Was Jesus a zombie? Please understand, there is no irreverence or shock value intended with this question. It was an honestly asked question from someone who was totally unfamiliar with church.
After I got over my shock of being asked this question (and a short time later I was asked it from someone else), I did a podcast that coincided with Halloween, but I think it is also appropriate for the Easter Season so I am re-recording it for Effective Church Communications.
The rest of the podcast is primarily directed towards people outside the church, but I'm sharing it with church communicators and I hope with Pastors and those who prepare sermons for Easter to help you remember that if you did a good job on outreach to get unchurched people to come to your church for Easter, you need to think carefully about the audience you'll have. Many more people than those of us who grew up in the church can imagine did not grow up with ANY exposure to the church or the Bible. The implications of that reality are vast. You can't count on them knowing anything about the true story of Jesus, but they will come into the church with many pop culture ideas about life after death. I can't tackle them all, but now I'd like to tackle just one aspect of it—the question of........
Was Jesus a Zombie?
When you think about it calmly, if you are someone who doesn't go to church regularly, it really is a very good question because the only conception many people have today of a person who has come back from the dead is a zombie. So when someone hears Jesus came back from the dead, that's immediately what they think about. Easter is all about Jesus coming back from the dead, but as we'll see in the podcast today, how Jesus came back from the dead is very different from coming back as a zombie.
So what do we know about Jesus coming back from the dead?
This is part of a larger question of how can we find out anything about him?
There are two ways we know about Jesus:
- The historical record in the Bible and contemporary writers of what Jesus was like when he came back from dead.
- What the people who know him now say he’s like.
The historical record of Jesus after his resurrection and based on that—what we can share with joy is that No!, Jesus was not a zombie—that all we know of him after his resurrection was that he was totally, completely and astoundingly ALIVE. Alive with power and love we can’t imagine.
No half-rotting, stumbling corpse, but alive flesh and blood that burst from the tomb.
He didn't try to terrify his followers or rebuke them for deserting him and leaving him to die a horrible death alone; he went after them, forgave them, answered fears and doubts and cooked them breakfast on the beach.
As they wrote later, Jesus was alive in such a real way that caused his fearful followers who ran away when he was crucified to leave everything and to be willing to die an equally horrible death to proclaim the LIFE he now showed them. Their belief in his gift of eternal life astounded contemporary writers and as we are told: “turned the world upside down.”
After he rose from the dead, he taught them for 40 days, as he had for the past three years and when it came time for him to leave he honored them with the charge to continue the work he started so that anyone who trusts him as forgiver of their sins and who sincerely wants to follow him could enter the forever LIFE he offered to share with them.
Even later, the visions the Apostle John saw of the resurrected Jesus in heaven are even more extraordinary, blinding light, rainbows, visions of angels and Jesus himself: king, warrior, intercessor, lion and lamb—the one who holds the keys of life and death and is alive forever.
Here is another amazing thing about Jesus for us now.
A zombie is the most imaginative afterlife humanity can conceive of on its own. Rotting, walking corruption—animated, but hardly alive a scary creature—one we run from.
But Jesus isn’t like zombies in another way. I remember reading Phillip Yancy’s book about Jesus wherein he said that because of Jesus resurrection and who he is that “he’s out there somewhere…”
That’s so true, but not in a scary, track you down, eat your brain zombie kind of way.
He’s out there looking for people to love, to forgive, to give HIS life to now and forever. Here are some of the ways Jesus said it:
“Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? I’m here inviting the sin-sick, not the spiritually-fit.” Mark 2:17, MSG
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. Matt 11:28-30
"I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of." John 10:10, MSG
If you want to meet Jesus, if you want the life he wants to share with you – just introduce yourself to him. Ask him in prayer to show you who he really is and how to have a relationship with him.
Read the Bible—the book of Mark is a quick, easy read and will tell you about Jesus. Get a modern translation like the Message or the Living Bible so you don’t get tripped up by the language. The more you read the Bible, the more you’ll learn about Him. I have another podcast, BIBLE 805 that will tell you lots more about it.
Visit a church—one of the best ways to get to know someone is by getting to know their friends. That’s what a church is—a group of people getting to know Jesus.
To sum it up. Jesus isn’t a half-dead zombie. He’s ALIVE.
If you don’t know him, he wants a forever relationship with you.
If you do know him, you don’t have to wait until you die to walk closely with him. Tell him you want to get to know him better now. I imagine few of us know him nearly as well as we could and all of us would do well to hear these words again:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly. Matt 11:28-30
Please, make it so Lord Jesus.
Resources to help you connect with people after Easter
Don't go AWOL! Your Easter Communications and Outreach aren't done when Easter is over!
https://wp.me/pDky9-2wV
People will have questions after Easter—how to help
https://wp.me/pDky9-1gQ
Love this, Yvon! From the title to the cultural perspective to the communications perspective, it’s a home run!