Sermon #226
Sermon #4 in Sin Series
March 10, 2013 - Alum Creek Church
What Zombies Teach us About the World
In 1968 George Romero released what would become the high standard of horror movies:
Night of the Living Dead. I think we are going to include that movie in this summer's movie
series, so we'll be able to talk about it some more. In Night of the Living Dead, it appears as
though radiation has fallen from a satellite that has caused the dead to come back to life, but not
fully back to life. This is no resurrection story. These walking dead are known as, of course,
zombies. And Night of the Living Dead is the standard zombie movie by which all other zombie
movies are judged.
That movie came out forty-five years ago, but I'm not sure that zombies have ever been
more popular than they are right now. It seems as though everywhere you look there are
zombies - whether it's in the movies, television shows, in video games, and now . . . in church.
Zombies are everywhere!
It's usually a safe bet to consider that when things become this popular, there is a reason.
Something is happening within our culture. Zombie movies have always been a part of the
theater scene, but they've never been as mainstream as they have become over the past few years.
The Walking Dead has become a huge television phenomenon. Nearly 13 million people
watched the first episode a few weeks ago when they started back up. It nearly beat American
Idol - and among adults in the key demographic 18 - 49, it scored even higher than American
Idol. How many of you watch the Walking Dead? What a great show! But what is wrong with
us, watching these flesh-eating zombie shows?
I think that the zombie storyline has something to teach us about God and about sin. I
think the questions that these filmmakers and writers are wrestling with are the same questions
we've been wrestling with in our series on sin. Now as we get started this morning, I figured the
best thing that we could do is to assemble a panel of zombie experts. So, if I could get the
following folks up here . . . John, Clark, Ben, Marshall - they are going to spend some time
informing us about zombies.
[Spent about five minutes going over different characteristics of zombies: they're dead or
are infected, you have to kill them through their brain, they gather in herds, they are singularly
focused on finding food, they disregard their own well-being in order to get what they want, etc.]
When you think about it, there's actually quite a bit about zombies that resonates with the
Bible.
One thing I think that is especially telling about zombie movies is that the zombies are
always a man-made problem. In every zombie film, we have created the problem. They are
never dropped down from outer space like aliens - that's what sets them apart as villains - we've
created them. Actually, even more than that, we are them.
That's what makes The Walking Dead so great. The show isn't about man versus zombie
- I mean it is about that - but more than that, it's about man versus zombie and man versus man.
We are our own worst enemies. Humans have helped create the zombies through pollution,
some kind of contagion (often through biological weapons research), or whatever. But what the
zombie apocalypse does is help illustrate just how fallen man is. We can't even get together in
the worst of circumstances. Even when we have a clear and obvious common enemy - we turn
on each other. These writers are better in touch with sin than we are a lot of times. They know
the depths of the infection. They take man's falleness very seriously.
Another great parallel about zombies is that they are a shell of a person. That's the heartwrenching part of so many zombie movies and television shows. It's not some strange otherworldly monster like Freddy Kreugger, Michael Myers, or Swamp Thing. It's your Aunt Betty,
your neighbor George, or even your own child or spouse. There's enough of them there to be
recognizable, but clearly it's not them. Just a shell.
It's almost like there's a zombie in all of us. Just waiting to be released. In the Walking
Dead, it's an infection and everyone has the infection. As soon as they die, they will come back
as a zombie. And its highly contagious. If anyone gets bitten by a zombie - game over. They
don't even have to wait to become a zombie.
The parallels to our life in sin are obvious. One of the most difficult passages to read out
loud in the Bible is Paul's treatment of sin in Romans 7. I'll do my best . . . but consider how
Paul sounds like he knows a thing or two about zombies here.
Read Romans 7: 7 - 25.
Paul describes himself as the walking dead. "What a wretched man I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death?" I suppose in today's vernacular we could translate this,
"Who will save me from being a zombie!?"
We are all zombies. Wrestling with the inner desires and thoughts we have to do things
that are contrary to our nature, contrary to the will of God. Like zombies we walk around, solely
focused on pleasure - on ourselves - disregarding the well-being of others, ignoring the fact that
every choice and decision we make impacts others. We're caught up in a system that oppresses
people, that kills and tortures people, that allows evil things to happen, and yet we tend to get
guilt ridden over eating too much dessert or spending too much at the mall.
We've talked in recent weeks about how we must learn to live with the fact that our
purchases and way of life negatively impact other people around the world and that, in many
ways, there is not a lot that we can do about it. But we must never allow ourselves to be
complacent. We must never let ourselves ignore it. We can learn to live with it, but we should
never stop letting it move us. We are sinners. Our livelihood causes havoc on others. We
inadvertently oppress other people. We have a role to play in the wars of the world. When we
start telling ourselves, "We're not that bad" . . . we believe a lie that Satan has planted in our ears.
