What not to celebrate this Halloween

There are lots of things that bother me about Halloween. Below I describe one of them.

I almost jumped out of my skin a couple of years ago while on a walk through my neighborhood.

After seeing something from the corner of my eye, I turned my head and saw a dead body hanging from a tree by a noose. My mind quickly raced to calling the police and wondering who in their right mind would murder someone right in their front lawn and leave the person out for all to see.

Then I remembered Halloween was coming up and realized this was just a “decoration.” (And sheepishly proceeded to keep walking…)

At that moment a question came to mind that has never left: why on earth would we want to celebrate gruesome death, or death at all?

Isn’t it the worst nightmare of most people to pull the drapes in the morning to find a hanging corpse swaying back and forth in their front lawn? Isn’t it even worse when you consider today’s violent-laden headlines of gun violence and terrorist activity?

Death wasn’t part of God’s original purpose for His good creation, but rather entered the world as punishment for and consequence of our rebellion against God (Genesis 3:3). Instead of something to celebrate, it is something to fear for those without Christ. It should not be taken lightly and doing so subtly treats it as somewhat of an anti-Easter, a holiday which celebrates when Christ conquered sin and death at His resurrection.

You might be thinking I’m thinking too hard about Halloween decorations and should just stay out of PartyCity for a while. (I try to do that anyway.) But I’ll reframe my earlier question: why celebrate death? Why not celebrate and treasure the one who frees us from death and grants us true life?

• In Christ, we have life, and His life was the light of men (John 1:4).
• In a world with so many empty promises and worthless discussion (Election 2016 anyone?), Christ’s words have the power of eternal life (John 6:68).
• Even though our safety is at best uncertain in a crazy world, we can be certain that neither death nor life nor anything in all of creation can separate God’s children from His love (Romans 8:38–39).

Let the words of Matt Maher’s song “Christ is Risen” echo in your hearts this Halloween:

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave

Christ is risen from the dead
We are one with him again
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave

Oh death! Where is your sting?
Oh hell! Where is your victory?
Oh Church! Come stand in the light!
The glory of God has defeated the night!

—

Two bonus Halloween thoughts:

1. Why not Celebrate Reformation Day instead? It is on the same day as Halloween and 2017 serves as the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing the 95 theses to the door in Wittenberg.
2. And for those of you wondering, yes, spell check does correct my last name to “Halloween.” 😉

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