Culturally, it seems we’ve already entered into the part of the story where our simmering sense of dread has given way to a growing awareness of a relentless dystopia — as the fog of all of the gaslight rhetoric begins to lift. Because just when our trust in nearly every institution has reached its lowest point – technology is now offering to edit our genes, implant cyborg enhancements, and give us an AI-assisted intellectual capacity. This is the very same technology that currently tethers us mindlessly to our backlit devices – devices, when they aren’t rotting our brains with hours of banality, are busy fear-mongering us with paranoid phobia about how “they” can’t be trusted and how “we” must stop “them.” All of which might have you wondering out loud – “So, what else could possibly go wrong?”
You might be tempted to see this as evidence of an apocalypse (i.e. a prophetic reading of the tea leaves in regards to the coming calamity of the end of the world and the final judgement that follows), instead of an apocalypse, as it is actually defined (i.e. a revealing of things that have always existed. . . now, becoming explicitly apparent). It’s a sign of the times, to be sure, but not as if from a script of events – but rather as another iteration of man’s hubris being undeniably exposed. Now, I know that doesn’t sound as sensational and exciting as a good old-fashioned “the sky is falling” apocalyptic endgame cataclysm . . . but it does involve zombies.
The walking dead, in comic books, movies, and TV – are creatures of pure impulse, mindlessly animated, herding together, consumed by an insatiable appetite for what will never satisfy. The stench of death is on everything they touch, and everything they do . . . and therefore death follows in their wake. And as it happens, this is an apt description of man’s fallen condition. All that is broken in the world, all that is contrary to existence itself – on some level has been inhabited by this zombie consciousness (Romans 7:24). And a culture that has accepted the materialist claim that we are nothing more than animated molecules — has already accepted this zombie framing of their own existence.
So when the times seem particularly crazy and dangerous, it’s not that we’ve entered into some eschatological endgame scenario – it’s just that the mask of a contrived pretense has fallen so that what has been all along might be revealed. Because this is who we are apart from God — when we openly deny that all things belong to God and vainly assume that we can somehow remake the world in our own image. This is what a culture looks like when it chooses to curse the light so that it might establish its own kingdom in the darkness of death. So, either we humbly submit to the reality by recognizing that we exist in God, or we continue to pretend that we self-exist – which in fact is a self-destructive attempt to return to the non-existence out of which God spoke us.
Jesus says “The thief comes only to steal andkill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). So when the (zombie) thieves show up to steal, kill, and destroy – we shouldn’t be surprised, because it’s always been this way. We should hold fast to our confession that it is Christ, and Christ alone, who can give us a real life-a – a full life. And according to John 14:6, Jesus describes himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” – so it could be said that when Jesus gives us life . . . he is actually offering us himself.
Therefore, let us exchange our life for the life that is Jesus…
This is an updated post originally published on Still Chasing Light
Featured Image by Pixabay
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