Have you ever been betrayed by a friend? Someone you liked, someone you trusted, maybe even someone you loved. When we experience that kind of betrayal, it’s one of the worst experiences we can have in life. Not as bad as your team not winning the Superbowl. But still pretty painful.
That’s why God’s love of us is so revolutionary. We’ve all betrayed God before. Most of us on a daily basis. We’ve put him through exactly that kind of pain. Yet God is always there when we need him. Despite everything, God still stands by us.
This isn’t just one small part of who God is. It’s one of the major themes that runs through the entire Bible. We see this in the lives of Moses and David. Jesus illustrates it with stories like the prodigal son. It’s even the story of Peter’s life.
There are very few people in the Bible who are more outspoken in support of Jesus than Peter. Peter was always the guy jumping to show just how much he was willing to sacrifice for God. He put his life on the line more than once. Peter wasn’t just talk, he was action too. (You don’t get to walk on water by sitting on the shore.)
But in the hour of Jesus’ greatest need, Peter failed him. First because he couldn’t stay awake and keep Jesus company. Second, by denying Jesus three separate times.
Imagine if one of your closest friends couldn’t visit you in the hospital as you were dying. Or never called to see how you were after losing your job. You’d be understandably angry and maybe even a little resentful. We’d start treating our friend differently. We might not even call them our friend.
Yet God is the God of redemption. And Peter’s story doesn’t end with being defriended. It ends with Jesus restoring Peter as a friend. In fact, one of the first things God does is send a message to Peter that Jesus is alive, and he shouldn’t worry anymore.
Think about that. Peter had done nothing. Yet God sought him out.
This is why God is such a radical God. This is why the Bible is such a revolutionary book. Despite our failures and betrayals, God does the unexpected, and keeps on loving us.
photo provided by flickr user saragoldsmith
]. It’s not you that needs to make something out of your life, it’s God. That I know of, nowhere in the bible does God tell us that we have to make something out of ourselves. That’s His job…our job is to listen to what He says and act on what we hear, whether that’s physically doing something, or waiting on God to do something.
‘Anti-Christ’ gets ‘anti-prize’ at Cannes
Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 01-06-2009
Category : God, failure, faith, hope, living a life of faith
Tags: Anti-Christ movie, Cannes film, Christian, Christianity, failure, faith, God, hope, living a life of faith, movies, Original sin, religion, social commentary
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The Cannes Film Fest has come and gone. Usually Cannes produces some movie that is declared a “must see” or generates some buzz for a few films. But this year there didn’t seem to be a lot of enthusiasm. Maybe it was the economy. Maybe it was the movies. I don’t know.
There was, however, the usual controversy. Cannes tends to pride itself on pushing the envelope (you aren’t going to see X-men 14 or Star Trek 12). Because it tries to push artistic or non-main stream movies, you often see the “boundaries” being pushed. This year it was the movie Anti-Christ.
I admit, I don’t know anything about this movie other than what I read in a few news stories. I have no idea if this movie is interesting. (I doubt it.) Or if it’s well conceived. (Probably not.) Roger Ebert describes Anti-Christ as, ” Its images are a fork in the eye. Its cruelty is unrelenting. Its despair is profound.” I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s probably not the best movie ever made. But, for argument’s sake, lets treat Anti-Christ as if it’s the greatest piece of art man has created. In reality it doesn’t matter if this movie is good or bad, it still raises one question: why?
Why do we feel compelled to make ‘art’ that is so violent and base?
Why do we feel compelled to make ‘art’ that destroys instead of build up?
Why do we feel compelled to make ‘art’ that shocks us?
There must be something about human nature that drives us to offend. We must get some satisfaction out of shocking people. How else do you explain ’shock jocks’ on the radio? It has to be that we delight in hurting others. Take the American Idolist William Hung (you know, the guy who sang She Bangs). The only reason Hung was shown on American Idol was so that we, as an audience, could rip him apart and laugh at his expense. No one could possibly believe he was talented enough to be on the show. He was there as a spectacle. As a friend used to say, “I’m not laughing with you, I’m laughing at you.”
I often hear the argument that God doesn’t exist. That evil isn’t real. That given enough time, man will “improve.” That’s the core philosophy of Star Trek after all. It’s also the hope held out in most Hollywood movies. But if that’s the case, if man improves over time, how do you explain a movie like Anti-Christ? Surely this film doesn’t show that man has evolved into an enlightened species? That somehow we are becoming better with time.
Why, then, do we do it?
In the book Faith & Doubt, John Ortberg addressed this issue by writing, “One day I realized there was no God, no one behind reality, no life after death. I realized existence is a meaningless accident, begun by chance and destined for oblivion, and it changed my life. I used to be addicted to alcohol but now the ‘law of natural selection’ has set me free. I used to be greedy, but now the story of the Big Bang has made me generous. I used to be afraid, but now random chance has made me brave.”
Ortberg said this with tongue in cheek. But he raises a point. We try to rip apart the existence of God, but in the very act of setting ourselves “free” from God, it seems we bring out the worst in ourselves. Why? How can it be that we always seem to find a way to fall back into the pit if we are becoming more enlightened?
Movies like Anti-Christ are supposed to represent social criticism. It’s supposed to make us think about society and life. But what does it say about the message if it needs such violence and offense to drive home the “point”? What does it say about the messenger?
When I try to answer the “why” question, the only answer I have is that we are a fundamentally broken people. That if we are left to their own devices we end up with a world of shock jocks, gratuitous violence, and empty philosophies. That we are not getting better over time.
What we end up with is a world that wants to offend one another, for no reason other than that we can. I think the evidence of that is overwhelming. You don’t need me to tell you this, of course. Just pick up a newspaper and read the headlines. Or think about what you do when you get angry. It’s to “get back” at someone isn’t it? It’s part of human nature to fall backwards, not move forwards. None of us are immune to that.
Only God changes the equation. Only God breaks us out of the cycle. Only God, can stop us. Because we sure can’t stop ourselves.