The Day of The Dark Knight

Other than the fact that we share a name in common, there are many reasons why I love Batman. His is the only comic book lore that remains consistently true to itself. Even if you've read only three batman comic books in your life, several things become readily apparent. He is a tortured hero whose self-sacrifice springs from great loss. He is anchored by the moral code of never killing his antagonists, he believes in justice, and most of all, he perpetuates himself as a myth, as more than a man in a bat costume, but something otherworldly, that cannot be killed.

So what in the world does this have to do with God? A lot, in fact I don't think anything exists that is not inclusive in the narrative of God. In Genesis 1 the bible reveals that " God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also. " As you must know, scripture openeth scripture, and a great deal of weight must be given to words, especially the ones used intermittently in seemingly different contexts. The word we would be dwelling upon here is "light" particularly "greater light" and "lesser light".

 The Dark Knight which is one of  Batman's many nicknames, protects the world in the shadows. He operates at night, crouched atop gargoyles watching closely his fallen Gotham. We are like Batman, even as we are antithetical to him. We watch our fallen world in the night, but we do this not from the shadows, not becoming one with the darkness, but rather by being the light, the lesser light.  Now, be not dismayed, there will come a day when the greater light, that is Jesus, will return again to rule the day, engulfing us with the light of His glory so that we no longer need the sun. But absent Christ in the flesh, the believer is here to rule the night, to steward it unto the great dawn. Does all this sound far fetched? Allow me then, to draw the well a little closer.

Speaking in John chapter 9 vs 4-5 , Jesus says "I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." 5. "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." Now I hate to break it to you, but this was pre-crucifixion, death, resurrection and ultimate ascencion. Jesus stated here that he was the light of the world only as long as He was present here. But He isn't anymore, is He? No, the answer is no. The Greater Light ruled the day for three beautiful years and now we've been facing down an over 2000 year long night. Immorality, injustice and fear run rampant with nothing to keep them at bay, or so we say. Later in John 11, Jesus asserts that his absence would indeed prove trying for mankind, saying "if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him." You can almost imagine a man being as a lantern whose wick has not been lit. Jesus is the light, the man that walketh without the light stumbleth. The believer has the Holy Spirit (which is the immaterial Jesus), Jesus is the light, therefore the believer has the light, the believer is a lit lamp, nothing compared to the sun, but nonetheless a great light that can rule the night. In fact to drive this lantern metaphor home, consider in Acts that the Holy Spirit upon the disciples was as a tongue of cloven fire (some old school writing right there) but a tongue of cloven fire is precisely what you find inside of a kerosene fueled lantern. So, established, we are officially the light of the world, not necessarily in power (because the Anti-Christ is a darned good politician) but empowered to chaperone the world unto that great day when the greatest light shall reappear.



How do we do this then? This great task? One of the ways is to be not conformed to the world. Roman 13 vs 11 posits " that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." 12. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." In essense let us be as Christ was in this world. Let us take the gospel to the ends of the earth, heal the sick, raise the dead, and feed the poor. In one word, love. We love not the world, but the people in it. Just like Batman doesn't care much for Gotham's debilitating darkness, but the people in it, the people who are worth loving and saving. It's a selfless often thankless task. Batman puts on a dark suit of armor to blend in and maintain peace by fear, we put on an armor of light to stand out and maintain peace by love. He has his batarangs, and grapple guns and sidekicks, we have our weapons of warfare (the word) and our disciples. We do not abandon the gathering of the lesser lights because we know one Batman can't do the good of an entire Justice League. We are the heroes of this Gotham, and the world will joke about us, riddled by our ways, but we will rule this dark night, until that great day  "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Colossians 3 vs 4.