How to Pack a Coffin

I heard the following quote in our church yesterday…

…most missionaries back then would typically pack their possessions in their own coffin. They would say good byes to loved ones to board a ship with the realization that they most likely would come home horizontally and not vertically. ..

...They would pack their coffins…

Coffins. 

Back then.

That was the expectation of the destination of the missionary call…

How do you pack your own coffin?!! I ask myself. And what do you put inside?

But before I could answer the swarm of my own questions, another one is asked from the pulpit

What changed from back then?

Good question. 

What changed from the time when the call of Christ meant the call to pack up your coffin and die?

When leaving for the mission field meant funeral procession rather than tourist destination? Or a family vacation?

What changed?

Could it be that the price of the ticket has changed?

Could it be that in the modern religious market, the cost of discipleship has changed?

Or perhaps the location of the coffin has changed? 

Is it possible that at least some, if not much of the missionary activity today is no more than a wonderfully exotic way to escape the burial plot, the coffin nearby where Christ has placed us to die…

Indeed, what changed?

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. John 12:24

If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. Luke 9:23