I'm going to assume that if you haven't read the Harry Potter books or seen the films by now you probably aren't going to—but just in case I'm wrong, this is your half-baked spoiler alert!
The story of how Tom Riddle secured his own immortality as he rose to power and took on the name Lord Voldemort is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. He learned of the process from a professor during his time at Hogwarts:
"Well, you split your soul, you see, and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged. But, of course, existence in such a form... few would want it, Tom, very few. Death would be preferable."
"How do you split your soul?"
"Well, you must understand that the soul is supposed to remain intact and whole. Splitting it is an act of violation, it is against nature."
"But how do you do it?"
"By an act of evil—the supreme act of evil. By committing murder. Killing rips the soul apart. The wizard intent upon creating a Horcrux would use the damage to his advantage: he would encase the torn portion—"As Hermione points out:
...the more I've read about them, the more horrible they seem, and the less I can believe that he actually made six. It warns in this book how unstable you make the rest of your soul by ripping it, and that’s just by making one Horcrux!Oh, and for those of you who have been counting, that was early enough that Hermione didn't know that he had, in fact, created seven!
So if seeking power over death is a horrible, corrupting, evil thing to do, what's the deal with the passage from Ezekiel for Sunday?
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord God, you know." Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord."
So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.Uh... that sounds like death magic. It sounds like Ezekiel just raised an army—no, a horde!—of undead minions! That can't be good, can it?
Of course it wouldn't be good for Ezekiel to raise an unnatural horde of undead! Luckily that's not what's happening here. For one thing, there's an interesting linguistic thing happening here that simply doesn't translate into English. In the Hebrew (in the Greek, too, for that matter) the words for "wind," "breath," and "spirit" are all the same word. So we aren't talking about a soul-less horde of undead, but rather a full resurrection. Even World of Warcraft differentiates between undeath and resurrection! Besides, the opening of the passage, "The hand of the Lord came up on me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord..." probably means that Ezekiel is having a vision—a dream. I'd argue that this interpretation of what's happening there is supported by what comes next:
Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel...It's a metaphor, people!
That's not to say that resurrection in itself is only a metaphor—like C.S. Lewis I have come to believe that the Jesus story, Resurrection included, is a powerful myth with the unlikely benefit of having actually happened. But maybe that's another post for another day. When I consider resurrection and what it all means to me, I find myself turning to Martin Bell's The Way Of The Wolf: The Gospel In New Images. When he writes about the Resurrection, Bell claims that there was nothing very "spectacular or remarkable" about it:
God revealed himself to be the same God who created the heavens and the earth and called his creation good... God raised Jesus from the dead to the end that we should be clear—once and for all—that there is nothing more important than being human. Our lives have eternal significance. And no one—absolutely no one—is expendable.This is an important revelation for all kinds of lovely and challenging reasons, but for the purpose of this post it means this—we don't have to be afraid of dying. And as Bell points out elsewhere:
You must never fear dying, my little friend, because fear of dying leads one to all sorts of futile and demonic attempts to preserve life. And life simply cannot be preserved.In the end, isn't that what stories of zombies and vampires and litches are trying to tell us? Wasn't that, ultimately, the root of Tom Riddle's sin? He tore off pieces of his soul and named his evil army the "Death Eaters" because he was afraid of dying. And fear of dying leads one to all sorts of futile and demonic attempts to preserve life.
And life simply cannot be preserved.
Be good to each other,
Rev. Josh
040114
The scripture lessons for April 6th—The Fifth Sunday of Lent Year A—are:
Ezekiel 37:1-14—Psalm 130—Romans 8:6-11—John 11:1-45
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