Is it Worth Believing?
*Destroy my desires, eradicate my ideals, show me something better, and I will follow you.
-Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from the Underground
*For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.
-CS Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew
“Secondhand Lions” is a wonderful film for many reasons. The characters are well developed. There are plot twists and metaphors and adventure. There is tension between truth, mystery, and lies. Walter is a young boy abandoned by his mother and forced to live with two great uncles, Hub and Garth. These men are known to be incredibly rich, but the source of that wealth is uncertain. The characters respond to these men in different ways; most want a piece of their wealth. Some say they were bank robbers. Garth tells Walter stories of Hub fighting with the French Foreign Legion and rescuing a would-be princess from a Sheik’s fortress. Walter ultimately wants to know more about the stories and if they are true. Walter wants to know who Hub really is. “Who do you say I am,” Jesus asked.
The book of John gives us seven different “I am” statements and opens with seven different responses to who Jesus is. But to believe Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God, is to believe what He said and the stories about Him. Are they true? Does it matter if they are true?
That depends on what you are looking for in the stories and what kind of person you are. What does that mean? Let me explain.
Roughly eleven years ago, I knew it was time to start over. I wanted to start over with knowing Jesus and start over with the Bible. I had always believed in sharing your faith, but I did not want to. It really wasn’t a faith worth sharing. Once I accepted this, everything shifted into focus. I suddenly understood why some people were leaving the church, leaving the faith. Because they were right to do so. In a sense, I had to leave it as well. And when I did, I found something, someone, infinitely more satisfying. I found a story and a person that was beautiful and true and worthy of acceptance. I found Jesus. The stories did not change. I just chose to believe Jesus and I chose to stop only listening to what other people say about Him. Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?”
Hub tells Walter that it does not matter if the stories are true. Hub knows who he is. Who you say he is is up to you. Believe it if you want to believe it. Did the disciples not make the same choice? Is He the Promised One or not? Some say Jesus has a demon or is just a troublemaker. Some say Hub was a thief and a liar. We see what Jesus does, we hear what He says… at some point you just make a choice. But, beyond evidence, is He worth believing in?
Hub explains to Walter that you believe something because it is worth believing. It does not matter if it is true; it ought to be true. A Beautiful Question, by Noble Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek, espouses the same idea. The Ideal is a starting point for understanding the Real. In John, Jesus does a show-and-tell of the Ideal become Real. He brings Heaven to earth and presents to us something worth believing in.
Jesus is presented in the book of John as the Messiah who came to bring the Kingdom of Heaven to us. He is the logos, which is Greek for “word”, “reason”, or “plan”. In Greek philosophy, it is the divine order implicit within the cosmos. Logos gives order and meaning to all that exists. YHWH is this in Judaism. YHWH spoke and there was order, light, and life. John says this is also Jesus. He is the plan to restore order and meaning, the light and life of the world. Jesus is YHWH made human.
“If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).” Our hearts are made to discover logos. They crave the beautiful and virtuous. CS Lewis again: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” We are ultimately formed (or reformed) into the image of that which we desire, that which we choose to believe.
John also says that the world did not know Jesus. Later in John, he writes that they “loved the darkness more than the light.” Darkness conceals, instills fear, is a metaphor of death. Light reveals, gives hope, and is a metaphor of life. Why did the world not recognize Him if He is its Maker and covenant partner (often in John “the world” refers to the ethos of the religious leaders)? Why does it say they loved darkness? He was unrecognizable because they were so unlike Him- as different as light and darkness. Jesus said their deeds were evil and His were of the Father. The religious leaders were blind, in darkness, of their father the devil, and evil? But they were disciples of Moses and devoted to scripture and nationalism.. What does He mean?
(These questions will be explored in future entries. The book of John presents contrasts between the “the world” and the Kingdom throughout the book. I will explore what Jesus meant by “the world” and its nature. I will also present what the scripture means by “good” and “evil.” I have discovered it to be different than what I had thought.)
The answer to this is the reason people are leaving the church and the faith. Jesus is not the problem. The image of Jesus, the logos, is veiled by something else. John gives us the words and deeds of Jesus as the very nature of the Father. This is a story worth telling- a story worth believing in. “What do you seek” asked Jesus. “Come and see.” Like Hub, whether you seek a bank robber or hero, you will find it- because you chose to believe that. All the characters were told the same stories and all bore witness to how he lived and all chose to believe or not to believe (true of Jesus, true of Hub). The choosing derived from their relationship and what they wanted from it. Listen to the stories, pay attention to what Jesus does, whom He welcomes and who welcomes Him. Belief starts with wanting to believe, but it must be something worth believing. “It doesn’t matter if they are true or not.” Walter lived much of his life not knowing, but believing Hub and living by what he said. In the movie, Hub implies that what is beautiful is true because seeking the Ideal reveals it to be Real. Believe it because it is worth believing. In believing, you will see it.
