At Halloween – a nightmare in the Middle East

This week is Halloween – but irrespective of how ghoulish the costumes some may be looking forward to wearing might be, there will be nothing more terrifying this year than the nightmare that is currently being experienced by so many in the Middle East and, let’s not forget, Ukraine.

The word ‘Halloween’ is a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, the day which proceeds All Hallows’ or All Saints’ Day, the latter being an annual Christian celebration dating back to the first millennia when loved ones who have died in the faith are remembered and comfort is drawn by those who remain from recognising that, because of the sure and certain hope of the resurrection, death holds no fear for those who, believing the Christian gospel, have put their trust in Jesus Christ.

Over time this day of solemn remembrance of those who had departed extended to include the night before and children would dress up as ghosts and such like in order to take part in a ‘Dance macabre’ to celebrate the victory Christ won over the forces of darkness. Far then from celebrating evil, the original point of Halloween was to poke a little fun at death in much the same way that the apostle Paul does in his first letter to the Corinthians when he taunts that last great enemy with the words ‘O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ [1 Corinthians 15:55]

And this is why I am not as entirely negative about Halloween as some of my Christian friends. Admittedly, whether it is by wandering the streets dressed as zombies or by attending parties in the guise of vampires, most people who mark Halloween these days do so without giving any thought to Jesus’ wonderful victory over death. But just because it has been so commercialised that it is now the third highest grossing festival of the year, that doesn’t mean that Christians should have nothing to do with Halloween. Far from it! For if that were the case, then Christians should surely also refrain from celebrating those other great Christian festivals which have been similarly secularised and today are enjoyed by many who do not find time to reflect on the glorious fact that ‘the word became flesh’ at Christmas and, having been crucified on Good Friday, rose to life again on Easter Day.

But of course, just as Christmas can become all about acquiring everything on your Amazon wish list and Easter nothing more than an opportunity to eat too many chocolate eggs, not everything about Halloween is to be commended. Evil should not be celebrated and the intimidation of vulnerable people by those who go trick or treating in such a way that some are forced to switch off all the lights in their house and pretend they’re not at home is, of course, totally unacceptable. Even so, it is nonetheless true that, done in the right spirit and remembering what Halloween is really all about, trick or treating can actually help bring communities together.

Furthermore, just as fairy tales serve the very useful function of allowing children to face up to the darker aspects of their lives and, through those stories, see that the things they are frightened of can be overcome, so too some appropriate recognition of the existence of evil can help children see that, with Jesus a reality in their lives, they have nothing to ultimately fear.

Because pretending that evil does not exist does not help our children. And all the more so when, as now, it is all too apparent in our world.

Rather then than being concerned about how Halloween may adversely affect our children, perhaps we should be more concerned about the very real harm Disney films can do with their continually insisting to our young people that everyone is awesome. Furthermore, their dishonest assurances that everyone can be whatever they want to be are conveyed whilst minimising the very real existence of the pain and disappointment that eventually marks all our lives.

So, whilst I understand why some Christians are uneasy about Halloween, concerned as they are that it may encourage an unhealthy interest in occult practices such as attempting to communicate with the dead, something which, incidentally, the Bible expressly forbids, for me Halloween is an opportunity to talk about Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, a death that paid the penalty for all our sin, and assures us that when we die, rather than it being the end, it will be but a gateway to eternal life with God, a never ending existence in a new heaven and a new earth where our loving Heavenly Father will wipe away our every tear and ensure that death and evil will be no more.

And so until then I will, on occasions, enjoy poking a little fun at death whilst never forgetting that my confidence for so doing comes only from knowing that ‘He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world’ [1 John 4:4].

Furthermore I will not be afraid to die confident as I am that at the cross Satan was so completely defeated that we can all be absolutely sure that ‘Death [really has been] swallowed up in victory’ [1 Corinthians 15:54].

Today, in far too many parts of the world, death may seem to have the upper hand. But the reality is very different.

And with that in mind I hope you all have a frightfully happy and ultimately wholly reassuring Halloween!

***

As will be clear from what I’ve already written, I am a Christian. Perhaps some of you are asking yourselves, if the God I say I believe in exists, why doesn’t He do something to stop the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. This is, of course, a fair question, one to which I do not have the answer.

Others, no doubt, will be those who say that these wars are signs that we are now living in the last days. To a degree I believe that they are right – but only in the sense that the Bible speaks of the last days beginning some 2000 years or so ago. But whether we are now seeing those last days drawing to an end, or whether they will continue on for another 2000, 20,000 or 200,000 years, this is something I do not know either.

It would seem then that there is much that I do not know. Furthermore there is much that I do not understand and much that I wish was different to how it is. Even so, there remain some things that I do know, some things about which I believe we can all be certain.

