Death is not a pleasant reality to consider. In fact, it’s considered morbid to give it too much thought. But there are times in which death is paraded openly. And, as we face what we fear with much silliness and laughter, we’re reminded that the sting of death has been removed. We bring a holy humor to the reality of death as Christ has given us victory over the grave
In this way, parading around in the vestures of death is an act of faith and sacred defiance. We bring a light-hearted playfulness to it. To be sure, death is morbid when it’s just doom and gloom. But as we remember the work of Christ we can dance death in the streets because it has been ultimately defeated.
Of course, this is not to trivialize death. It still wounds and turns our worlds upside down as we face our mortality. And, with Jesus, we don’t have to hold back our tears when death comes for our loved ones. At the same time, we don’t have to run in fear from it because Christ has turned death on its head.
This allows us to be neither morbid nor flippant – but to laugh as those redeemed. The joke’s on death and the evil one, because what looked like defeat is now a point of celebration. Our mourning has been turned into dancing – not to deny the pain of death but to remember the joy of the resurrection.
In many ways, this is what we’ve done with the cross. What was once an instrument of torture, shame, and defeat is now adorned, polished, and paraded around for all to see. What was once a weapon of death has become the world’s most recognized symbol of life. And perhaps in a small way this is the truth we’re gesturing toward when we dress up and have fun with the symbols of death in other ways.
In the end, just as the cross has turned death inside out, we join in the joke and laugh at death, not to make light of it, but to remember Christ already holds the keys to death and the grave.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
