eulogy.

The person being discussed cannot defend themselves.

I believe there is a deeper purpose for the eulogy. Jesus paid for this person's life, and there will be a judgement for each of us when we die. A eulogy reminds us that we all have to answer to someone. We are witnesses to this person's life, and in giving a eulogy, we are, in a sense, testifying about them like in a court case.

There is a spiritual side to death. That means the person delivering the eulogy has a spiritual responsibility.

You should not use someone's funeral to settle old scores, expose embarrassing secrets, make yourself the centre of attention or manipulate the audience. God is not pleased with any of that. Manipulating the role of the eulogist for any of these objectives is witchcraft. A practice of deception. 

The deceased should remain the centre. But Jesus is the ultimate goal of the eulogy and the funeral.

But there is another interesting tension here:

A eulogy is about the dead, but it is written for the living.

That tension is what makes this form of writing and memory so interesting.

CULTURE, MEMORY AND ORAL TRADITION

There is also a cultural aspect to the eulogy.

Human beings have always been concerned with memory. Memory forms part of our oral traditions, and the eulogy helps us pass on the oral tradition of the deceased.

But ethics and culture can, and do, come into conflict. The transformation of the life of Saint Nicholas into the cultural figure of Santa Claus demonstrates this.

Coincidentally, it also raises another issue: the way the cultural story of Santa Claus can overshadow the true meaning of the Christmas celebration.

Here again we see a conflict between culture and ethics.

What happens when the story we pass down becomes more important than the truth behind the story? What happens when memory is shaped by culture until the person being remembered is almost unrecognisable? These are ethical questions.

DEATH, MEMORY AND LEGACY

We die physically, but our relationships with other people do not simply disappear at the moment of death.

The impact and lasting memory of a person can continue for at least one other person—and sometimes for generations.

People continue to exist in memory:

• through stories;
• through photographs;
• through children;
• through institutions they built;
• through lessons they taught;
• through values they transmitted;
• through people whose lives they changed;
• through continued behaviours and traditions.

The eulogy participates in that process. It says:

• This person existed.
• This person affected us.
• This person's story belongs to our collective memory.

THE EULOGY AS A CASE STUDY

In this way, there is also a scientific aspect to a eulogy.

The life of a person can become a case study of their practices, words, beliefs, environment, way of thinking, family and community. We can examine what they did, what they said, what they believed, how they responded to their circumstances and how their circumstances influenced them.

Their life becomes evidence from which others can learn.

This brings us back to the Greek meaning of the word eulogia—“good words.” That meaning is beautiful. It isn't merely about saying nice things.

We make good of our words by giving value and meaning to the person's life.

It is about using words to preserve something of a life that has ended physically.

WHY MEMORY MATTERS

Human survival depends, in part, on learning the lessons of those who have died.

Because of the comforts and innovations we have today, we can easily forget that we are created beings on Earth and that human existence itself can face extinction.

Every generation inherits knowledge from the generations that came before it.

• We learn from their successes.
• We learn from their failures.
• We learn from their mistakes.
• We learn from their beliefs.
• We learn from their choices.
• We learn from the consequences of their actions.

The dead therefore have something to teach the living.

Our desire to remember life gives hope to those who remain: that, in the greater context of existence, when death comes, something of our life may continue through others.

Our words, our actions, our values, our children, our teachings, our institutions and our traditions can all become part of what survives us.

Perhaps this is one of the deeper purposes of the eulogy. It does not bring the dead back to life. It helps the living understand the life that was lived. And perhaps, if we are willing to listen, it can teach us how to live the life that remains better.

Jesus paid for us with His life and blood. Our life and death belongs to Him. Even in death our life is about Him. That is why the eulogy must serve a Jesus purpose that is to draw others to Christ. Our life must prove His word is true and the eulogy ultimately explains that. We have to see how God's word is is real in this person's life. Not with judgement but with the love of Christ. 

