Resurrection hope: The night Geo. Washington led a funeral
Some modern Americans claim not to fear death. On Nov. 15 last year, boxer Mike Tyson told a 14-year-old girl interviewing him that he has no fear of what happens after he dies.
When he was asked about his legacy after his death, Tyson told her: “It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that?”
So, death ends it all, and after that there’s nothing more? Such a view, widely held by some today, contrasts greatly with a Biblical worldview, the view that helped undergird much of the settling and founding of America.
The oldest city in North America is St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565. About half a century before, it was discovered by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon.
He came to the shores of what is today Florida on Easter Sunday, 1513. In his native Spain, the cathedrals were filled with flowers to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. What the Spanish explorer saw were resplendent flowers in this new land.
So he called it the land of the flower … La Florida. The name stuck (without the “La,” of course).
Easter commemorates the time when Jesus Christ walked out of His own tomb. By His resurrection, He changed everything.
Even the day of the week He arose was changed. Sunday is the Lord’s Day. It is the day that hundreds of millions of people around the world worship Him in honor of His resurrection on that first Easter Sunday.
Even the Constitution talks about the length of days (Sundays excepted) congressional bills are under consideration to be signed by the president. Sundays excepted shows the founders honored the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath.
Through the centuries many Americans also honor Jesus’ resurrection and His conquering death.
For example, one of the most visited houses in America is Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the father of America.
He is buried on the grounds there, and behind the stone coffins that bear his and Martha’s remains is a stone plaque that bears witness to Christ conquering the grave.
The plaque contains the Savior’s words from John 11:25-26: “I am the Resurrection and the Life, sayeth the Lord. He that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” I have taken a photo of that plaque:
George Washington was a regular reader of the Bible (KJV) and the Book of Common Prayer (1662), which draws heavily from the KJV.
In 1755, the 23-year-old future president survived a military battle that was a massacre of British and American troops by the French and some Indians, in the greater Pittsburgh area. This was during the French and Indian War.
Washington was the only officer to survive that battle, and apparently there was no chaplain on hand, so George Washington led the funeral service for the slain British commander, Gen. Edward Braddock.
The young Virginian used the Book of Common Prayer funeral service that night by torchlight.
The service begins with the declaration of Jesus written above, from John 11, now found behind Washington’s sarcophagus.
Here are some of the other Scripture-based prayers he read that fateful night: “We meekly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight; and receive that blessing, which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear thee. … Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.”
The Christian view is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into this world for the purpose of redeeming lost humanity. He was fully divine and fully human. He was the only person who ever lived that was sinless.
But on the cross on Good Friday, He became sin for fallen humanity. He was punished for our transgressions. Then He was buried and sealed in a stone-cold tomb with a contingent of Roman guards outside His grave. But on Easter Sunday, He walked out of His tomb and changed all history in the process. It took many appearances to convince His disciples that He was really alive.
But they spread the message, despite great personal cost (including in many cases their own lives). This message of hope and the forgiveness it brings has now spread into all the world, and it continues to spread. It is a message of hope, relevant for all, including boxers, explorers and presidents.