John says Jesus gave us “grace for grace.” How beautiful. We receive His grace and it pours out of us to satisfy the need for grace to others. At the Wedding of Canna, Jesus gives grace that instills honor rather than the shame of running out of wine. This sign also reveals Him to be the Messiah described in Isaiah 25. He took the ritual of water purification and gave festive joy with wine.
To the Samaritan woman at the well, how did Jesus bring grace? He accepted her. He talked with her. He knew her yet He did not condemn her. It was the Samaritans to whom Jesus referred when He said the harvest is ripe. Regarding disputes over religion, Jesus gave her revelation. These boundaries do not define relationship with God. God knows you and seeks you. What you thirst for, I am that. What nourished and satisfied Jesus? Doing the will of the Father: gathering, restoring, reconciling. Because of her testimony, many Samaritans chose to believe. They wanted to believe that God accepts them. He was worth believing.
The fight scene of “Secondhand Lions” provides a glimpse of the Hub we hear about in the stories. Notice his controlled assurance of who he is. Notice his command over the those desperate for power and respect. Notice the contrast in how Hub demonstrates power without violence (force is different than violence) while the four boys jump to violence. This scene demonstrates what Hub believes and who he says He is. Because Walter was close to Hub, he was privileged to see and hear Hub declare himself. Let him who has eyes see, him who has ears hear.
When I read John, I see and hear the remarkable statements of Jesus as being light in the midst of darkness. Jesus stands in contrast to the world that does not know Him. He stands in opposition to the violent who seek power and respect to the detriment of others. He presents a way that is is the plan, the logos of heaven on earth. The religious leaders follow Moses and the law. This Jesus seemingly breaks the laws, yet does the things of Heaven. Is is true that He is who He says He is? What do you seek? Do you want someone with kindness and grace? Do you need someone who values the meek and the poor? Do you seek someone who welcomes those on the other side of disputes and barriers? Do you want someone who can give you the forgiveness and peace you long for; are you willing to follow Him and give forgiveness and peace to others? Do you want someone who embodies things worth believing in?
This except from the The Magician’s Nephew, by CS Lewis, gives one last example of what shapes the perception of those who see the same story and reach vastly different conclusions. Uncle Andrew was among those in Narnia at its creation, but perceived it as frightening and threatening. He was after personal advantage and power and was willing to exploit others to get what he wanted. The children and the Cabby were there and saw something beautiful. Why the difference?
We must now go back a bit and explain what the whole scene had looked like from Uncle Andrew’s point of view. It had not made at all the same impression on him as on the Cabby and the children. For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.
Ever since the animals had first appeared, Uncle Andrew had been shrinking further and further back into the thicket. He watched them very hard of course; but he wasn’t really interested in seeing what they were doing, only in seeing whether they were going to make a rush at him. Like the Witch, he was dreadfully practical. He simply didn’t notice that Aslan was choosing one pair out of every kind of beasts. All he saw, or thought he saw, was a lot of dangerous wild animals walking vaguely about. And he kept on wondering why the other animals didn’t run away from the big Lion.
When the great moment came and the Beasts spoke, he missed the whole point; for a rather interesting reason. When the Lion had first begun singing, long ago when it was still quite dark, he had realized that the noise was a song. And he had disliked the song very much. It made him think and feel things he did not want to think and feel. Then, when the sun rose and he saw that the singer was a lion (”only a lion,” as he said to himself) he tried his hardest to make believe that it wasn’t singing and never had been singing – only roaring as any lion might in a zoo in our own world. “Of course it can’t really have been singing,” he thought, “I must have imagined it. I’ve been letting my nerves get out of order. Who ever heard of a lion singing?” And the longer and more beautiful the Lion sang, the harder Uncle Andrew tried to make himself believe that he could hear nothing but roaring.
In the movie, Garth and Hub order a lion to relive the thrill of the hunt. But when the crate is opened, the lion just sits there. It is docile, apathetic- defeated. It was purchased from a zoo and its will is gone. It had forgotten what it meant to be a lion, a king of the jungle. The lion begins to awaken when it starts sleeping in the cornfield. At night she begins to roar. Her instincts come back. One night Walter is attacked by a man seeking Garth and Hub’s treasure. The lion reacts as an enraged lion defending its cub. Sadly, she dies in the process but they all knew- at the end, she was a real lion.
The lion is a metaphor of several things, one of which is how wrong the outside world is about the real Garth and Hub. The narrative of scripture tells us we were made to be kings in Eden, ruling with God. We became caged in a system of selfishness. The system of this world enslaves the will and people become docile, apathetic- defeated. Some are content with the cages of the zoo and forget what they were made to be. Jesus came to liberate us from this way of life, from these powers that imprison us. He came to restore our hearts, revive us to become kings in Eden once again, to develop the instincts we were made to possess. We were made to be like Him, like the image of the Father. Love awakens us to become real again. What He offers us, what He calls us to is worth believing in.
