Hope and Hopelessness…
The other night, I went to see The Road with a friend. Having read the book a couple years ago, I knew what to expect. The world has just ended. Everything is burned; all the trees are dead; the animals are gone. A father and son are making their way to the coast, trying to avoid the savage groups that have resorted to cannibalism. They scavenge for food and clothing, and their most precious possession is a gun with two bullets–one for each of them–should it come to that. It is utterly hopeless.
However, in the film, there is this idea of fire. If you have fire, you have a fighting chance. You have heat, light, the ability to cook, etc. But more than a physical fire, there is the notion of the fire inside of the boy that he is carrying with him all the time. While this fire is never explained, I’ll offer my interpretation. Fire is hope in the face of certain failure.
1 Peter 1:13 says, “Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” Look at this life that Jesus has called us to. It is hopeless. In today’s world everything in subjective, nothing is absolute. What you believe is merely your opinion, so it might not apply to me. Offering a suggestion at a better way of life is no more than a judgement on people, saying that they are wrong. You’re a complete fool for believing in the person of Jesus. This is all there is, so learn to cope with it. But that is exactly the point. This is not all there is. Jesus is our hope, and only through his grace will we be able to carry the fire to the darkness.
Afterwards, people asked if The Road would be worth seeing in the theaters. Absolutely. But go in being prepared. It’s not a happy movie by any means. I won’t spoil the movie, but it doesn’t end on a happy note. But there is a glimmer of hope. If you see it, don’t just watch mindlessly. Engage in it. Struggle with it. Let it get under your skin and make you uncomfortable. Embrace the hopelessness of your own situation. And then remember the hope you have in Jesus Christ.
This entry was posted on Saturday, January 9th, 2010 at 9:54 am and is filed under Media Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Dan Duyser Says: