Thought of the Day 12.31.08

In the movie, The Dark Knight, The Joker preaches one of the most essentially Christian sermons I’ve ever heard when he says, “I’m not a monster, I’m just ahead of the curve.” By this, he means that the difference between him and everyone else is merely one of degree, not of kind.

See, the citizen thinks the criminal is scandalous for not cherishing family and our fellow man enough. The criminal, in turn, thinks the Joker is scandalous for not cherishing money and power enough, in fact cherishing nothing at all. But the real scandal is the failure of anyone to Cherish God enough, since only He has absolute worth. In other words, it really doesn’t matter what you love if you don’t first love God completely. At least The Joker comes closest to grasping this truth when he proclaims, “everything burns.”

Thus, Alfred is only half-right when he tells Batman that “some men just want to watch the world burn.” The deeper problem is that until God becomes our primary love, we are all such men, a fact made all the more tragic because we refuse to realize it.