Shackled to a Corpse

Yes, you read the title correctly. It is the title of an episode of one of my favorite historical programs, The First World War. The only television experience more likely to drive my wife crazy is The Civil War by Ken Burns.

The corpse in question was the Austro-Hungarian Empire to which Imperial Germany was yoked during the First World War. This European power was at the end of its long life, although it didn't yet know it. Composed of a dizzying array of cultures, languages, and religions it had little to hold it together. Internal violence and discord were high and led to the events that launched the Great War. And the empire's demise.

This phrase, "shackled to a corpse" has been haunting the edges of my mind this week. How many corpses - dead things, heavy things - are linked to me and drain my energy as I drag them behind me? You don't need much imagination (and I am sure it's better if you don't have much) to realize what dragging a dead body around attached to your ankle would be like. A morbid image at best. But one that fits well not only the waning days of the German Empire, which World War I also brought to its own end, but also how we often live.

Jesus tells a man in Matthew 8:22 (NIV) "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." These words always sounded harsh to me. The man tells Jesus he has to bury his father first and then will follow him. Not bury his own dad? But my thoughts this week and last bring this into focus . I have all kinds of dead things hanging on to my life. God wants me to live a new life, not a new life that is still encumbered with the things of death to which we are so often drawn. I keep thinking - "I will bury this one day." And it just keeps dragging behind me.

Maybe I have some burying to do of my own, or at least some things to let bury themselves.