A
recent trend that has been sweeping the nation for the past few years is an
obsession with zombies. Many of you may
have noticed the dramatic increase of movies, books, and television shows
relating to these mythical creatures. If
you do not know, zombies are a type of monster, in a similar category to
vampires, who are dead but still alive, as seen in The Night of the Living Dead and Michael Jackson's Thriller.
They tend to shuffle around with large groups, and, according to popular
consensus, they hunger for brains. The
trend is so popular, and many people are so obsessed with it, they some people
have started to rewrite classic books to include zombies. One example is the novel, Pride and
Prejudice, which is a Jane Austen classic of upper class England . A few years ago, someone rewrote it to make
it Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I
have no idea what is it about, but I can imagine that it is dramatically
different from Jane Austen’s original vision.
Yet another example is the large books sales for The Zombie Apocalypse
Survival Guide, which gives you tips on how to survive when the great invasion
of undead zombies begins. There has also
been a preponderance of these creatures in video games, in which the player
must defend themselves against endless hordes of zombies, a trend which I
myself have been unable to resist, and currently have a game on my phone where
I have to do that very thing.
Now
this is an odd thing, and one might think that it has absolutely nothing to do
with Scripture. On the contrary, I think
that in some way, the Bible does tell us about zombies. The unfortunate fact is that the Bible says
that we are zombies, which may be shocking news to many. However, the Good News from this morning’s
reading from John is that, through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we are
given life again, which is union with God, through the Holy Spirit.
First,
to convince you that we are zombies, which is no easy task. In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth, and on the sixth day, he created humanity. If you were to flip your Bible back to
Genesis 1, verse 27, you’d see that God created us in his image, and as we read
through Genesis 2 and 3, we get the impression that we were to have a very
close relationship with God. Adam and
Eve were to tend the garden, to rule over the earth and subdue, being co-rulers
with God over creation. He gave one
command, which was to not eat of one tree within the garden, for, he said, “On
the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” Now, as the story goes, we did eat of
it. Satan came and tempted Adam and Eve
to eat the fruit of the tree, which they did, and God discovered them. The curious thing is that they did not
die. Did God lie? Was Satan correct when he told Adam and Eve
that they would not die when they ate the fruit? No. It
is true that on that day we died, because, as we read at the end of Genesis 3,
humanity was thrown out of the garden of Eden, out of God’s presence, and out
of relationship with God. It is at this
point that we became zombies, the living dead.
Sure, we shambled around the earth, built cities, grew crops, had children,
but that true life of relationship with God was gone and everything was
affected by that loss. As the living
dead, everywhere humanity has gone it has sown death and destruction. We hungered for that relationship like a
zombie hungers for brains, and we made false gods and idols, but that
relationship was gone, and we were no longer able to have it, that ability was
dead inside of us. The Bible tells us
that, in some way, there are zombies alive on the earth, and it is all of us,
fallen sinful broken humanity.
God,
however, was not content to have a creation filled with broken and sinful
people. He chose a special people,
called Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt, made a nation, gave them His Law,
gave them kings, sent them prophets; all of which pointed again and again to
God and reminded us that we were meant to live a different life, a true
life. They talked about a time when this
life would be given to humanity again; “In a little while” they said, “in that
day” they said, God will restore the relationship that we lost in the garden
and we would be in perfect relationship with Him again.
And
now we get to the Good News that our reading from John gives us this morning:
that through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection God has restored us to life,
to true union with him through the power of the Holy Spirit.
First,
in our reading we hear that it is through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection
that God restores us to life. Jesus’ own
life is a life lived perfectly in unity with God the Father. In our reading this morning, and in many
other parts of John’s Gospel, Jesus says that he is in the Father and the
Father is in him. He is the only way to
the Father. He and the Father are
one. Jesus lives the way that we were
meant to live, in perfect unity with the Father. Also, it is Jesus’ death and resurrection
that make that perfect life available to us.
Jesus uses two key phrases that should perk our ears us. The NIV translates the first phrase, ‘before
long’, but it is actually ‘in a little while’, and the second phrase is ‘on
that day.’ These should perk our ears up
because these are the phrases that the prophets of the Old Testament used to
speak of that day when God would restore life to humanity. When Jesus uses them here he talks about his
death on the cross, to pay the price for our rebellion and separation from God,
and his resurrection that will follow.
When Jesus speaks these words to the disciples it is only a little while
longer, because it is the evening before his crucifixion, and only a few days
before his resurrection. “On that day,”
he says, “you will realize that I am in the father, and you are in me, and I am
in you.” On that great day of salvation
when he has paid the price for our sins and been raised to new life, we will
have full proof of his unity with God, and in the climax of all of history, new
life will be restored to us. It will
truly be that because Jesus lives, we will also live. And that happened! On the third day after his death on the
cross, Jesus rose from the dead, victorious over death, and showed that God
love him. So what he has promised, true
union with God, has been accomplished and is now offered to us. That, my zombie brothers and sisters, is
great news!
