Light Lenten Reflections

Week 7

Holy Week

It's Who You Know...

On November 23, 1963, a television show premiered in Great Britain about the adventures of a man from another world who traveled the universe in a faulty, stolen time-traveling machine. Despite an inauspicious start - its original broadcast time was delayed by news bulletins about the Kennedy assassination – the show became popular enough to start broadcasting internationally the following year. Originally written as a family-oriented children's show, it eventually drew a large following of adult sci fi fans. The show broadcast from 1963 through 1989, had a stand-alone movie in 1996, eventually got a reboot in 2005 and has continued with increasing popularity ever since. The show, Doctor Who, is shown in over 50 countries and, thanks to BBC America and PBS, can be seen on multiple stations in the U.S in any given week. A television show with the staying power of 50 plus years...an amazing feat. What's the attraction, and how is it even logistically possible?

For those not familiar with The Doctor, he's a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey, a very social guy, choosing to travel through time and space with companions, usually people from the planet Earth. The Doctor loves humans, often acting to protect them and never asking anything in return. He and his companions spend a lot of time saving the Earth and its oblivious population from a wide assortment of alien enemies out to destroy it. This often puts him in perilous situations, some of which he doesn't survive. But, no problem – Time Lords have the ability to “regenerate”. The Doctor can die, but then comes alive again, in a new body - and as a new actor. Twelve* actors have played Doctor Who, which would explain in part the staying power of the series.

This week Christians celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God-man who invaded our world, died on a cross only to show up alive and in a new body three days later. Why? Because He loved humans. And we were facing a mortal danger, an enemy more vicious than a dalek, scarier than a weeping angel and more insidious than the vashta nerada – Sin and its partner consequence, Death. It cost Him His earthly life to save us from that deadly duo, but He gave His life willingly and asked nothing in return. Nothing except to acknowledge and believe Who He is and what He has done...for us, His beloved human race. But many of us go on oblivious to the work Jesus has done on our behalf - calling us to turn from the sin that bogs us down, giving us freedom from the consequences of that sin, enabling a loving relationship with His heavenly Father and the promise of sharing in His resurrection life with a new body and an amazing eternity with Him. Talk about regeneration...

The Doctor's ability to regenerate, I think, only explains in part the longevity of the Doctor Who series. Perhaps part of the universal appeal of Doctor Who is that we, as fallen, oblivious human flesh, have within us a not-always-conscious inkling that we are desperately in need of Someone to save us, to rescue us from the deadly threat to our time line. Now, I know all analogies eventually break down, even a great one. And any analogy between the Doctor and Jesus Christ is only mediocre at best. Jesus is not a Time Lord. Sin is not a dalek. Eternity is not a wibbley-wobbley-timey-wimey thing. But we do have within us a deep longing for a Savior, and left on our own, we strive to come up with ways to save ourselves and fail abysmally. We struggle with doing things to get out of the timeless, universal mess we find ourselves in when we need only to believe and acknowledge and seek a relationship with the One who has already invaded our world and saved us. In the end, it is not what we do that counts, but Who we know...

Something to Ponder:

How much of your spiritual life depends on “doing” things, rescuing yourself? How much of your spiritual life depends on looking to Jesus as the Rescuer? Do you do good things because you want to earn God's approval and grace, or are you so overwhelmed by your helplessness and God's grace for you that you want to do good things for Him? What's the difference?

Something to Pray:

Grab a Bible or go to BibleGateway.com. Read Ephesians 2:4-10. Ask God to give you a greater understanding and appreciation for His mercy, His great love, His grace for you and His kindness toward you. Thank Him for the specific ways you have seen these things from Him in your life. Thank Him for having done the “heavy work” of saving you and ask Him to give you a greater understanding of what it means “by grace you have been saved through faith” and the gift it is. Lastly, commit your good works to God, asking Him to show you how to walk in them.

Atraxi: [after scanning The Doctor] You are not of this world.

The Doctor: No but I've put a lot work into it.

Atraxi: Is this world important?

The Doctor: Important? What's that mean, important? Six billion people live here, is that important?...

                     - From The Eleventh Hour (The Eleventh Doctor)

Clara Oswald: You're going to help me?

The Doctor: Well, why wouldn't I help you?

Clara Oswald: Because of what I just did, I just...

The Doctor: You betrayed me. You betrayed my trust. You betrayed our friendship. You betrayed everything... you let me down!

Clara Oswald: Then why are you helping me?

The Doctor: Why? Do you think that I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?

                                                                   - From Dark Water (The Twelfth Doctor)

...He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever... He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe... And... he's wonderful.

           - Tim Latimer, describing the Doctor, from The Family of Blood (The Tenth Doctor)

He who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the surface of the earth, the Lord is his name                                                 - Amos 5:8

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.                                                         - Daniel 7: 13-14

*(Yes, I know...some of you die-hard fans out there would argue thirteen...)