THE EULOGY - PART I

  This may sound a bit strange, I know. I came across the eulogy I wrote for my mother, and it got me thinking.

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The history of the eulogy is not Christian. It is a tradition handed down, or copied, from the Greeks and subsequently adopted by different cultures and peoples.

Too often, we misunderstand or misuse the eulogy. There is a purpose for it, but most times we lose direction with it.

What do I mean?

A eulogy is an opportunity to give guidance or direction to the descendants and those affected by the deceased. Even a stranger can learn from a well-written eulogy.

A eulogy is a speech or written tribute delivered in honour of a person who has died. It normally takes place at a funeral, memorial service, wake or celebration of life.

But that does not mean that only positive things should be spoken of the individual. That would be a misinterpretation of the person's life and, ultimately, of the purpose of a eulogy.

From a biblical perspective, there should be hope, and there should be the glorification of God.

DEFINITION

A eulogy is much more than a speech about someone who has died. At its best, it is an act of remembrance, interpretation, honour and communal healing.

The word itself comes from the Greek eulogia, meaning “good words” or “speaking well of someone.” That gives us an important clue about its original purpose: a eulogy is not primarily a biography of the deceased. It is an intentional act of speaking about a person's life in a way that helps the living understand and remember it.

The “good words” are not simply words that make the person look good. They are words that make good—or give meaning—to the words used to describe that person's life.

Consider someone who dies after being imprisoned for a crime. There is a lesson in that life: crime does not pay. Meaning is given to what happened.

The people who knew the individual most closely should be able to give context to the person's actions and words, or to their way of thinking, so that others can understand who that person was and why they did what they did.

There is a distinction worth making: 

A eulogy is not an obituary.

An obituary generally tells people that a person died and what happened during their life—birth, education, career, family, achievements, survivors and funeral arrangements.

A eulogy asks different questions. It also helps to bring resolution to the wider community as well as the immediate family.

What should a eulogy achieve? I would say there are five major things a good eulogy should accomplish:

1. It should honour the person.
This person's life mattered as an individual.
2. It should help people remember.
3. It should give meaning to the life.
It should place the person's life in the context of the community in which they lived and offer an interpretation of the life of the deceased. 
4. It should help the living grieve.
5. It should provide closure—or at least a path forward.
It should do this through shared memory and by bringing clarity to the actions and words spoken by the person. It can help explain their driving force.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Greeks had a tradition of public speeches honouring the dead, and one of the most famous examples is Pericles' Funeral Oration, recorded by the historian Thucydides in his account of the Peloponnesian War.

That speech is fascinating because it demonstrates that, historically, funeral speeches were not always the intimate tributes that we practise in modern times.

Pericles used the occasion of mourning the Athenian dead to speak about the values of Athens itself.

In other words, the deceased became a vehicle through which the living community reflected upon itself.

Funeral speech has historically been about both the individual and the community. The individual was an example of the output of the community from which they came.

Similar examples can be found in the tributes people make to heroes who pass away. We say, “He was a son of the soil,” or “She was a daughter of the soil.”

As human beings, they contributed to human life, which continues after their death.

The Romans developed their own important tradition known as the laudatio funebris—the funeral oration. Among aristocratic Roman families, speeches could celebrate the ancestry, accomplishments and virtues of the deceased.

These speeches were not simply expressions of private grief. They could reinforce the family's honour, social standing and values.

The funeral therefore became a public presentation of identity.

Christianity transformed the tradition by adding another significant dimension. The Christian funeral introduced the idea that death should be understood within a larger theological story—death, resurrection, eternal life, judgement, hope and the promise of being reunited with God.

Consequently, Christian funeral addresses have often attempted to accomplish two things at the same time:

Remember the person and proclaim hope.

This is why many Christian funeral services distinguish between mourning the deceased and proclaiming the faith to the community.

