> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://amemamem.com.br/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Gates of Hell - URL: https://amemamem.com.br/en/the-gates-of-hell/ - Published: 2026-10-01T11:38:12.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T01:05:29.000Z - Description: Life keeps calling the dead - Author: Airton Humber - Tags: #en, #de-portas-do-inferno **Life keeps calling the dead** “On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” For a long time, we learned to hear this sentence thinking of hell as something that waits for us after death. But Jesus spoke of the **gates of Hades**. The world of the dead. And maybe death is closer to us than we imagine. Jesus once said: > “Let the dead bury their own dead.” And also: > “A time is coming, and in fact has already come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” Dead people who still walk. Dead people who still work. Dead people who talk, argue, judge, condemn. And dead people who can hear the voice of Life. --- ### **In this text** - Come out - The wrappings - The treasure and the clay - The gates - Take away the stone - Today - Let him go --- ## Come out Lazarus had been dead for four days. When Jesus ordered the stone of the tomb to be taken away, Martha warned: > “Lord, by now he stinks.” And the smell was real. Jesus did not say Martha was mistaken. Death stinks. There are things in us that stink. There are things in the people we love that stink. There are real mistakes, real weaknesses, real sins. There are misplaced words, behaviors that hurt, thoughts we deeply disagree with. We do not need to call the stench a perfume. **The smell may be real.** **But it is not final.** Jesus said: > “Take away the stone.” And then he called: > **“Lazarus, come out!”** The one who was dead came out. But he did not come out ready. His hands and feet were still wrapped in strips of cloth, and his face was covered. He was alive. But he still carried on himself things of death. Then Jesus said: > **“Take off the wrappings and let him go.”** --- ## The wrappings Maybe this is exactly where we struggle. We are very good at noticing other people's wrappings. We notice a wrong word. A wrong opinion. A wrong interpretation. Inappropriate behavior. A flaw in speech. A flaw in the text. A flaw in the person. And often what we notice is real. The problem is not in noticing the gnat. The problem begins when, busy with it, we swallow the camel. Jesus warned about this: > “You strain out a gnat and swallow a camel.” We can find something wrong in practically anyone. And they will find something in us too. If we wait for people without wrappings, we will be alone. Lazarus came out of the tomb still wrapped in them. Jesus' order was not: “Look at his wrappings.” It was: **“Take off the wrappings and let him go.”** --- ## The treasure and the clay The gospel was not handed to us by perfect people. Paul knew that. > “But we have this treasure in jars of clay.” The jar is still clay. The treasure is still treasure. Maybe one of our greatest difficulties is looking so much at the jar that we fail to notice what it carries. We expect a perfect word. A perfect voice. A perfect person. A perfect church. A perfect interpretation. And, while we examine the clay, the treasure may pass before our eyes. That is why we are told: > “Examine everything, hold on to what is good.” Examining everything does not mean looking for something to reject. It means looking for what should be kept. The eye can find the error. **Love looks for what can be saved.** --- ## The gates Gates do not attack. Gates close. Gates block the way. Gates keep someone on the inside. Maybe that is why the image Jesus used is so beautiful. > “The gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Jesus entered death. > “No one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.” He died. He was buried. But death could not hold him. **The gates did not prevail.** And the one who conquered death keeps calling: > **“Come out.”** The gospel is the news that the gates do not have to stay closed. > “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.” Death imprisons. Christ frees. Condemnation imprisons. Christ frees. Fear imprisons. Christ frees. Our need to judge imprisons. Christ frees. And even our desire for perfection can turn into a wrapping when we imagine that someone can only be loved after being ready. --- ## Take away the stone There are people we prefer to keep our distance from. Sometimes because their choices bother us. Sometimes because their life bothers us. Sometimes because their ideas bother us. Sometimes because the smell is real. But Jesus drew near to those whom many religious people preferred to avoid. Tax collectors. Sinners. Prostitutes. Rejected people. Not because he called evil good. **But because Life is not afraid of death.** Maybe we have imagined the church as people protected behind their gates so that the world of the dead does not get in. Jesus presented another image: **it is the gates of the world of the dead that will not prevail.** It is not we who give life to the dead. The voice is his. But we can take away stones. We can stop putting up obstacles. We can announce Life. And, when someone begins to come out, still full of wrappings, we can help take them off. > **“Let him go.”** --- ## Today This Sunday we will have elections. People we love will vote in different ways. Some are conservative. Others are progressive. Some will defend their positions with conviction. Others will defend completely different positions. We can disagree. We can examine. We can consider certain ideas deeply mistaken. But we received a commandment from Jesus: > “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” And he added: > “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples: if you love one another.” Not when they agree with one another. When they love one another. We can love those who think differently. We can love those who vote differently. We can love those who are still full of wrappings. We can love those who see our own wrappings. **We can love them today.** **We can love them on Sunday.** **We can love them on Monday.** The election will pass. Our opinions will keep changing. Governments will pass. Ideologies will pass. **But we do not have to lose one another.** --- ## Let him go Maybe the gates of hell are much closer than we imagine. Every time death tries to convince us that someone must remain bound to their error, their past, their position, their weakness, their wrappings, we hear again the voice of the one who is the resurrection and the life: > **“Come out.”** The smell may be real. **But it is not final.** The wrappings may be real. **But they are not the person.** The clay may be real. **But inside it there may be a treasure.** So maybe our work is not to look for more wrappings. Maybe it is to help take them off. Because the gates of Hades will not prevail against what Christ is building. Life keeps calling the dead. And those who hear will live. **Take off his wrappings.** **And let him go.**