Diver’s Tomb

This rather poor picture I took of ‘the tomb of the diver’, a classical Greek funerary monument found in 1968 at Paestum in Italy. It’s rather splendid, though the other panels depict a number of men reclining on couches, drinking wine and fondling each other. Sometimes, the past isn’t a foreign country at all. Yet from this pleasant hedonism, a man dived off this world into the unknown seas of eternity. His lovers are with him no more, the lutes depicted can no longer be heard, the mixed wine he quaffed he no longer drinks. The descent into eternity deprives the rich man of his gold, the clever man of his degrees and the popular man of his friends. The career woman is unemployed, the object of lust is fancied no more and the superstar attracts little attention. Each and every human takes that dive, quite unsure of the outcome. 

 

I thank God, when the Christian takes the final plunge, he need not fear, for Christ entered the tomb on his behalf and He was raised to life for his justification. Dying may not be pleasant, but death is more the crossing of a stream than a plummeting into the cold, dark ocean. 

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

John 5:24

Better pictures of the tomb can be seen here: http://www.paestum.org.uk/museum/classical/