Obsession and Guilt
If you didn't read the devotional for yesterday, go back and read it for a background on Batman.
Batman was obsessed, driven by guilt, the number one weapon in the enemies arsenal of weapons. Its effects are worse than mustard gas or agent orange. It lingers and effects the soul and the spirit and cripples them repeatedly when the spirit should be rejoicing.
Compare Superman, bright primary colors blue, red, and a splash of yellow. Batman, dressed in black and grays, the only color being the cold gold yellow around the bat on his utility belt buckle.
Superman always works in the day time. Batman is a creature of the night, where guilt finds its strength. Worse than any Jewish or Catholic guilt, more pervasive than any guilt your mother could ever heap upon your head is the guilt we carry from our sins. It haunts us. It distracts us. It continues to remind us that we're not good enough. It slowly eats at our self esteem and our self confidence.
For Batman, a lapsed Episciopallian, it's so pervasive that time after time he has to prove that he's better than the guilt will ever let him feel.
From the moment of his decision to take on crime to avenge his parents, Batman worked to become what Superman never could be, a self made man. I think that's one of the reasons why Batman is so popular. While Superman appeals to the best in us, Batman appeals to the rest in us. The rest of what everyday humanity is like.
We can identify with that self made model who Batman is, He has honed his body to physical perfection with exercise and martial arts training, yet he is vulnerable and has been bruised and wounded a number of times. That could never happen to the man of steel. Bullets bounce off of him.
Batman has also honed his intellect and skills of perception, training hour after hour until he is the best strategist around, which also gives him insight into the criminal mind. He has become the consummate detective and scientist through reading and training. All through his own efforts, driven by his guilt and the obsession of avenging his parents death. He is what Nietzsche calls the "ubermensch." The true superhuman!
But still, Batman hangs in the dark. Oh, he comes out in the day time but he prefers the night. He's a creature of the night. He prefers the shadows where he best can deal with the people of the shadows, the enemy of normal human life, the home of those who feed and prosper off of the rest of us.
Look at Peter, a self-made man as well. Head of a fishing industry that included at least two boats and two families. Peter and his brother Andrew along with James and John and their father Zebedee. There in Bethsaida and Capernaum, they plied the Sea of Galilee and made their living. Peter was known as the Big Fisherman. Rough and tumble, rough around the edges. My favorite quote about Peter is that he always had his foot in his mouth and the only time he ever took his foot out of his mouth was to change feet.
Peter, one of the reluctant disciples. We know he was married. We know he was a kind man who took care of his mother-in-law and made sure she was comfortable. It's estimated that Peter owned a whole fleet of fishing vessels and may have been one of the wealthiest fishermen in the area.
When he left to follow Jesus, the guilt must have been overwhelming and at war with his faith. Leave his wife and the business he had worked so hard to build to follow an itinerant preacher whose message quickened his heart, who many, including his brother claimed to be the Messiah. Guilt, regret, second guessing, uncertainty all mingled with his excitement and sense of calling had to have driven this analytical man crazy.
No wonder one moment he was fully a man of Jesus filled with the deepest faith and the next minute a man of the world filled with overwhelming doubt. Peter was a completely self-made man and there was a spiritual battle going on within his heart.
A battle which comes to a head with the events of Jesus's betrayal . . . Remember that. Judas greets Jesus, who has just called upon God to help strengthen his resolve after being tempted to give it all up for safety. Judas greets Jesus with a kiss. One of his disciples pulls out his sword and cuts off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the temple High Priest. Jesus chastises him and heals the man.
Peter follows Jesus and the guards. And there in Caiaphas' courtyard, while warming himself at a charcoal fire, not once but three times, Peter denies Jesus. The third time, Peter looks up and looks directly into the eyes of Jesus. And a cock crows. And like Batman, Peter runs to the safety of the shadows to hide and collect his thoughts.
And the only thoughts he can collect are those which condemn him. Thoughts of guilt and ineptitude. Guilt and stupidity. Guilt and cowardice. Guilt and selfishness. Guilt and betrayal. Every shadow has the face of someone mocking him for his lack of faith. Every sound in the shadows is someone coming to arrest him. Every movement in the shadows is the feral animal of his guilt stalking him, ready to pounce once again and rip his soul open with its claws of regret.
Tomorrow we will look at Redemption and Grace
Thoughts to Ponder:
Are you carrying around any guilt?
Do you ever put your foot in your mouth?
Have you ever denied Him?
In His Service,
Terry Phillips
