No Country For Old Men
January 2nd, 2008
The Coen brothers new film portrays an incarnational evil that is relentless, persistent, and merciless. When you make a deal with the devil it is binding and irrevocable. So learn the characters on the receiving end of the unfeeling antagonist. Those who cross his path by happenstance as well as those who intentionally attempt to stop him either end up a couple of steps behind or a few feet buried below. One is left to ponder evil’s place in the universe…..it’s cold, tireless, and indiscrimate.
Can good people stop its inertia? Or do they eventually succumb to the movement of time and have to hang up their efforts? I haven’t read Cormac McCarthy’s book of the same title but it seems to me that his evaluation of the human condition leaves little hope for the removal of evil from this world. Those who seek to fight it will wear out from the struggle, and evil will continue.
Of course, the gospel gives us another vision of the world. One in which evil does come to an end when the promise of God’s kingdom comes in all its fullness.
Brian McLaren writes in his book, The Secret Message of Jesus, that the kingdom of God is available to us right here, right now. It isn’t only a future condition, something we have to wait to experience. Rather it takes root in the here and now everytime we live as Jesus did. Everytime we seek reconciliation instead of hate and everytime we find creative ways, nonviolent ways, to overcome evil that is done to us instead of seeking revenge, we experience God’s kingdom come.
To the critics of such a way of life McLaren quotes Martin Luther King Jr. who said “Through violence you may murder a murderer but you can’t murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar, but you can’t establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can’t murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that.” (The Secret Message of Jesus, pp. 154)
We may think defeating darkness requires the same tools as those used by the forces of evil. Yet Martin Luther King Jr. shows us another way, the way of Jesus. He reminds us that darkness cannot defeat darkness. Only light can do that.
As we embark on the season of Epiphany we enter the season of light. Will God’s kingdom of peace find fulfillment in the coming weeks? As Jesus shines among us, through us, in us, we surely will find that we live in a land of God’s design. The Bible tells us that evil, darkness, all the forces of destruction, are no match for the tireless, merciful, compassionate, lover of humanity, God’s own incarnation, Jesus himself.
Shine Jesus shine!