Why Funerals are better than parties

Ecclesiastes 7:2 says this, “It’s better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart.”

Basically what Solomon is saying here is that it’s better to go to a funeral than a party.  But what does he mean by this?

As humans, we try very hard not to think about the fact that we’re not going to live forever.  We want to pretend like death doesn’t exist, and so we live our whole lives as if we’re going to be here for ever, and we never stop to consider what comes after.

We seek out distractions, good times, and good feelings because they take our minds off of what we don’t want to face. If we can stay distracted, we can forget about things like heaven and hell, and eternity and judgment.

That’s why its good for us to be confronted by death, because it shocks us back to reality and forces us to consider our own mortality. To take seriously the claims of Christ and the gospel. To consider the condition of our own souls, and of our need for salvation.

…and this is good because eternity is long, and our lives are very short, but the irony is that the things we do, and the decisions that we make in this life will have an eternal impact on our souls.

"...yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time, and then vanishes." James 4:14