The Bible helps us put the eulogy in context:

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
— Proverbs 3:6

And:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Romans 6:23

The deceased person's life is remembered. We acknowledge the ways of the deceased and allow that testimony of life to guide us. We allow the person's life to draw us closer to God because the eulogy is part of the funeral service and serves as a testimony to God's word unfolded in a person's life. We prove that in death we see God's word is real in Romans 6:23 for we all are sinners and fall short of the glory except through Christ.

The funeral must ask and answer the larger questions:

• What do you believe about death?
• Where will you spend eternity?

The temptation in writing a eulogy is to be completely positive. But that can actually diminish the humanity of the person. The good or bad of that person's life loses meaning when it is whitewashed. The deceased had tears, joys and a thinking process to back up the things they did, we should not belittle it by forgetting about it either. This would be cancel culture. We must give it a moral value.

I think in some ways the Bible is like a eulogy of mankind. The risk in focusing only on the good things or down right lying to claim good of someone can be seen in the Gnostic beliefs about Jesus. They diminish Jesus's humanity by focusing on miracles that is said (not proven) to have been performed in His childhood, but in so doing they undervalue the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The end result is that the price paid for our sins is of reduced value.

By representing the deceased with dishonesty or in a puerile or childish manner, we risk leaving wounds open and we enable generational curses and cycles to continue. Hurts fester, and chaos can ultimately become the end result. 

THE EULOGY AND THE RESURRECTION OF LAZARUS

The lesson we learn from the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11) is that Jesus glorified the Father by performing the miracle. He said, “It is for God's glory.” But He added that it was also “so that God's Son may be glorified through it.”

Jesus wanted to demonstrate to the people that resurrection is possible and to give them a recent example of it, so that they would be more inclined to believe in His own resurrection, which would come soon after.

His disciples, misunderstood what He had said and Jesus replied:

“Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe.”

Added to this, He said to Martha:

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

To the attendees at a Christian funeral, the eulogy asks this same question:

“Do you believe?”

The hope is in spending eternity with Christ—or be condemned without Him.

In Him is life. Without Him is death.


“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
— Romans 6:23

This account of the raising of Lazarus from the dead is an important aspect of Christian beliefs. It is about life, death and eternity. Even in death we must glorify God, we must prove God and draw others to Christ. Jesus shows us that here. A funeral is an opportunity to spread the gospel and even in death we belong to Christ because He paid the price for it. I will post more on the eulogy in Part 2.

MELCHIZEDEK ORDER PART 2

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Trusting God More Than Speculation

Trusting God is another lesson we learn from the account of Melchizedek.

Many people are led astray through a lack of knowledge, false teaching, distorted facts, fables and myths. Today, social media algorithms often feed what the Bible calls "itching ears." They present people with ideas that agree with their opinions rather than challenge them with the truth.

Even Christians can fall into this trap. Our own emotions, personal biases and desires can influence how we read Scripture. Like Israel in biblical times, we often struggle with wanting to please people and fit in with the world around us. This is one reason God repeatedly warned Israel about adopting the beliefs and practices of the surrounding nations.

2 Timothy 4:3–4 says:

"For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction that challenges them with God's truth. Instead, to satisfy their own desires, they will gather teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

The enemy's methods have not changed. Only the tools have changed. Today those tools include technology, social media and marketing. The goal is still the same—to create confusion, division within the body of Christ and ultimately a falling away from the faith.

The Church has been building on the foundation laid by Christ and the apostles for nearly two thousand years. Yet we must ask ourselves: Are we continuing to build on that foundation, or are we allowing ourselves to be distracted from it?

Jesus Himself said that "the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light" (Luke 16:8). The world often plans its strategies carefully. As believers, we should be equally committed to knowing the truth, living it and sharing it faithfully.

Our calling is to strengthen and unify the body of Christ. True transformation begins when God's people awaken to His truth. I hope to explore this subject more fully in future articles.

Peter reminds us that the apostles did not build their message on myths.

2 Peter 1:16 says:

"For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty."

