Words by Scott McCullar | Image by Blakeney Clouse
Of all the churches I have pastored, only the first church I ever led, Harris Chapel Baptist Church in Hollister, North Carolina, had a cemetery. Graves surrounded the church property and had to be maintained consistently and carefully.
The church had hired a company to clean some brush off the back side of the cemetery, and one of the workers accidentally drove their backhoe over a grave. In the older graves in that cemetery, the gravestone would not stand up at the head of the grave but instead covered the entirety of the grave, flat on the ground. When the backhoe ran over it, the gravestone cracked in two. That was a big deal. It had to be repaired quickly.
I was on site the day the company arrived to restore the grave. The stone was removed by the workers, which left the grave completely open. And that’s when the men jumped.
I saw men leap up and scatter from the grave. These were big, burly men—hardworking guys with durags, tattoos, muscles, and cigarettes.
What could make these men run away in terror?
I walked towards the hole and then I saw what made them flee. A humongous spider covered in black fur was stationed on the side of the grave. It was as big as both of my hands put together. I had never seen any spider like that. It looked like something out of a horror movie. And it stood fearlessly on that tomb’s side, daring anyone to approach and become its next meal.
The issue was that there was debris on top of the coffin down in that hole that had to be lifted out. These men were contracted to remove it, so the spider had to go. But that creature had no intention of moving.
The men gathered to discuss options. I kept my ears tuned to the conversation, but my eyes locked on that beast of an arachnid.
They finally decided what to do. When I heard their solution, my eyes got wide, and I slowly began to move back from the tomb.
Were they serious?
One of the men approached the side of that grave with a sledgehammer. I will never forget the moment that followed. He took a practice swing like a Major League batter and then proceeded to measure the distance to the spider. That spider didn’t budge. The man slammed the sledgehammer into the spider and the spider took flight. I couldn’t breathe as I watched what was left of that spider fly high into the cloudless sky.
But it was flying my way. I backed up. And I kept backing up because it was descending, ever closer. And it landed on my shirt. ON MY SHIRT.
My mind and body disengaged on impact. My arms began to flap, my legs started to dance, and a guttural cry erupted from my soul followed by a high-pitched squeal and the speaking of unknown tongues. Every eye turned toward me, witnessing me coming unglued.
As it turns out, the sledgehammer killed the spider instantly, and then spider bits flew out of the grave and rained down like carpet bombs. The spider’s guts are what landed on my shirt.
That shirt didn’t get washed; it got tossed in the trash. The terror of that memory is seared into my mind to this day.
But even worse than that was when I was covered in sin. It wasn’t just a dab on my shirt; it was all over me. I lived a life separated from the Lord by choice, resulting in dangerous, disgusting, and disturbing sin layered on me from head to toe and inside me, from my heart down to my very soul. And my sin stunk to the Lord. My stench reached high into heaven (Isaiah 65:5; Revelation 18:5). I had purposefully, willingly, and naturally rebelled against God, and it reeked to Him.
But God did not throw me away, amazingly. Instead, the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth and lived a beautiful, perfect life that I could not live, died on a Roman cross to cover and pay for my horrid sins, and then rose from the grave to secure my victory!
“…Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2)
By the grace and love of God, when I asked Jesus to forgive me and cleanse me of my putrid disobedience to Him, I was saved! My sin was fully washed away, and I was made new! What is incredible to me is that when those foul spider guts got on my shirt, I was horrified and wanted them off immediately, but Jesus willingly took my rancid sinfulness on himself so I could be saved. What mercy!
He can do the same for you, too! Praise the Lord! WL
