he just wants to watch the world burn
Some men just want to watch the world burn.
Maybe, if you’re a Batman fan, you remember that sentence from an interchange between Bruce Wayne and his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, a conversation about The Joker….
Bruce Wayne: “Criminals aren’t complicated, Alfred. Just have to figure out what he’s after.”
Alfred Pennyworth: “With respect, Master Wayne, perhaps this is a man that you don’t fully understand, either. A long time ago, I was in Burma. My friends and I were working for the local government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders by bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. So we went looking for the stones. But, in six months, we never met anybody who traded with him. One day, I saw a child playing with a ruby the size of a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing them away.”
Bruce Wayne: “So why steal them?”
Alfred Pennyworth: “Well, because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren’t looking for anything logical, like money. They can’t be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.”
I’ve just finished a very helpful book by John Mark Comer, Live No Lies. His thesis is that we face an unholy trinity-the world, the flesh, and the devil-that feeds us a constant diet of lies in order to destroy us. It’s been such a good reminder to me, for I think that far too frequently I step into the day as I place my feet on the floor upon waking, not taking into account that from my waking I am under attack. Not by The Joker, mind you, but by a far superior villain who also wants to watch the world burn.
As I noted yesterday, Jesus was not unfamiliar with this kind of attack. He lived with flesh on, tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He lived in a world-system that tried to bring him down. And he came under the direct assault of the satan (Matthew 4:1-11).
Let's state the obvious--for Jesus, there is a devil.
For Jesus, the devil is the archetype of a villain who is hellbent on destruction. He just wants to watch the world burn. His motto: 'Tear it all down.' Wherever he finds life, he tries to stamp it out.
Beauty? Deface it.
Love? Corrupt it.
Unity? Fragment it into a million pieces.
Human flourishing? Push it to anarchy or tyranny; either will do.
His anti-life, pro-death, pro-chaos agenda is an insatiable fire...This is why our newsfeeds drip steady litanies of chaos and carnage....And this is why following Jesus often feels like war. It is. It's not easy to advance daily into the kingdom of God because there's opposition from the devil himself. (Or to be more specific, other spiritual beings under his sway.)
We feel this opposition every day. In that nagging inner tension as we're torn between the opposing desires of love and lust, honesty and saving face, self-control and indulgence. In the struggle for faith in a secular age where so many cultural elites seem to have left faith behind, where scientism is the new superstition, and where, as the philosopher James K.A. Smith put it, 'we're all Thomas now.' In the breakdown of a society losing its center and spinning out of control."
—John Mark Comer, Live No Lies, 16, 17
Will you do me a favor and read that last paragraph again?
Did you wonder why he quoted Smith, saying, “We’re all Thomas now”? I think he means that all the chaos and carnage, all the opposition, all the inner tension we feel, well, it leaves us doubting. It’s not just that it feels like society is losing its center and spinning out of control, sometimes we feel that way too, and we doubt if Jesus matters at all, if he cares, if he’s real, if belief in him makes a difference. We’re left doubting.
But I want you to remember what Jesus did when he saw Thomas after his declaration of doubt, what Jesus said. Jesus met him with a declaration, “Peace be with you.” Jesus appeared to him, and he brought Thomas into his presence, and gave him the opportunity to believe again.
Listen, dear friend. It’s ok that if—in the middle of this all out war on your soul by one who just wants to watch the world, and you in it, burn—it’s ok that you sometimes have doubts about it all. That you’re overwhelmed. Remember: you belong to one who is patient, and kind, and is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). He has the power to restore beauty, love, unity, and flourishing to you. Just go to him, without shame, and tell him, softly, “I believe, Jesus; help my unbelief.”
He will accept you.
And he will help you.
Because he knew about you and your doubts all the way back there with Thomas, where he pronounced a blessing over you:
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)
