Your Epitaph

Well done, good and faithful servant.
                         —Matthew 25:23

In New Testament times, an ossuary—a limestone box 20 inches long and 11 inches wide—was commonly used to store the bones of the deceased.

Oden Golan, an antiquities collector, owned an ossuary with this attention-grabbing inscription: “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.” On October 21, 2002, this ossuary was revealed at a press conference co-hosted by the Discovery Channel and the Biblical Archaeology Society.

(Note: In 2003, The Israel Antiquities Authority claimed that the inscription was forged much later than the first century.)

I’m sure that James would be very uncomfortable with the attention his supposed bones have attracted. If he had written his epitaph, it would have said: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.”—for that’s how he saw himself (Jas 1:1).

What will your epitaph say?

Live so the Lord can write your epitaph:
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”