The apostles wrote about what they saw, heard and experienced. Throughout the New Testament they remain consistent on the essential truths of the Christian faith.

These include:

1. Jesus' words and works.

2. The call to repentance and conversion.

3. Jesus as the mediator of the New Covenant.

4. Jesus as the Word of God.

5. Jesus' humanity, born of a virgin, as the Son of Man.

6. The miracles of Christ.

7. The miracles that followed through faith in His name.

8. The command to preach, teach and spread the Gospel.

9. Jesus as the Saviour of the world.

10. Jesus as the true and living God.

11. Jesus as the Son of God.

12. Believers as heirs and joint heirs with Christ.

13. Believers as ambassadors of Christ and a royal priesthood.

14. The complete and perfect work of the Cross.

15. The power of the blood of Jesus.

16. The ministry of reconciliation flowing from the Father's love.

17. Salvation by grace through faith, not by works.

18. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

19. The Holy Spirit, who brings to believers all that Christ has accomplished for them.

20. Believers have power and authority over the wiles and plans of the enemy.

These themes appear throughout the New Testament and are rooted in the Old Testament. As the Church builds on these truths, believers grow in unity, maturity and love. Imagine the harvest of souls that could be gathered into God's Kingdom if we remained focused on these foundations. We would be building the walls or repairing the walls. We will be building from the foundation which a next step.   

The book of Hebrews brings many of these themes together. It does not present Melchizedek as an isolated figure. Instead, his priesthood becomes the meeting point of several great biblical themes: covenant, kingship, priesthood, righteousness, peace, inheritance, eternal life, Christ's once-for-all sacrifice and our access to God. Hebrews uses Melchizedek to show how Jesus fulfils God's redemptive plan in a priesthood that is greater than that of Levi.

How confusion surrounding Melchizedek is often used

Confusion about Melchizedek can become a doorway for false teaching. Some common examples include:

1. Focusing on his ethnicity in ways that create unnecessary division over the Canaanites rather than understanding the biblical account.

2. Using modern political or emotional issues, such as debates surrounding Israel, Jerusalem, Palestine and Gaza, to distract from what Genesis is actually teaching.

3. Claiming that because the Bible does not answer every question, it cannot be trusted.

4. Introducing teachings about Melchizedek that present a different gospel or a false view of Christ.

5. Claiming that Israel invented or hijacked the priesthood and that Jesus is therefore not the promised Messiah.

6. Using Abraham's tithe to Melchizedek to argue that the biblical principle of giving has no relevance today without considering the wider teaching of Scripture.

Paul repeatedly warned believers about this kind of error.

1 Timothy 1:4 warns against myths and endless genealogies that produce speculation rather than God's work, which is by faith. In the case of Melchizedek it is a question of genealogies.

Titus 1:14 tells believers not to pay attention to human myths that turn people away from the truth.

1 Timothy 4:7 simply says:

"Have nothing to do with irreverent and silly myths."

What are "silly myths"?

Many ideas shared on social media and presented as research are not based on careful scholarship or sound methods of investigation. They often rely on assumptions, selective evidence and emotional appeals rather than facts. They are designed to provoke reactions instead of helping people discover the truth.

This brings us back to a simple but important question.

Do I trust God?

Do I believe that what God has revealed in Scripture is true?

Do I also believe that what He has chosen not to reveal is not necessary for my salvation or for understanding His purposes?

When Abraham entered an unfamiliar land, he brought Lot with him. Over time, God taught Abraham to trust Him completely. 

Are we doing the same? Are we allowing others to create a "veil" over our eyes? Are we allowing endless questions, speculation and myths to pull us away from the solid foundation of God's Word? 

Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law."

Ask God to forgive you for engaging or listening to myths, fables, genealogies. Ask The Holy Spirit to help you filter out the deceit of the enemy. Remember there is a difference in seeking truth or seeking to break down believers. Ask God to forgive you for listening to and entertaining, a false Jesus or a false gospel. Click here for part 1