Living With the Dead

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” [1.John 5:12]

Around the 14th century A.D., thousands of poor and homeless people who were seeking shelter began squatting in tombs in an area of Cairo, Egypt. Can you imagine living in a tomb with the dead? It would be repulsive to most of us, yet the City of the Dead is a real place that I saw years ago while visiting the northern part of Cairo. It’s actually the strangest cemetery I’ve ever seen. The word “cemetery” is, in fact, a misnomer because this graveyard is teeming with life and activity.

Over a period of hundreds of years, the great rulers of ages past built acres and acres of huge and elaborate mausoleums and tombs. At that time, tradition dictated that each tomb be built with its own “party room” – which eventually became habitations for the homeless. The 1992 Cairo earthquake forced even more people to live in the City of the Dead, often in family tombs.

Strangely, this cemetery, which measures about four miles in length, is now classified as a suburb of Cairo. It has its own zip code, post office, police station, shops, electricity, running water, and sewer system. It’s also rather creative how the residents made use of the smaller gravestones by turning them into washing lines or tables. People actually live and conduct their lives in and around these tombs – working, sleeping, cooking, and eating – surrounded by their silent, macabre neighbors.

The Bible teaches there are only two classes of people, the living and the dead. You might think this is an obvious statement but, according to the Word of God, not all of the living are alive and not all of the dead are dead. Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60). On another occasion, He said, “ …have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Jesus offers us this promise: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). Aren’t you glad God gives us that kind of reassurance of eternal life with Him?