One movie that can always make me laugh, you might even call it a ‘classic,’ is Monty Python and the Holy Grail. One of the scenes is of a man bringing his nearly deceased father out for the “death cart” during the plague when he says “I’m not dead yet!”
This is a bit of “dark humor” on the part of Money Python, but could you imagine that in real life? In the late 1800s it was actually a fairly common occurrence for someone to be pronounced dead who was really “mostly dead” (see “The Princess Bride”).
There are modern examples of this too, though they are thankfully far fewer in occurrence.
I found an article about A Venezuelan (hooray for socialized medicine!) man named Carlos Camejo who was pronounced dead, but when they went to do the autopsy on him, the doctor found it curious that this “dead body” was bleeding… it was as though his heart was still beating… AND IT WAS!!!
Horrifying! Edgar Allan Poe wrote a short story called “The Premature Burial” tapping into this primal fear of being thought dead but really being alive.
One of the 7 churches to whom the letter of Revelation in the Bible is addressed is Sardis. They had the opposite problem spiritually. On the outside they looked like they were doing fine, but they had problems, Jesus said they were really dead. The solution is to remember God’s word, what was received and heard by them. They are offered the chance to repent and “wake up!”
This is a call for all believers. You may have the reputation as a “Christian person,” but you can’t fool God. You either follow Jesus or you don’t, there’s no middle ground. Turn away from your apathy, selfishness, and whatever keeps you from fully trusting and embracing Jesus. How will you spend your week, in service to the Lord, or pursuing your own desires? Don’t be like Sardis, wake up!
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
