lifeboat

I had a very interesting conversation today about how we, as humans, tend to put ourselves in a hierarchy. It stemmed from the 'social experiment' at the end of The Dark Knight. If you haven't seen it and you want to you might want to stop reading here. So.... near the end of the movie the people of Gotham are being evacuated on ferries in an attempt to get away from the Joker's reign of terror. There is a ferry full of average citizens and a ferry full of prisoners along with some guards. The ferries suddenly stop working and the voice of the Joker comes over the intercom system saying "each ferry has a detonator that can explode the other ferry. If neither blows up the other I will blow up both at midnight." Of course this is said with much more bravado and an incredibly creepy voice. The conversations between passengers then begin. On the average citizen boat the argument is, "those prisoners chose their destiny. They've had their chance." On the prisoners boat, "It's what they would expect us to do." I won't tell you what happens to the ferries but I'm sure you've had a gut reaction as to what you would do.

The conversation about the movie morphed into the lifeboat dilemma and how people use other people as their measuring sticks. Then how we as Christians compare ourselves to other Christians instead of Jesus 'cause it makes us feel better. We talked about where all of this comes from inside of us. And it's an ugly place. It's a place that needs to be redeemed and transformed. Each and everyone of us has the capacity to justify the destruction of another based on human righteousness. There is always someone who is worse than us. There is always someone who is better. That is why the measuring stick needs to be perfection in the person of Jesus.

As we continued we finally realized that the only right answer, the only righteous answer, to the lifeboat dilemma is letting everyone else take a spot. Choosing to not have a spot at all. If that is our initial gut reaction then maybe, just maybe, we understand just a little what Jesus is like 'cause that's what he did. He gave us all a spot on the lifeboat even though none of us earned it. It's funny how when it comes down it this is where we end up. Vying for a place on the proverbial lifeboat when we don't have to vie at all. We just need to accept the place that is freely given to us. Now that's a little humbling isn't it?