Halloween? About
Death & the Devil
A few years ago my wife and I were fortunate to be able to take a
week's vacation at Lake Chelan in Washington state, not that far over the
border from where we live. As is often our custom when away on a Sunday, we
visited one of the local churches. We have had many wonderful experiences doing
this over the years.
This just happened to be the Sunday before Halloween. Now, as we all
know, Halloween has become greatly 'überdone' as a special event in the calendar
year. Indeed, most of what we see in our North American context is anything but
hallowed. And if that isn't enough, many now have to include the day before
Halloween to try and accomplish more wickedness. In fact, some call it 'Devil's Night', others 'Mischief Night'.
Halloween has also become a huge business, which is typical of
anything in the USA especially. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, it's Halloween
all the way, at least in Canada. In the US of course, Thanksgiving comes almost
a month after Halloween, so, ironically, they may actually be spared some of
the hoopla about Halloween we have here.
But I digress somewhat; I was not intending to write a feature about
Halloween. We attended a Nazarene church that Sunday and the pastor spoke on
the devil, which was appropriate, considering what was coming up the day after.
He talked about how Halloween is about ghosts, goblins and other creatures we
associate with the other world, particularly that of the world of those who
have experienced death. He also spoke then of how the skeleton, gravestones,
coffins etc. are such common motifs in all things to do with Halloween in the
secular sense.
The points that the pastor made about all of this is that we should
not be surprised. It is because of the devil that we have death. Indeed, one
could say, as he basically did, that the devil is all about death. As the
pastor said, that's all he can do. He can't create anything as our God does.
Therefore, he can't make anything good. Indeed, from what we know of his
intentions, they are just to make bad what God has created good.
So, next time Halloween rolls around, think of the devil trapped in
his limitations. Not that we should feel sorry for him by any means. We do need
to have certain respect for him in terms of acknowledging his existence and
what he is about and, as Christians, with Jesus' power resist him. As I wrote in
my other blog entry today, Jesus has defeated death and the devil. Jesus came
to bring us life; the devil can only come to bring us death. So what does this
really say about what Halloween in our modern society is all about?
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