In C. S. Lewis' great book, The Screwtape Letters, and in his correspondence with the demon Mr.
Wormwood, the devil tells him, " I, the devil, will always see to it that there are bad people. Your
job, my dear Wormwood, is to provide me with the people who do not care"
People who do not care . . . sounds a little bit like zombies . . . roaming around . . . only
half-conscience of the world they live in, completely ignoring the impact that they have on
others.
Martin Luther helps us connect zombies to theology. He coined the Latin phrase "simul
justus et peccator which is translated "at the same time saint and sinner" - poetically describing
the struggle Paul sets forth in Romans between what he wants to do and what he actually does.
He went on to say, "Be a sinner and sin boldly . . . but, believe more boldly and rejoice in Christ
who is victor over sin, death, and the world."1
The beauty of the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden is that it helps us make sense of
the world in which we live. Just the other day I heard someone relaying a terrible event that
1
Quoted in Ted Peters. Sin: Radical Evil and the Soul of Society. (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans Publishing co.,
1994), 192.
happened to an elderly man and someone responded by saying, "What's wrong with people?"
How many times have we asked that same question? What's wrong with people? How can
people do the kinds of evil things that they do? Day in and day out, the news covers stories of
drug deals and murders, pollution and ecological disasters, wars and fighting, lawsuits and
divorces, rape and child soldiers . . . is there any end to the wickedness of man?
Returning to Genesis and reading further, we are reminded again of how serious the
predicament of sin is as well as how quickly is spreads. From Adam and Even to Can and Abel,
by the time we come to the story of Noah, the prognosis is fatal.
Read Genesis 6: 11 - 13.
Start over. Redo. Every thought of every mind was nothing but evil every day.
And so God send the rain: you remember the song, "The rains came down and the floods
came . . . the rains came down and the floods came up" . . . well that was a different story, but it
works! And so Noah and his family are going to get it right this time . . .
And no sooner do we turn to Genesis 11, and there the people have come together to
make great temple or tower so that "they could make a name for themselves."
What's wrong with people, indeed?
We know the answer to this one. It's sin. That's what's wrong with "people." That's
what's wrong with us.
Man's relationship with God has been fractured.
Man's relationship with fellow man has been fractured.
Man's relationship with nature has been fractured.
Man's relationship within himself has also been fractured.
What Wolfhart Pannenberg says is that "sin is the universal failure to achieve our human
destiny."2
Man's destiny is to live with God in unity, walking alongside him in the cool of the day but that has been fractured. Man's destiny is to live in peace and harmony with brothers and
sisters of all different colors and shapes and sizes - but that has been fractured. Man's destiny is
to live in peaceful harmony with creation - eating renewable fruits and berries and not harming
the creation - but that too has been fractured. Man's destiny is completion - to live as one within
himself - but that too has been fractured.
As Cornelius Plantigna has told us - "it's not the way it's supposed to be."
We all know it. We feel it. We see it all around us. We feel the distance between us and
God. We are all too well aware of the bitterness and difficulty that exists in our relationships.
"Why can't we all just get along? is our regular mantra. We are reminded daily of the rift
between us and the creation around us. We deal daily with our own internal demons reminding
us of our fractured self. Again, we empathize with the words of Paul "Who will rescue me from
this body of death?"
The big difference between the living and the zombies is the reality of hope. There is no
hope for zombies. They are soulless. They are simply empty tombs of life. They will all,
eventually, be killed, or roam aimlessly around for eternity. But no so for humanity. For
humans, there is hope. Hebrews 6: 19 states, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm
and secure."
I think where the Walking Dead really resonates with us, is that they don't give up. There
seems to be plenty of reason to. The main characters see death and decay all around them . . .
2
2. 252.
Wolfhart Pennenberg. Systematic Theology (trans. G. W. Bromiley; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994),
they suffer the losses of family members and members of their close community . . . and still
they press on. They maintain a kernel of hope, though they often ask, "Why?"
How much do we sound like that? In the midst of extremely difficult circumstances?
Mountains that seem insurmountable? Evil that just seems unending? And yet we press on.
Seeking transformation. Living in sanctification. Allowing the blood of Jesus to cleanse us.
Coming to terms with the extent of sin in our lives better helps us appreciate the grace
that covers us. May his grace continue to rain down on us all . . . because as we've been
reminded this morning . . . we are in desperate need of it.