Who’s buried in Lenin’s tomb? Apparently, no one.
Bob WeathersBut after 81 years, Russians are considering that maybe it is time to dig a grave for the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution.
At communism’s apex, Lenin was regarded as something of a hero. So with his death in 1924, his body was embalmed and displayed in a mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square. In those days, hundreds came to view the remains of the champion of the working class. Then time passed, communism proved futile, crumbled, and fell. Fewer and fewer people came to see Lenin, and even fewer Russians were raised to revere him. Now, occasionally, a tourist will pass by. Otherwise, the room is silent.
So the talk around Russia is: Bury Lenin. Move the corpse from its house and put it in a permanent place, out of the view of the generations that will build a new Russia. No reason for him to be there, under glass, like an anchor to a shameful past. Because, by physically burying Lenin, they can symbolically bury communism. And isn’t it wise to know when it’s time to bury the past?
Of course it is. But, unfortunately, it’s human nature to keep the old, shameful past housed under glass so we can review it now and then. We say we are forgiven, that Jesus set us free, that we have died to the old life and risen to new life in Christ. We’re even baptized to depict it. But then we keep a corpse, a mistake or sin that we are convinced defines us. At first we review it often. Then we gradually grow beyond it, a day at a time, not visiting it quite as often as we used to. But we still haven’t put it to rest. And we wonder why we can’t get past the past.
Let it go. If Jesus does anything for us, he sets us free. Paul, the man who would have needed to rent a warehouse for his sins-under-glass, wrote, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). Forgiveness is absolute. God doesn’t have your sins on display. So why do you?
Get a shovel. Dig a grave. Let it go. And live.