What’s he really worth?

At a funeral service at St Lawrence Parish Church this week several hundred people listened in while others spoke. The deceased was a Jerseyman who had died, aged 71, from myeloma, a cancer of the blood. What was he actually worth? What value can be put on him and his life?

To decide that one has to listen in to the conversations and memories of others. Are you any good at that? Listening in to what others say?

Take a look at the words in bold above. Listen in to the conversation between Jesus and Martha. Martha’s much loved brother, Lazarus, had died four days earlier. His body was in a tomb. At St Lawrence you would have overheard their conversation –

 “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.”

“I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

But, at St Lawrence Parish Church you would have overheard the words of the dead man also. He had written them down years ago – in the back cover of his Bible. Listen in for a moment. “I confess to God that I am a sinner. I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for my sins on the cross. I believe that God raised him from the dead. I now repent of my sins. I receive him as my Saviour. I confess him as Lord. (Signed)”

Then listen in again to that snippet of Jesus’ conversation with Mary: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

But that wasn’t all that was overheard when the dead man spoke at his own funeral this week.

All through his life, tumultuous as it was, he had in quietness known his value to Jesus His saviour and Lord. He had written these words on the inside cover of his Bible. At St Lawrence Church you would have overheard them as you were perhaps trying to decide on what value could be placed on yourself in this world.

“Dear Lord, please guard me on my way.
Please guide my feet lest I should stray.
Please give me strength when storms come near,
To overcome enfeebling fear.
And, Lord, I beg my whole life through,
Please let me ever walk with you. (Signed)”

Of what value to the Son of God was this man who begged to walk, his whole life through, with Jesus?