And, I suspect, more than once in those four days, the sisters and their friends had returned to the tomb to be closer to their brother for a while and to pay respects once more and to pray. I have returned to my father's grave and my sister's grave and many of you have done the same. And, then there are the accoutrements of death. Each culture has its own. We have our customs that make death a common experience for us all.
Funeral homes serve our needs in customary ways.
In those days they had professional mourners and perhaps there were those among the Jews mentioned in v. 33. It was a way of helping to empty a grieving heart of its grief, to prepare it for life going on. My friends, I had the privilege just this past Friday, two afternoons past, to sit at the beside of a dying woman and speak to her. Most of you have witnessed this scene. A hospital bed now sits in the living room and it is as if the entire house has been given over to the business of dying.