Here in Myanmar, they still kill cows and pigs for the dead and eat it during funeral services. This was a pagan practice in the past. I feel it is an unholy practice and should not be done by Christians. Should we continue to practice this in the church?
I did a Google Search on Myanmar funeral practices and was unable to find a link that included the killing and eating of pigs for the dead at funeral service. However, I did find a link which spoke of this practice at Sumba, which is also a Southeast Asian country. It said that “Sumba has an indigenous belief in MARAPU” (which means ancestor’s spirit or ancestor). The article goes on to say that it is the custom of Marapu to “raise livestock for funeral practices” and that “during the funeral period the corpse’s relative, who is the host of the funeral” will provide the livestock for their guests. It mentions many kinds of livestock but pertinent to your question is says, “PIGS and CATTLE are killed for meals, and chickens are killed for fortune-telling. And the buffalo and horses are killed for FORTUNES OF PERSONS WHO PASSED AWAY IN THE AFTER-LIFE.” This surely sounds like a “pagan practice” to me and I believe it would be wrong for a Christian church to adopt this practice. The Bible never speaks of such things.
The first mention of a Christian funeral is that of Stephen, a godly and faithful believer in Christ who was martyred for his faith by his Jewish brethren who rejected Jesus Christ and Stephen’s message of Christ to them (see Acts chapter 7, especially verses 51-60). Stephen’s last words before he breathed his last breath were, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” and “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” In the next chapter we read, “And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him” 8:2. Stephen was loved by many fellow-believers, and they honored him at his funeral by a display of “passionate grief and sorrow.” Yet the Apostle Paul later comforted believers with these words, “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep (died), lest you sorrow as others who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). He went on to teach them “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus, will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (verses 14-17). Oh, how different is a Christian funeral from those “who have no hope in pagan lands.” A believer in Christ has a “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13) based on God’s infallible and inerrant word. We do not need to eat certain foods at their funeral to bring them “good fortune;” we KNOW that all is well will our loved ones who “believed that Jesus died and rose again” for their salvation (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 20-23, 35-55).
In closing I would refer you to 1 Corinthians 8:4-13 where the Apostle Paul addresses the subject of “the eating of things offered to idols.” I know this isn’t exactly the same thing as “eating cows and pigs for the dead,” but in some ways it is related. The pagan practice you describe has its roots in some pagan religion (like Hinduism or Buddhism) and behind each pagan religion is Satan and his demons who want people to worship idols instead of God. Paul says in verse 4, “We know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is no other God but one,” but he goes on in verse 7 to say, “However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.” This means that if a believer thinks food is being offered to an idol, he shouldn’t partake of it. In the rest of the chapter Paul goes on to say that even if we realize the idol is nothing and that we are free to eat food that may have been offered to idols, we shouldn’t eat it in front of those who are weak “lest I make my brother stumble” (verses 9-13). This passage is given to instruct us in case we are offered food that is related to a pagan ritual. (DO) (621.1)