I have attended more funerals than I care to recall, and the majority of those funerals were for young people. Many of these funerals were very hard to sit through as the heaviness of sorrow engulfed each family like a fog. There are two funerals of teenaged boys that will forever stand out in my memory. While they occurred in the same year and had a few similarities, they were polar opposites. Both of these young men were friends of mine, one of them I had known all of his life. The other young man passed only briefly over the stage of my life, yet he left a deep impression. Both of the funerals saw funeral homes filled to capacity. Both deaths were sudden, and completely unexpected. I must tell you that for all of the traits these events had in common, they could not have been more different.

I will begin by describing the shocking death of my friend Daniel, a boy I had known for all of his 16 years. Daniel was a nice, polite, boy who lived just a couple of miles from me. He did not have to tell people he was a Christian, even though he did. Daniel served God with great enthusiasm. He was very active in his church’s youth group, and he had a dream of seeing a fellowship hall added to his church. One night a bad car accident occurred right in front of Daniel’s house. In a bizarre chain of events, he looked out the window and passed out into his mothers arms. That is where he drew his last breath. Apparently, the shock of seeing this horrible accident stopped his heart.

I could not believe what I had heard. Then I could not decide which was harder to accept, the fact that a perfectly healthy, normal, 16 year old died, or the way he died so mysteriously. It made no difference how unusual or unlikely the circumstances were, the outcome was the same: Daniel had departed this life. I went to the funeral home with the assurance that Daniel was in heaven. The funeral home was jam-packed with relatives, friends, all thinking that this could not be real. Beneath all of the sobs, the flowers, the comforting words, there was a solid foundation that Daniel knew Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. In the midst of all of the crying, I had peace in my heart about Daniel. Somehow, no matter how tragic or unexpected a death is, there is comfort in knowing that the person lying in that casket was right with God. That brings me to the other funeral. Travis was 19 years old and we met at the factory where I work. All we really had in common was that we were from the same area, and worked at the same place. Travis approached me about joining my car pool and I just happened to have an open seat. We started riding together, and it is amazing how much you get to know someone on a nightly 45-minute drive down a lonely, twisting, road. This kid was fresh out of high school, full of hopes and dreams. He had a fiancé that he spoke of frequently. He told me all about how they made a trip to Branson and went bungee jumping. Travis was a very likeable young man and his enthusiasm for life was contagious. The only problem was that he had a terrible drinking problem. He would spend entire weekends drunk, and even drank as much as possible during the week. He told me about his wild partying, and I told Him about my relationship with Jesus Christ. Travis knew that I am a preacher and he was very respectful. He even talked to me about spiritual things, but to him Jesus was part of his past, and he hoped part of his future. The facts are he knew he could not live his lifestyle and serve God too. Travis decided he needed to go back to college, so he quit the factory and said goodbye.

I received word just a few months later that Travis had been drunk and plowed into a marquee sign, which ended his life. The details of his death were gruesome, yet he died instantly. Everyone says they want a quick death, but the problem with that is that there is no time for repentance. When it comes to hoping this young man went to heaven, there just is not much to hold on to. When a person dies with sin in their heart, they go to Hell that is the blunt truth. Knowing all of this, I went to the funeral home. Again, I found myself in a venue that was probably filled beyond capacity. There were so many teenagers there, it could have easily been a prom, or a party, but it was a funeral. There were so many pictures of Travis’ senior year: the Prom, Homecoming, parties...This boy who was so full of life suddenly was not. The preacher talked about how Travis had trusted Jesus as a child. He said that he baptized him as a child. Yes, Travis told me about these experiences, but he also told me that at some point in his early teens he began to rebel. He laid aside Jesus Christ for drinking and carousing. I felt such an awful heaviness in my heart. There was not a hint of the peace I had felt for Daniel. No matter how much hope and comfort that pastor tried to fling from that pulpit, I felt a sense of doom. A popular t-shirt says, “Live your life in a way that the preacher doesn’t have to lie at your funeral.”

Jesus also told about two funerals that featured men who were headed in opposite directions. I am speaking of course of the rich man and Lazarus. In Luke chapter 16 verses 19 through 31, the Lord gives us the account of two men who lived as opposites and then died as opposites. Jesus tells us how the rich man lived a life of sin and then died and went to Hell. Jesus spoke of Hell as a real place. He never said that the rich man got a second chance, He never said the rich man slept for eternity, He never said that God loved the rich man so much that He overlooked his sin. Jesus said that, “in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.” Jesus tells us plainly that if a man dies in his sins, he will open his eyes in Hell. Any family can pay a preacher to pronounce their loved ones goodness that does not change their eternal status one iota. Regardless of what your religion or church tells you about Hell being a fairy tale, or a symbol, or whatever their gimmick is, it will not change the reality of Hell. I could teach a geography class at the local high school and proclaim that Japan does not exist, that will not change the fact that on the other side of the world there is a real Japan where real people are speaking Japanese! Hell is not a popular subject, but Jesus cannot lie.

On the other side of the coin, we have Lazarus. Lazarus lived a wretched existence. No doubt, I treat my dogs better than Lazarus was treated. That homeless vagabond had his treasure in the right place however; he had placed his faith in the All-Mighty God! No matter where we rank on the I.R.S. tax roles, the thing that really matters is the condition of our hearts. Are you right with God or not. Notice, the question is not, were you right with God? It does not matter where you begin the race good or bad, it is where you finish in life’s race that really matters. If your life ended right now, where would you go? One day you will stand before the Holy God, and He will either say, “Depart from me you worker of iniquity, I never knew you”, or “Enter in my good and faithful servant, thou hast well done!” This is not some religious game that we play, this is real! Right now, you are making your case for Heaven or Hell. Either God will look at you in judgment and see the Blood of Jesus, or He will see sin. Not one sin will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, if you want to go to Heaven make sure all of your sins are under the Blood. I pray that everyone that reads this will be able to spend eternity in Heaven. If you do not understand what it means to have your sins covered by the Blood of Jesus, or if you have questions about where you will spend eternity, please contact me: jeffreyjayreed@yahoo.com.