Seeing with Fresh Eyes

Do you have that one movie? That one villain? That one scene you can’t wait to see, knowing that the bad guy is finally going to get what’s coming to him? In her younger years, my daughter loved Disney princesses, and one antagonist she still talks about to this day is Hans from Frozen. She loved how he finally “got his” by ending up in a pile of horse manure in Frozen Fever. In fact, I’m not sure she’s ever really stopped laughing about that one. You may remember Veruca Salt from Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. She was so spoiled and demanding, it was with pleasure that I watched her go down the garbage chute after her “I Want It Now” song. And just the other evening, my now musical-theater-loving girl wanted to watch the movie Oklahoma!. I had never seen it before and was surprised at how much I detested the character Jud Fry, especially when I turned to my daughter and asked, “He dies at the end, right?”.

The Villain in Esther

I recently finished the book of Esther. It wasn’t the first time I had read it, so I knew what would happen, but in asking God for discernment as I read His Word, it has become a bit easier for me to gain new insight and understanding from it for my own life. This was just such a time. The night I settled in to read chapter seven, I was nearly rubbing my hands together, knowing that Haman’s death was imminent. That sneaky, malevolent man who only wanted power and to see the Jewish people completely killed off was about to come face-to-face with a whole new reality: Esther’s cousin Mordecai wouldn’t be impaled. Haman would (and on the very pole he set up for Mordecai). People would not continue to bow down to Haman. He would bow down before Queen Esther. Every evil plan he made turned right back around like a boomerang and made its way back to him. And then, finally, he was gone. Sentenced to death. Only, I didn’t feel the same sense of relief or happiness I expected and had felt in previous studies.

There Haman was, plotting and scheming, trying to reach a certain status in life. It didn’t matter that other people would be hurt, even killed, as a result of his plans. They were in the way or inconvenient so, as far as he was concerned, they were just casualties in his quest for power. He was a true “villain” and absolutely got what he deserved. But when his life was over, rather than applaud, I contemplated my own. I never intentionally try to hurt people or elevate myself above others. But in remembering the vile things Haman did, I considered my own sin and wondered what things I may have done that make me more like Haman than Esther or Mordecai. In that moment, I put myself in a place nobody wants to – that of the villain rather than the hero.

David’s Sheep

In 2 Samuel 11:1-4a, we read about King David, a man after God’s own heart, and a particular sin he committed.

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. 

Clearly, David committed a sin in desiring another man’s wife. But he went even further than that. He ended up fathering a child with her and, through purposeful military maneuvers, had her husband, who was loyal to King David, killed in battle. The Bible does not say, but we get no indication that David felt any true remorse about what he had done. At least not until he was confronted with it head-on. In 2 Samuel 12:1-7a, the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David.

The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”

Not until then did David feel and show great remorse for what he had done in taking another man’s wife and then having him killed: “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.'” (v. 13) And there were consequences, including the loss of his newborn son and ongoing problems with his other sons.

Sin is Sin

I have never murdered anyone. I’ve never committed adultery. But I have had anger in my heart. And, in full disclosure, I have coveted some of the beautiful farmhouses I see everywhere these days (though I’ve tried to justify that by thinking, “I don’t want theirs! I don’t want them not to have it. I just want one too!), and in that was not being content with what God has given me. I’m sure there are also plenty of things I should have done and didn’t.

There’s no doubt David was wrong in his lust, adultery, and murder. There’s no doubt that Haman was an evil man in all he planned.  It is easy to point fingers and offer input on what should happen to each of these men and others we may know in our lives.

As it turns out, we all deserve death because we are all sinners, and sin is terminal. “For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23a). Because of my sin, I deserve to die. But Jesus paid the price for my sin! I will not go through the second death (see Revelation 21:8). I will die at some point if Jesus does not return to rapture His church before that time, but I will not die again (be cast into the lake of fire). I will be in Heaven with Him!

Salvation doesn’t make anyone perfect. It makes us righteous through the sacrifice of Christ so that we can approach a holy God. But until we reach Heaven, we are human and subject to the temptations of the flesh. Oh, how I long to be like those heroes in Hebrews 11. Those who went out in faith, even when things seemed stacked against them; when things were scary; when it appeared there was no hope. They trusted God in ways that caused them to be remembered! But the truth is, they weren’t perfect either. They messed up at times and still ended up in the Hall of Faith.

While I need to remember those in Hebrews 11, I also want to remember people like Haman and King Herod and Jezebel.

For one thing, they are examples of what not to do – truly evil people.

For another, I need to remember that I have some things in common with them – that human part of me that, at times, wants things my way before asking God what He has to say about it. Every sin caused Jesus to go to the cross – mine and Haman’s and yours.

Lastly, I need to remember to pray for the Haman’s of today and not root for their demise, figuratively speaking.

In this increasingly divided world, it has become easier to see those who think and act differently as enemies, but Christians know that we are all made in the image of God, including the people we may not like and those who don’t like us very much because of our faith. There are people whose souls and eternity are at stake because they have their minds set only on worldly things rather than God and the life after this one.

We don’t have to beat people over the head with doctrine. We can simply show the light of Christ through our words and actions, even if they don’t reciprocate with kindness. They may never accept Jesus, but let it not be because we didn’t share with them the salvation and peace found only in Him. This doesn’t mean we don’t set boundaries for ourselves and our families. It just means that we can try to tamp down the emotion that (for me anyway) immediately rises up when I hear or see certain things. As long as I am not in immediate physical danger, just simply upset with the way of the world, I can take some time to calm down and look at that person in the way God wants me to.

So enjoy the movie. Enjoy that villain being taken down a peg or two. Just remember that in real life, God is giving all of us the opportunity to witness and minister to those who don’t yet know Christ. We may be mocked, ridiculed, cursed at, hated, or driven away, but we must, in love and respect, see them with fresh eyes and share Jesus. Eternity is waiting!