Ghouls, ghosts, and the strange grace of Halloween.
Plus, a Reformation Day hymn from Martin Luther.
For many, today represents the holiday of Halloween, during which all manner of ghoulish and spooky phenomena are relished and, in a way, parodied as children are bedecked in garish costumes and are handed candy just because. There is a faction of theologically inclined thinkers who have determined that it is within their purview to denounce this holiday for its paganism and apparent celebration of the macabre. Their annual essays do nothing but serve as Puritanical killjoys on this otherwise amusing holiday. This, to be sure, is the opinion of yours truly despite having been raised in fundamentally conservative circles in which the grisly iconography of Halloween was congenially detested. While my parents gave no real thought to the holiday, one way or the other, neither playing along nor forbidding its enjoyment, the general tenor of the Christianity in which we were inundated as a family said that Halloween was “the devil’s holiday.”
This, of course, is decidedly untrue. Although I do not wish to digress into a fully-fledged apologetic for Halloween or, more accurately, All Hallows’ Eve, there is something to be said for the fact those who belong to Christ and are, to use the Pauline phrase, “in Christ” are free to stare Death in the face and quite gleefully declare, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). The threat of death is toothless for those who have been raised with Christ Jesus in the glory and grace of his resurrection from the dead. Indeed, the ineffaceable anthem of the Christian gospel announces that “Death [has been] swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor. 15:54). Accordingly, as kids in your neighborhood or even in your own house don sinister attire from head to toe, rather than a “celebration,” perhaps we should interpret this as a fundamental act of satirizing Death’s apparent sway over us since, in Christ, we are already “more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37).
The frustrations inherent to Halloween are, to be sure, indicative of its commercialization, much like its hallowed holiday cousin in December. As with anything else, the devil does his darnedest to twist and subvert what God has called good. Suffusing All Hallows’ Eve with the apparent “glorification” of the lurid and grotesque is his way of sabotaging what remains a persistent point of hope for the people of God — namely, the shockingly gracious victory Christ wins for sinners over sin, Satan, and death. After all, there is no more poignant image of Christian triumph than that which was first declared to Adam and Eve: that the Son of the woman would arrive to crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15; cf. Rom. 16:20). Within that gory announcement lies a message of grace, hope, and peace for those who believe and receive it by faith. “Halloween,”
recently asserted, “should remind us of the hope of eternal life, a hope strong enough to drown out the fear of death.”Part of me wants to press this matter even further by drawing your attention to what is revealed to St. John in Chapter 12 of Revelation, which showcases the spectacular defeat of “the great dragon” and those who share in his subduing by being arrayed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev. 12:11). I will, for the moment, resist that prompting only to remind you that without an acceptance of the macabre, the mercy of God manifest in Christ holds little value. Therefore, although the church doesn’t “celebrate” it, it can and rightfully does remember the hideousness of its conditions prior to Christ and, in so doing, it is enveloped by the remarkable announcement of grace that tells us that the holy Christ of God took up residence within that hideous state of sin and rebellion in order to “reconcile to himself all things” (Col. 1:20). This, quite fittingly, is what makes Martin Luther’s hymn “Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice” (Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein) so enthralling — namely, the grisly backdrop of sin that Luther depicts, especially in the second stanza:
Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly o’er me,
My sin oppressed me night and day,
Therein my mother bore me;
Deeper and deeper still I fell,
Life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.
To those and for those rotting away in “the domain of darkness,” Christ the Lord intervenes and interposes, dragging the feckless, foul, and filthy out from under the grip of death by dying and rising again for the sake of the world (Col. 1:13–14). It was the divine objective of God’s Son to “slay bitter death for” us, as Luther puts it later on, so that we might live with him forever. The good news tells us that this has been accomplished, that this word is true, and that this word is for us. Accordingly, those who have been made alive in, with, and because of Christ are free to lampoon death’s sting. Halloween, from a certain point of view, is a gift of grace to behold. All that is unsettling and grim is reconciled by the one who willingly dons the stench of death so that we who are dying might live. To borrow the words of that feisty German reformer — who, of course, incited the Reformation with his infamous publishing of the Ninety-Five Theses on Halloween, no less — the gospel’s abiding invitation is, “Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice!”
Dear Christians, one and all rejoice,
With exultation springing,
And with united heart and voice
And holy rapture singing.
Tell how our God beheld our need,
And sing His sweet and wondrous deed;
Right dearly it hath cost Him.
Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,
Death brooded darkly o’er me,
My sin oppressed me night and day,
Therein my mother bore me;
Deeper and deeper still I fell,
Life had become a living hell,
So firmly sin possessed me.
My good works could avail me naught,
For they with sin were stained;
Free-will against God’s judgment fought,
And dead to good remained;
Grief drove me to despair, and I had nothing left me but to die,
To hell I fast was sinking.
Then God beheld my wretched state
With deep commiseration;
He thought upon His mercy great,
And willed my soul’s salvation;
He turned to me a Father’s heart—
Not small the cost! — to heal my smart,
He gave His best and dearest.
He spake to His beloved Son:
’Tis time to take compassion;
Then go, my heart’s most precious crown,
And bring to man salvation;
From sin and sorrow set him free,
Slay bitter death for him, that he
May live with Thee forever.
The Son His Father did obey,
And, born of virgin-mother,
He came awhile on earth to stay,
That He might be my brother.
His mighty power He hidden bore,
A servant’s form like mine, He wore,
To lead the Devil captive.
He spake to me: “Hold fast by me,
I am thy rock and castle;
I wholly give myself for thee,
For thee I strive and wrestle;
For I am thine, and thou art mine,
Henceforth my place is also thine;
The foe shall never part us.
“The foe shall shed my precious blood,
Me of my life bereaving;
All this I suffer for thy good;
Be steadfast and believing.
Life shall from death the victory win,
Mine innocence shall bear thy sin,
So art thou blest forever.
“Now to my Father I depart,
From earth to heaven ascending,
Thence heavenly wisdom to impart,
The Holy Spirit sending;
He shall in trouble comfort thee,
Teach thee to know and follow me,
Into all truth shall guide thee.
“What I have done and taught do thou
To do and teach endeavor;
So shall my kingdom flourish now,
Take heed lest men with base alloy
The heavenly treasure should destroy;
This counsel I bequeath thee.”
(310–12)
Grace, peace, and a Happy Reformation Day to you, my friends!
Works cited:
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (St. Louis, MO: Concordia, 1918).