“They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him, and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; and shouting with a loud voice, he said, “ What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” Mark 5:1-8

“Graveyard Shift”, “Dead Ringer”

Has someone ever told you they are working the graveyard shift? Perhaps you have also heard someone referred to as a dead ringer? As an extension to yesterday’s devotion, if you were to be “saved by the bell” from your underground prison, someone had to stay among the graves at night to listen for the bell. That person who was hired to sit outside all night was working the graveyard shift to listen for these bells – to listen for the “dead ringer”.

There was a time when there was so much hysteria regarding this fate, of being “buried alive”, by mistake, that there were quite an array of devices invented so that the undead could escape their premature burials. Some of them were rather simple with spring loaded coffin lids that would open at the slightest movement inside. Others were much more complex — even using electrical switches, early dry cells and buzzers. For clarification purposes, there was never an actual documented case of any person ringing the bell and thus being saved. It must also be pointed out that this explanation is a bit of a controversy. Some disclaim this theory, saying that while the practice of reusing existing coffins did exist, it was a lot less common than reported. It has also been said that the term “graveyard shift” simply came from nautical origins when a person had the night shift on a vessel at sea and that the shift was named such for the extreme quietness and loneliness of the shift.

It has also been reported that the term ringer simply refers to an old devious practice regarding horse racing and betting in which a proven racehorse similar in looks was switched out for an old nag with a bad record in a race securing a long shot bet. Thus a dead ringer referred to an animal that you could not tell apart from the original without closer inspection.

The Gerasene Demoniac received a new life, just like those who might have been rescued from being buried prematurely in a coffin. In meeting Jesus, he received a new life, a new outlook, and a new mission — to tell others what G-d had done for him. My friends, what will it take for you to take on the mission of telling others what G-d has done for you? Will it take a new death experience? Or, will accepting that Jesus died for you be enough? Either way, Jesus rescues us nonetheless.

Pastor Dave

“Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.” John 11:38-44

“Saved By The Bell”

What does it mean to be “saved by the bell?” Well, for this explanation we must go back to England. If you look at a map, you’ll see that England is rather small. And when you live in a small territory, if there is a large population, you soon run out of places to bury people. So they devised a solution — to dig up the existing coffins out of the ground and take the bones to a bone house. They would then reuse the grave. Now, this sounds like a simple enough solution. However, while digging up the old caskets, they soon realized something profoundly disturbing — an average of about one in twenty five coffins that were dug up to be reused were found with horrific scratch marks on the inside. This, they determined, must mean that somehow people were being buried alive!

So, in order to avoid this happening in the future, they started placing a string on the wrist of the corpse before it went into the coffin. This string would lead through the coffin, and up through the ground and was tied to a bell on the ground. This way, it was thought, if what they thought was a corpse was indeed someone who was still alive, they could ring the bell and have a chance to be dug up.

The story of Lazarus being raised from the dead is certainly a story of someone who was saved – but not by a bell. He was saved by the only person on earth who could bring someone back from the dead – who had been in the tomb four days. In Jewish religious thinking of the time, the spirit of the deceased person stayed by the tomb for three days before moving on: “For three days after death the soul hovers over the body intending to reenter it.” (Lev. Rabbah 18:1)

For Lazarus to be in the tomb four days, then he was really, really dead. There would be no being “saved by the bell” – or saved by anything – or anyone. Except of course, Jesus, who is the “Resurrection and the life”.

The story of the raising of Lazarus certainly is a miracle – but the resurrection of Jesus is not just a miracle – it is the salvation we all need. And so to be sure we believe and trust in the resurrection of the dead, Jesus said that he was “the resurrection and the life.” Yes we may all die, but we will all live…into eternity.

Pastor Dave