Dictators bluster on about the significance of their ascendency, they parade their military and they flex their muscle. They want people to believe they're unbeatable. They know that if people are scared, they'll be rendered immobile like how the Basilisk would scare a person so much that they froze where they stood, terrified half to death. That's what evil likes to do.
Of course in a universe that cares not or feels nothing there's nothing to say that all its boasts aren't accurate after all. Death is so final and the passage of time and its onward march toward it is so unstoppable, we'd be foolish not to be afraid. And so we scare ourselves by getting as close as we can to evil, to prove to ourselves that we're braver and that evil's tamer than our fears make out. We toy with the serpent while its a baby so we can have confidence around it when its fully grown.
Very rarely do people dress up in costume or go trick-or-treating to glorify evil. Mostly they do it to get sweets, or they do it to feel alive and release some of life's pressure. Ultimately I believe we dress up for Halloween because we're scared of death and by dressing up, we take some control over the things beyond our control. Dressing up as evil and scary things, saying 'boo' to a child dressed as a ghost is a way of claiming some control over the things you're terrified of; and the honest truth is we're right to be afraid.
I have a friend who loves Halloween and goes to town with the elaborate ways that he tries to scare whoever comes to his front door. He's got animatronics, smoke machine, rubber carving knives, you name it, but what I found interesting to learn however is that he's petrified of the thought of ghosts being real. This surprised me when he said it since he's not a religious man and doesn't seem to believe in God, yet when a family member suggested a one night stay in a so-called Haunted House, he refused out of fear. On the one hand he goes all out for Halloween, on the other he's scared of the dark. Seems contradictory but it's not. Halloween is the release valve of scared people. It's a vent to let off steam and claim some dutch (or dark) courage over life's hardships and horrors. This is one of the reasons it's so popular among children. Halloween gives a powerless child a feeling of power over a scary thing; it makes them a scary thing and not a scared thing.
As a nation we embrace Halloween because there are genuinely some evil and unimaginable horrors lurking round the corner of our lives. Who's to say when a car accident or cancer, or the loss of a child or the last tin of beans might strike; we're right to be afraid. We're right to be afraid and it's natural to try and take back control by convincing ourselves we're brave enough for life.
What we fear of course is death. If we didn't die (or couldn't die) we'd all be as cocky as Marvel's Thor and we'd run headlong into every battle with our teeth bared. When death loses it's power evil gets unmasked like a Scooby Doo villain.
This is exactly what happened when Jesus died; death defeated, satan stripped.
The apostle Paul writes to a church in Greece and says that Jesus:
"Having disarmed the powers and authorities made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Colossians 2:15
Jesus disarmed (read: stripped them of their power) the forces of darkness by taking out of their hands the only real weapon they had in their arsenal: death. Jesus died, he let them stab him with their knife, and then Jesus rose again. Jesus went into the abyss and snapped death's blade in half. He then disrobed evil and paraded it naked through the streets humiliating it by exposing it for what it is; only bullies dressed in outlandish costumes.
One day whilst visiting a zoo a tourist stood watching at one of the big cat enclosures as an attendant entered and began sweeping the floor, a few feet from the animal. The wildcat hissed at the attendant, but the man paid it no attention and instead kept on working sweeping all around the ferocious animal. Once he was done the tourist approached him and said "Wow you sure are brave!" to which the man replied, "Nope, mister I 'aint brave you see he's old and he 'aint got no teeth."
The Devil has been disarmed and for followers of Jesus he cannot terrify us any more. Don't give him credit where it isn't due by being scared of evil, be wise sure, be innocent of evil yes, but don't be scared.
Dress up if you like, or don't, trick or treat if you like and convince yourself that you're brave; try and claim some power over evil but know this, Jesus did for real what you only do in fancy dress.
Jesus entered the viper's pit and slayed the great Basilisk for us so that all those of us who are scared out of whits need be terrified no more.
Halloween is about this, and it reminds us of our Champion in the field who sets us free from fear.
He who's in you, is greater than he who is in the world.
1 John 4:4
Happy Christus Victor.