So
through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, God has restored us to true life,
which is union with him. Let’s pause for
just a moment and talk about what that perfect union means. We don’t often use phrases like I am in you
and you in me. It sounds a bit
weird. What does Jesus mean when he says
that we will realize that he is in the Father, we are in him, and he in
us? If we look back at those times when
Jesus speaks of his perfect union with the Father we get an idea of what that
means. The picture that we get is of the
Father loving the Son and the Son loving the Father in return. This creates a relationship between
them. Based on this relationship, the
Son speaks the Father’s words and does the Father’s deeds. Jesus says that the words that he speaks are
really his Father’s words, and the works that he does are the works of his
Father, and this is because the Father loves the Son and the Son loves the
Father. The result of Jesus speaking the
Father’s words and doing his works, is that the Father is given glory, pointed
to as the only God who is the source of all life. In other words, it’s a relationship that
makes an impact on his life and the lives of those around him. Now Jesus turns that around and offers the
same relationship to us, not that we just get a new chance in life, but we are
offered his life, which is the model of perfect unity with the Father. The Son offers us love by laying down his
life for us, and when we love him in return by laying down our life for him,
that creates a relationship, and we are in turn to live out that relationship
by obeying what Jesus commands, speaking his words and doing his deeds. Doing so points back to Jesus, who points
back to the loving Father God. It is
through this relationship we are not left as orphans as we were as zombies, but
we are given a heavenly Father.
The best analogy
that I can think of is a marriage. When
I asked Mandy to marry me I offered her love, and she accepted and returned
that love. That formed a relationship
between us. Because I love Mandy, when I
speak I often think to myself, what would Mandy say? Or how can I honor Mandy by what I say? It is the same with my actions; I very much
admire many of the things that my wife does and I want to imitate them and I
also want to honor her with them. This,
in the biblical sense, brings Mandy glory, so that hopefully, when Mandy comes
into contact with people with whom I have been in contact, they will already
respect her because I have, by my words and my life, shown them how great she
is. This, in many ways, is like the
union with God that we are given through the life, death, and resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
This new restored
union with God is brought about in us through the work of the Holy Spirit. Remember that in the garden we lost the
natural ability to relate to God, so we need something to be added to us, given
to us. That gift is the Holy
Spirit. Jesus describes the Spirit as
his own Spirit. He says that the Spirit
is another Counselor, meaning that Jesus was the first counselor sent to help
us and be with us forever. The Spirit is
called the Spirit of Truth, and Jesus said just a few verses earlier in John
14:6 that he is the way, the truth, and the life. So the Holy Spirit is the presence of Jesus
with us and in us that is so powerful that Jesus can say by shorthand that he
will not leave us as orphans, but he will come to us in verse 18 of our
reading. It is his own life that dwells
within us, as the Holy Spirit, and that restores us to that perfect union with
God the Father.
We are told in Scripture
that there are what our culture calls zombies in the world, and we are the
zombies. After the fall in the garden we
lost our union with God and have since shuffled around the earth spreading
death but desperately desiring that unity with God. The Old Testament law and prophets pointed
humanity toward a time when God would restore his relationship with
humanity. And in Jesus Christ, we see a
life lived in perfect unity with God.
Through his death and resurrection, his own life is offered to us, by
him coming to dwell inside of us as the Holy Spirit. And we poor pitiable zombies are restored to
life and union with God.
Hallelujah! And it’s all because
of Jesus. It is his life that we live
and he who lives in us, giving us the power to live in unity with God, and
bringing glory to God.
How does this
apply to us? On this side of the cross
and Jesus’ resurrection, we know that Jesus has paid the penalty for our
rebellion against God, and is still alive, making him able to give us his own
life. We know that his life was lived in
perfect unity with the Father and that for those of us who believe in him, he
comes inside of us by the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and to give us life
again. Jesus, while telling this to his
disciples, tells them what to do with this knowledge. In the first verse of our reading, Jesus
says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command,” and in the last verse he
says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one how loves
me.” Jesus tells us that, based on our
new life in him, we are to obey his commands.
What this does not mean is that we are to check off a list of things to
do and then say, “aha, I love Jesus.” No. To
return to our analogy of marriage, every husband knows that just by completing
the honey-do list does not convince our wives for all time that we love
them. Focusing on the outward results of
our love does not engender love between husband and wife. It is the other way around; by focusing on
our love for our spouse, thinking about them and being thankful for the gift
that they are, then that wellspring of love effects what we say and what we do,
to their honor and glory. In the case of
our relationship with Christ, Jesus asks us to do what he commands, and his
commands are to love God and our neighbor.
This happens by daily thinking of the great love of God, who, while we
were still His enemies, sent His Son to die for us sinner, taking the penalty
for our sin upon the cross, and then raised him to new life in the
resurrection, that we, too, might be raised to new life, no longer zombies, but
sons and daughters of God. Such amazing
love! We read of it in the Scriptures
and we profess it in our worship and our prayers. Out of this great love we are transformed,
and out of loving Him we love our neighbors through word and deed, which brings
glory to our Father in Heaven. Brothers
and sisters, God has restored us from death to new life, through the life,
death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Let us, then, love Him with our whole heart, mind, and strength. Let us pray.
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