That is how we tend to think of the walking dead: as Zombies. That’s the Halloween version, anyway. How else would it be? Dead people do not get up out of their graves and just walk away ... Or do they?
Our thoughts on the subject change as we round the corner from Halloween (All Hallows Eve) on 10/31 to the next day: All Saints Day. That’s when we think of the true resurrection. Like Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead, celebrated on the same day in Mexico and throughout Latin America), All Saints Day is when we honor our loved ones who have died.
This week’s All Saints Day scriptures reference that time when Jesus will return, the saints will gather in heaven and stand before the Throne of God, and we will “be like him.” This is “the resurrection” at which Martha believed she would one day see her dead brother Lazarus. But Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection.” Then, he raised her brother from his grave to rejoin the living ... right then.
Throughout the New Testament, Jesus and the apostles returned dead people to life ...those people arose and walked. Perhaps the strangest resurrection episode, though, takes place during the three days Jesus was in the grave. Matthew 27:50-53 states that immediately after Jesus died, graves opened and the “holy ones” returned to life.
They arose. But these were no zombies!
These folk were restored to their lives. After Jesus’ resurrection, these “holy ones” walked into Jerusalem and “appeared to many people.” It was a for-real “dia de los [walking] muertos”; another miracle awaiting that first Easter morning to take a stroll.
The power of Jesus to raise the dead was so great, it blasted out into graveyards at the moment of His death. When “the resurrection” is present, there is no waiting ... people come to life!
And now? We’re just waiting for Him to be present once more ... when we will all rise.
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More about All Saints Day here: https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/01/world/all-saints-day-trnd/index.html
More about Zombies here: https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-zombies
PHOTO: Steve Orr
Very different versions of this reflection appeared in prior years
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Can you join us Friday morning at DaySpring’s Lectionary Breakfast? We gather on ZOOM at 8:00 for food, fellowship, prayer ... and some quality time hammering out how to use the scriptures to ensure we walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Contact me ahead of time so I can (1) give you the Zoom link, and (2) alert our gatekeeper to let you into our Zoom call.
NOTE: Zoom allows you to mute the microphone if you do not wish to speak and mute the camera if you do not wish to be seen.
Blessings,
Steve
SCRIPTURES FOR THE COMING WEEK
All Saints Day (November 1, 2020)
Find them here: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=166
Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12
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Proper 26 (31) (Sunday, November 1, 2020)
Find these scriptures here: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//texts.php?id=167
Joshua 3:7-17
Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37
Micah 3:5-12
Psalm 43
1 Thessalonians 2:9-13
Matthew 23:1-12
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