Dr. Who and the Gospel
I am not a huge sci-fi fan in general but I have gotten into some because of watching a few shows with my teenage sons and my 20 something daughters (sometimes dad gets in on the watching action as well). We pick a show and start at the beginning and watch through as many seasons as are available. The sci-fi started with Stargate Atlantis but now we are on Dr Who.
Many times over the years after we have watched a movie or TV show I have asked my kids who was most like Jesus in that show and then we have a good discussion about it. Sadly, there are more and more shows that there is no one to be found who is like Jesus at all. But what is amusing to me is when a show that is fairly anti-God, pro-super science accidentally gives a fairly good picture of the gospel! It is funny that things that we accept in our heroes we don't like, even hate about God.
This idea hit me when my youngest son was replaying his favorite narrative from one of the recent shows we watched of Dr Who called "The Family of Blood". It is from near the end, so spoiler alert if you haven't watched this one yet! The son in the Family of Blood (enemies of Dr Who in this show) is narrating at this point. His family was after the doctor to gain his life so that they could live forever. The son says that at first they didn't understand why the Doctor ran from them but now he realized it was out of kindness. The Doctor hid from them so that they wouldn't have to suffer his wrath! The son says of the doctor that he never raised his voice but that his wrath was terrifying. He said; "We wanted to live forever and so he (the Doctor) made sure we did." They kept pursuing evil and so they got what they wanted but not in the way that they wanted it, they got what they deserved!
The Doctor can come across as arrogant, much like many of our heroes, Ironman, Mohammed Ali, and any other number of sports figures or stars or superheroes. We seem, most of the time to be OK with that though because...well, we think that they rightly deserve to think highly of themselves. But we don't want God to be that way, we don't want God to be God centered, even though He is truly the only one who deserves to be. He is the only God. (By the way when I say God, I mean the God of the Bible,
the Creator who made the universe in 6 days recounted in Genesis 1 & 2) We are OK with the hero killing all the bad guys and even collateral damage can be somewhat OK. But we really don't want God to be dealing out justice even though again, He is the only one truly qualified. It is this story that we long to hear and retell over and over again. Just take a look at literature and movies, over and over again we have good versus evil, those who need to be rescued and the hero who saves them. I believe that God has put this truth in our hearts and so we seek it but we want to keep it a story and want to believe that we don't need rescuing and that we are good enough on our own.
There was another character in this particular show that really stood out to me as someone quite like us in how we relate to God. I can't even think of her name at the moment but she was the women that the Doctor fell in love with while he was human and didn't remember who he truly was (not like Jesus--every earthly comparison fails somewhere because nothing on this earth is as awesome as God. Jesus was and is God.) When he went back to see her after he had changed back to being the Doctor and after he had dealt with the family, he invited her to come with him but she would not. She didn't want him as he truly was, she wanted him in the way that she wanted him. O how often we do this to God. We want a god of our own making, someone or something that we can go to when we need him/it and someone we can control. We want to put God in a box and we want Him to act a certain way. But deep down, the temptation and the root of our sin/evil is that we want to be like god, not as is being holy as He is holy, but to dictate and rule and have our own way, essentially to be god. Also, deep down we know that we need rescuing and we long for our hero.
Lord, You are that hero! You have told the story over and over again. You have written it in Your word, the Bible and You have written in on our hearts. Father, that we would know and love You as You are, that we would trust You for You are sovereign and always good, perfectly just and ever merciful. O that the world would know that they indeed need a Saviour.
Many times over the years after we have watched a movie or TV show I have asked my kids who was most like Jesus in that show and then we have a good discussion about it. Sadly, there are more and more shows that there is no one to be found who is like Jesus at all. But what is amusing to me is when a show that is fairly anti-God, pro-super science accidentally gives a fairly good picture of the gospel! It is funny that things that we accept in our heroes we don't like, even hate about God.
This idea hit me when my youngest son was replaying his favorite narrative from one of the recent shows we watched of Dr Who called "The Family of Blood". It is from near the end, so spoiler alert if you haven't watched this one yet! The son in the Family of Blood (enemies of Dr Who in this show) is narrating at this point. His family was after the doctor to gain his life so that they could live forever. The son says that at first they didn't understand why the Doctor ran from them but now he realized it was out of kindness. The Doctor hid from them so that they wouldn't have to suffer his wrath! The son says of the doctor that he never raised his voice but that his wrath was terrifying. He said; "We wanted to live forever and so he (the Doctor) made sure we did." They kept pursuing evil and so they got what they wanted but not in the way that they wanted it, they got what they deserved!
The Doctor can come across as arrogant, much like many of our heroes, Ironman, Mohammed Ali, and any other number of sports figures or stars or superheroes. We seem, most of the time to be OK with that though because...well, we think that they rightly deserve to think highly of themselves. But we don't want God to be that way, we don't want God to be God centered, even though He is truly the only one who deserves to be. He is the only God. (By the way when I say God, I mean the God of the Bible,
the Creator who made the universe in 6 days recounted in Genesis 1 & 2) We are OK with the hero killing all the bad guys and even collateral damage can be somewhat OK. But we really don't want God to be dealing out justice even though again, He is the only one truly qualified. It is this story that we long to hear and retell over and over again. Just take a look at literature and movies, over and over again we have good versus evil, those who need to be rescued and the hero who saves them. I believe that God has put this truth in our hearts and so we seek it but we want to keep it a story and want to believe that we don't need rescuing and that we are good enough on our own.
There was another character in this particular show that really stood out to me as someone quite like us in how we relate to God. I can't even think of her name at the moment but she was the women that the Doctor fell in love with while he was human and didn't remember who he truly was (not like Jesus--every earthly comparison fails somewhere because nothing on this earth is as awesome as God. Jesus was and is God.) When he went back to see her after he had changed back to being the Doctor and after he had dealt with the family, he invited her to come with him but she would not. She didn't want him as he truly was, she wanted him in the way that she wanted him. O how often we do this to God. We want a god of our own making, someone or something that we can go to when we need him/it and someone we can control. We want to put God in a box and we want Him to act a certain way. But deep down, the temptation and the root of our sin/evil is that we want to be like god, not as is being holy as He is holy, but to dictate and rule and have our own way, essentially to be god. Also, deep down we know that we need rescuing and we long for our hero.
Lord, You are that hero! You have told the story over and over again. You have written it in Your word, the Bible and You have written in on our hearts. Father, that we would know and love You as You are, that we would trust You for You are sovereign and always good, perfectly just and ever merciful. O that the world would know that they indeed need a Saviour.
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