Raising the dead, with and without hope

As Easter approaches, raising the dead is at the forefront of my mind. But I think of a different vision of resurrected dead, zombies. The popular monsters reanimate as gruesome bodies; their essential natures, spirits, or souls are absent. Zombies are a reckoning of the horror of the dead coming back to life. Their shambling presence is a cruel mimicry of the living.

Some claim that Jesus was a zombie. Easter becomes Zombie Jesus Day, a time to reflect on the living dead and eat lots of chocolate. With these monsters, however, resurrection is tragic. Hope disappears.

In February, Walter Williams made national news when he came back to life. He died at his home under care of a hospice nurse and his family. When the coroner checked Williams’s body, he found no pulse. Williams was placed in a body bag and delivered to Porter and Sons Funeral Home in Lexington, Mississippi. While on the embalming table, he began to kick and breathe. The coroner proclaimed that Williams’s return to life was a miracle from God. His daughter, Mary, later affirmed that God brought her father back to life because of his faith. Not surprisingly, the unexplained event garnered much attention. Was this an example of the miraculous? Was this an act of God? It was for Williams’s family as they gained something that other families often wish for, a little more time with the departed. Sadly, the 78-year-old died two weeks later of natural causes.