Regrets & Do-Overs

REGRET & DO-OVERS:

“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.”

-Jeremiah 17:9

I love love LOVE the whole superhero phenomenon. Movies, books, posters, and especially LEGO! I’m not an expert by any stretch, but it all seems to be rooted in America’s Great Depression (1929-39). Detective Comics #27 introduced The Batman in 1939. There’s just something hardwired inside that won’t let us ignore the vast discrepancy between is and ought, i.e. the way things are and the way they should be. There is also something inherently attractive about the idea of becoming more than the seemingly bland, broken, dreary version of ourselves. There’s something cool and hopeful about being bitten by a radioactive spider and going from invisible geek to The Amazing Spider-Man. Reality tells us we’ll get a nasty infection or that we might even die if the spider is a recluse, wandering, or widow spider. But still, we long for, dream of, and even fight for a less bleak, and more utopian-like existence… now, later, or both.

Recently, my wife and I watched an episode of MARVEL Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Several of the main characters had been replaced by LMD’s (life model decoy / realistic robotic versions). The real characters had been rendered unconscious and placed within a matrix-like artificial reality framework. The creator of the synthetic reality framework designed it to alleviate human pain and regret, thus hoping to keep the inhabitants from ever realizing their disconnect from reality or at least from desiring it. Near the end of the episode, Agent May’s LMD tells Agent Coulson’s LMD:

LMD May: “I know I’m not real...”

LMD Coulson: “You don’t have to feel pain.”

LMD May: “You say you don’t anymore. But that pain, that regret, that’s what made you a person.”

The episode concludes from the main characters’ perspectives within the framework. Daisy is reunited with Ward, Coulson is a school teacher, Mac is a family man, and Fitz is a billionaire. All the pain and regret of their decisions to become S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents is erased within the framework. The problem with this fantastic scenario is the idea that - if we all somehow got a chance at hitting life’s reset button, then we could ride off into the sunset of a happy ending completely regret-free. The truth is that we’ve all gotten second chances, and we muck those up just as quickly.

The storyline is nothing original. In Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Captain Kirk said, “Damn it Bones! You’re a doctor! You know that pain and guilt can’t be taken away with a wave of a magic wand.” In Justice League Unlimited Season 1, Batman and Wonderwoman find Superman under the influence of the wish-fulfilling plant, Black Mercy, which has Kal-El dreaming of an idyllic family life back on Krypton. The Matrix, and countless other movies, episodes, comic books, and stories have all found their genesis in the idea of alleviating human pain and regret.

One of the earliest of these stories is from the non-canonical book of 2 Maccabees, from which the concept of purgatory might be partially attributed. In vv. 43-46 we read that Judas (not the Judas who betrayed Jesus) “sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection… It is, therefore, a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.” One Catholic writer notes, “Unfortunately for Protestants, even if they feel that the book was not inspired, it still tells us of the practice of God’s chosen people.”

It is true that many of the non-canonical books of the Bible (Apocrypha) refer to the practices of “God’s chosen people.” The same can be said for the canonical books. In 2 Kings 21:1-6 we read about some of these abhorrent practices - not just by God’s chosen people, but by their king!

Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. For he rebuilt the high places that Hezekiah his father had destroyed, and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah, as Ahab king of Israel had done, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem will I put my name.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. And he burned his son as an offering and used fortune-telling and omens and dealt with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger.

The point being that just because a particular ceremony, activity, or ritual was practiced by “God’s chosen people” certainly does NOT make it holy or wholesome. The practice of God’s chosen people from the very beginning were that of neglect, disregard, autonomy, rebellion, self-exaltation, grumbling, disobedience, idol worship, even murder and human sacrifice. A large portion of the Old Testament is prophetic in nature, which is not mystical fortune telling prophecy, but rather God raising up someone (prophet) to call idolatrous, rebellious, callous, blind, and ignorant Israel to repentance in order to avoid divine judgment.

The same Catholic writer notes, “In Matthew 5:26 Christ is condemning sin and speaks of liberation only after expiation. ‘Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.’ Now we know that no last penny needs to be paid in Heaven and from Hell there is no liberation at all; hence the reference must apply to a third place.”

The crazy thing is that rather than recognizing the here-and-now as that third place - the fictitious and fantastic matrix-like framework of purgatory is created where pain and regret magically evaporate, faith (in Christ or external payment?) is ceremonially and externally instilled, and the cost of rebellion against God is reduced to insignificant trinkets of atonement. In Matthew’s gospel, and in fact throughout the whole of the Bible, the here-and-now is EXCLUSIVELY where we are lovingly commanded to be reconciled personally and immediately both with God and others in and through the grace of Christ. Stairways to heaven cannot be purchased by petitions of descendants, drachms of silver, pots of gold, the burning of incense, or any other human effort or intervention.

The Apostle Paul spoke, taught, and wrote about this discrepancy between what we know (orthodoxy) is right and good - and that which we actually do (orthopraxy). “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”

The idea isn’t that we live perfect, regret-free, lives, but rather that we are grafted into the family of God by the will of the Father, the power of the Spirit, and the expiation and propitiation of Jesus.

Regardless of countless do-overs, reinventing ourselves, new beginnings, resets, and restarts, our lives only take a matter of minutes, days, or weeks to erupt and overflow with pain and regret once again. There is no matrix-like framework of surreal bliss. The sociopath and the follower of Christ are the only ones free from the dilemma of regret, but for vastly different reasons. The sociopath’s conscience is seared beyond awareness, while the follower of Christ submits to a largely unseen, yet divine, plan.

If one stops to consider the impracticality, and theologically unsupported nature, of purgatory, then it renders us fatefully aware, and exceedingly conscious, regarding the magnitude of the here-and-now. There is no payment of silver, gold, or prayers that can be made for those who reject Jesus in this life; and there is no need of it for those who accept Him.

Galatians 3:13-15 tells us, “Christ paid the price to free us from the curse… so that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to all the people of the world through Jesus Christ and we would receive the promised Spirit through faith.”

There are no do-overs, but there is the gracious opportunity to be born again of God. This is not a call to any religious systems, programs, protocols, sacraments, or ordinances. It is the gracious fulfillment of God’s promise to reconcile and restore humanity to Himself for eternal life in communion.

“You didn't want heaven without us

So Jesus, You brought heaven down

My sin was great, Your love was greater

What could separate us now?”

-Hillsong Worship

Are you banking on the fabrication of purgatory or the insufficient payments and prayers of descendants who won’t even know you or your name? Are you hoping to atone for your own sin with an endless string of fatefully marred and inadequate do-overs in purgatory? Or will do as Jesus lovingly commands and bank everything on the perfection of Christ who bids you enter through, and find eternal life in, Him?

Are you banking on do-overs or on Jesus Christ our King?

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com