The Living Dead

I don’t watch zombie, vampire, and monster movies. It’s just not my thing. I must admit that I do like sci-fi, and I am quite fond of hobbits (don’t judge me). Not, zombies. While on a long flight, with nothing to do, I found myself watching a zombie movie called, Warm Bodies. In my defense, the confined space and constant hum of a long flight has caused many to watch things I would not otherwise. This movie is currently in constant rotation on cable.

The basic premise of this movie is a young zombie is just drifting through death without any quality connection. The only time we see him move fast is when he is pursuing his passion (food or humans, us). This is pretty standard for a zombie.

We actually get to hear his thoughts as he is trying to make sense of his existence. We see a shift in him when he falls for a young girl (who is not a zombie), and he slowly begins to come to life. Not only that, every zombie that he comes in contact with starts to come to life as well. The love that these two, the human and the zombie, have is spreading like a virus, and the dead are coming back to life. Pretty cool, huh?

I, like many pastors are prone to do, saw the spiritual connections (I know, real “preachery” of me). But, come on, this one was so easy to see. We are all like zombies at some point. The Bible says,

“As for you, don’t you remember how you used to just exist? Corpses, dead in life, buried by transgressions, wandering the course of this perverse world. You were the offspring of the prince of the power of air—oh, how he owned you, just as he still controls those living in disobedience.” Ephesians 2:1-2 (Voice)

I remember my zombie days. I would just shuffle from place to place trying to make sense of my existence. The only time you would see real movement from me was when I was pursuing pleasure like food, sex, affirmation, significance, etc. I was the walking dead. The lights were on, but no one was home. I used to be the living dead.

The cool thing is, when we come in contact with love we come to life. God is love! Once our heart lights come on, we become infectious. Everybody around us has the opportunity to go from death to life. I remember people telling me that I would eventually calm down or that this new life thing I was experiencing was just religious zeal that would fade over time. But, no, I was dead, now I am alive! I never wanted to go back to that old dead way of living.

This is what happened to me,

“But God, with the unfathomable richness of His love and mercy focused on us, united us with the Anointed One and infused our lifeless souls with life—even though we were buried under mountains of sin—and saved us by His grace.” Ephesians 2:4-5 (Voice)

What I saw in the movie, Warm Bodies, was similar to the same process that brought me to life. This is the same process that we all must come to if we are going to experience life, real life! We who are dead must encounter God and His love, which is displayed through the cross of Jesus Christ. Allowing him to infect us with life and spread that life to others. Then, and only then do we experience life, abundant life.