1. God is still in control. Nearly 3000 years ago King Uzziah died, and the future seemed very uncertain for the people he ruled over. Isaiah, however, saw beyond the immediate political uncertainty. ‘In the year that King Uzziah died, [he] saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. [Isaiah 6:1].

Here is a picture of a God who is utterly in command. I believe he still is today. As in the year that Russia invaded Ukraine, so too in the year that war broke out in the Middle East – God remains on the throne.

2. What barbarically violent individuals mean for evil, God means for good – irrespective of how unable we are to see or even imagine what that good might be [Genesis 50:20].

God has a habit of working in mysterious ways and though it may sometimes grieve him to do so, we shouldn’t perhaps be too surprised if, on occasions, He is want to operate outside our way of thinking. It is after all He who is God, not us. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are [His] ways higher than [our] ways and [his] thoughts than [our] thoughts’ [Isaiah 55:9].

When Jesus was crucified most who looked on saw nothing but defeat. How, they thought, can a dead Messiah save anyone?

And yet there was one, the second thief who hung on a neighbouring cross, who saw that the bleeding, dying man next to him remained a King and, what’s more, one who, far from defeated was, even through his death, securing a victory that would last for all time. Similarly then, God can, and will, bring something genuinely good out of what is currently, self evidently, so dreadfully bad.

3. ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble’ [James 4:6]. Make no mistake God is against all who seek to oppress – even if He is currently allowing those individuals to act in the way they are.

‘The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble’ [Psalm 9:9] ‘The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed’ [Psalm 103:6].

Even if it takes longer than we would like, we can, therefore, be sure that ultimately those in the wrong will be defeated, righteousness will prevail and love will triumph over all that is evil.

4. God is with those who suffer. Even though there will be those who, even today, walk through the valley of the shadow of death, they need fear no evil, for God is with them, his rod and his staff will comfort them [Psalm 23:4]. God has promised to never leave us of forsake us and not even death can separate us from the love of God. [Romans 8:38-39].

Now don’t make a mistake. I am not offering here a platitudinous ‘Smile, Jesus loves you‘ to the people of the Middle East and Ukraine and suggesting that those facing such terrifying days should simply cheer up and not worry. On the contrary. Though it is most certainly true that Jesus does indeed love those caught up in the conflicts, I fear that their suffering will be huge, their sorrow intense, and their anguish all too real. Even so I believe that there is yet hope, a certain hope, because there is a God of love who cares for those who are currently being so dreadfully afflicted.

And neither am I suggesting that we in the West should simply ‘Let go and let God’. A high regard for God’s sovereignty does not mean we should stand back and look on from a distance, comforting ourselves by imagining we have no role to play ourselves. Just as my believing that God has set the day of my death does not mean that I no longer need to look both ways when I cross the road, so too my belief that God is in control of the situation in the Middle East does not mean that I should not act to help where I can.

And help we all most certainly can. We can both petition and support world leaders as they seek to undertake the near impossible job of trying to decide what best can be done to help those caught up in the conflict. Many of us will be able to offer financial support for the huge humanitarian aid effort that is already needed and some of us may find ourselves in a position to offer physical physical too.

And all of us can pray, really pray – to the God who is really there and who really does care.

I am of course very well aware that it is easy to write this from a distance, that it is easier sometimes to believe things theoretically than it is to do so in practice. But I hope and pray that I will both believe and count on all this being true when my time comes to die, be that comfortably in my bed at a ripe old age, or as a violent consequence of an escalation of the wars that we are now seeing play out in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

For tonight though my heart breaks for the people of the Middle East and Ukraine with the news reports that continually emerge from these areas of the world move me to tears. And so until an opportunity affords itself for me to help in perhaps more tangible ways, my prayers are for the men, women and children whose future currently appears so uncertain.

Please do join me.

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Related posts:

To read ‘T.S. Eliot, Jesus and the Paradox of the Christian Life’, click here

To read “Why do bad things happen to good people – a tentative suggestion”, click here

To read “Luther and the global pandemic – on becoming a theologian of the cross”, click here

To read “Suffering- A Personal View”, click here.

To read ‘on the FALLEN and the FELLED’, click here

To read ‘On NOT leaving your comfort zone’, click here

To read “Hope comes from believing the promises of God”, click here

To read ‘Looking back to move confidently forward’, click here

To read ‘The Resurrection – is it just rhubarb?’, click here

To read ‘Faith and Doubt’, click here

To read ‘What becomes of the broken hearted? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Palm Sunday’, click here

To read ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Sorrowful yet always rejoicing on Good Friday’, click here

To read ‘Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things? Rejoicing, though temporarily sorrowful, on Easter Day’, click here.