The Dark Knight Week 5

The Dark Knight ­ Week 5 John 3: 1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again. [a]" 4 "How can anyone be born when they are old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother's womb to be born!" 5 Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit [ ] b gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You [c] must be born again.' 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." [ ] d 9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven —the Son of Man. [e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, [f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him." [g] 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 All those who do evil hate the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But those who live by the truth come into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Mixer: What did you write on your pad this week?   Going Deeper: 1. Let’s talk about the ferryboat scene. What is the Joker trying to do by setting up  this situation? He is trying to create a situation where “the chips are down” as he  says before, so these people will turn on each other and act for themselves alone.  Imagine you are on the boat. How would you vote? Do you agree with the idea  that the prisoners deserve to die because they “had their chance” and “already  made their choices”? Why or Why not? © Dixon Kinser 2009

In church history there are instances of martyrs trying to avoid being killed, not because  they were afraid of dying but because they wanted to keep their executioner from the  being responsible for their murder. They didn’t want that guilt and blood to be on their  hands. Is this an example of loving your neighbor as yourself? How is the way the  ferryboat scene plays out a picture of the kingdom of God?

2. What does Two­Face want and what are his motives? He wants retribution. Eye  for an eye justice. In the movie he screams, “It’s not about what I want it’s about  what’s fair.” Drawing on our definitions of justice from last week (God’s big­ picture setting everything to rights) what is the difference between fairness and  justice? Should Christians seek one or the other? Or both? Fairness is a dubious term to me these days, because it’s got that “eye for and eye”  mentality going. You can see why Jesus subverts ( ala the sermon on the mount scriptures  last week).  Fairness is about doing unto to others as they have done to you and everyone  having the exactly same as everyone else. Fairness, in popular usage makes sure everyone  gets what they deserve. But this is not the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God NO  ONE gets what he or she deserve – but EVERYONE gets what they need. (See examples  like the Year of Jubilee for how this plays out). Consider where you seek fairness  instead of justice in your life. What would the loving, Jesus centered response to  Two­Face be? 3.) Read the John 3 scripture again.  John uses the terms “lifted up” and “glorified” to  describe Jesus’ death on the cross. Furthermore, in the story Jesus references a very  famous story from Number 21(4­9) when the Israelites are assaulted by poisonous snakes  because of their disobedience to God. God tells Moses to fashion a bronze snake and hold  it up. Whoever looks on the snake then will be healed from the poison that is killing  them. But Jesus reminds them in John 3 that is wasn’t the snake that healed them, it was  God. With that in mind, what point is John making about Jesus? Is Jesus the snake that’s  killing us? What is he trying to say? Basically, the power of God and the path to the  healing is in Jesus on the cross. In the same way the bronze snake was held up as a  display of both the problem and the solution the Israelites were having, so is Jesus on the  cross. In what way is Jesus on the cross both a demonstration of the cosmic problem  of evil and it’s solution? 

© Dixon Kinser 2009

Jesus being put on the cross is the result of how evil in all its social, moral, political,  personal and emotional manifestations had reached its climax. It is also the means by  which said evil exhausted itself in violent fury upon Jesus on the cross. The cross then  lastly is the point at which evil is defeated, because giving it’s worst, it could stop God’s  best – the defeat of death and resurrection.  Therefore, Jesus defeat of evil is not simply so that human souls could be with God after  they die. No, it’s much better than that. It is the point at which the sin and death problem  that plagued the entire Creation and God’s creation order are defeated once and for all.  Now God’s new heaven and new earth re­creation project has begun. It’s happening even  now. Yee ha! This description of Jesus death and defeat of evil is called Christus Victor  (Christ’s Victory) and matters a great deal when it comes to how we address evil in our  word today. Ok, so how do you see elements of this Christus Victor theology evidence in the films  final scene? Where are things that line up? Where are the places it doesn’t? How is  Batman like the Christ of the Christus Victor cross?

© Dixon Kinser 2009