I woke up this morning feeling like a zombie, but that’s not what this post is about.
Imagine if Jesus was born in today’s culture. I’m not talking about his return, but if he were to come the first time around in 21st Century America. The reaction to the virgin birth would be scandalous enough, but think about some of the things Jesus said and some of the things he did. Imagine the reaction after being told to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Imagine the headlines raising Lazarus from the dead would have garnered. But most of all, imagine the response upon seeing the risen Jesus.
George Romero couldn’t come up with a better story. Zombies are this years’ vampires, with the success of the TV show The Walking Dead, based on the comic book of the same name. And if you visit a comic book store, you would see that almost every other title involves zombies.
brains….
But this is about Jesus, the original zombie (you can skip to the 3:00 mark, but it’s the Colbert Report, so really you want to watch the whole thing.)
While Jesus may have been the original zombie, you and I are also zombies. (now you know what that persistent itching is all about)
“For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:9-11)
BRAINS!
Well that’s one interpretation anyway. Jeff Kinley actually takes the opposite view (see, even zombies have denominations!) that those without Christ are the actual zombies and offers a “zombie guide” to help combat them.
BRAINS!
(sorry, I haven’t had breakfast yet.)
Yesterday, our sermon was Halloween-themed about fighting the monsters within. I haven’t read the book above, it actually was just released, but in a similar vein I recommend Mike Talieferro’s The Killer Within. It relates sin to real disease, not a zombie-like infection. Yesterday’s sermon actually centered on the story of David and Goliath, but Jesus talked about this condition himself.
“When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.” (Luke 11:24-26)
I think we all have felt that monster inside of us. Sometimes it comes out for just a moment and surprises us. Other times it feels like that monster has complete control. What is your monster? Anger? Addiction? Impurity?
Today, Halloween, this zombie is going to fight some monsters.