“One day, a talented lass or fellow, a special one with face of yellow, will make the Piece of Resistance found from its hiding refuge underground, and, with a noble army at the helm, this Master Builder will thwart the Kragle and save the realm, and be the greatest, most interesting, most important person of all times. All this is true because it rhymes.”
The Lego
Movie (2014)
All right, folks, buckle up; we’re going
meta this week. The principle of first things first, however, calls for a brief
word of context before we get there.
Winner Takes All is a Doctor Who novel by Jacqueline
Rayner,1 which features a community of porcupine-like aliens called
Quevvils who have a cunning plan to penetrate the stronghold of their long-term
enemies, the mantis-like Mantodeans, by kidnapping humans, subjecting them to
remote electronic control, and tricking other humans into acting as the
controllers by pretending the whole thing is a video game, with a prize for the
first player to successfully reach the centre of the stronghold. The Ninth
Doctor and Rose quickly catch on to the Quevvils’ deception and set off to
rescue the kidnapped humans, among whom is a teenaged nerd called Robert. Of
course, I assign him the title ‘nerd’ in the spirit of one hailing a fellow,
rather than disdaining an eccentric; Robert is even more obsessed with stories
than I am. By the time he runs into the Doctor and Rose, the reader has already
been offered a few glimpses of his way of looking at the world, which primarily
involves mentally elaborating upon the mundane scenarios he finds himself in so
that they fit with some sort of fantastical storyline in which he is the
Chosen One, destined to save the day, win the victory, get the girl, and
generally be the greatest, most interesting, most important person of all times.2
 |
| So a Quevvil is like a human-sized, bipedal, alien one of these. Not that your knowing so is of any import for your getting the gist of this post. |
But now that something fantastical
really is happening to him – because if being held captive by giant
porcupines on an alien planet doesn’t count as fantastical, I’m not sure what
does – he finds that the manner in which he is behaving is completely out of
step with the way any Chosen One character in the whole realm of fiction would
behave in the same situation. Far from playing the hero, Robert has just been
cowering in the corner with the rest of the helpless humans. When the Quevvils have
periodically shown up to select new victims from their stock of prisoners, he’s
been letting them take other people without a murmur of protest. He even let
them take his mother. There’s not been a smidgen of day-saving in sight.
Then a police box materialises in the
middle of the room, and out steps this leather-jacketed Mancunian declaring
that he’s there to rescue everybody, that nobody else is going to be taken by
the Quevvils. And, as an opportunity presents itself to step into unknown
danger in order to allow the Doctor to carry out his rescue plan, something
dawns on Robert.
But he wasn’t special. He wasn’t the
Chosen One.
And even if he was…
He loved books like that, and telly, and
films. He loved stuff where there was a Chosen One, a special person, a hero,
and he loved to imagine that one day things like that would happen to him. But
there was one thing he’d noticed, and that was that however much the hero seemed
to risk his life, all the way through there would be other people risking their
lives too, happy to give up their lives so the Chosen One, the hero, could live
to fight another day, or do something clever, and everyone accepted that that
was just as it should be. Often, the hero didn’t even know their names. He
certainly rarely gave them a second thought, after the first brief regret of
the loss.
Robert knew he wasn’t the hero, wasn’t
special. But looking at this man, the ‘Doctor freak’ as Darren called him, he
knew that he was in the presence of someone who was.
He remembered what the man had said
about no one else being taken. Well, maybe he was almost right. He was going to
put a stop to all this, Robert really believed that. So maybe one more person
had to go, and then everyone else would be all right: Sarah, and her mother,
and old Mrs Pobjoy and the rest. And maybe the person going would be able to
help the hero. Maybe be able to give their life for the hero. Maybe be a part
of the solution, even if they had to die.
It dawns on Robert that he’s not the Chosen
One, the special one, the one who saves the day; rather, that person is
standing in front of him wearing a leather jacket. And immediately, Robert grasps
that he consequently owes that person the whole of his allegiance, his service,
his commitment, even to the point of death. It’s not that there’s likely to be
anything in it for Robert if he offers the Doctor his service, but simply that,
faced with the Chosen One destined to save the day – which Robert truly
believes the Doctor is – there is no choice but to offer one’s service.
That’s the only right thing to do, the only way to belong to the solution
instead of the problem, and, frankly, the Chosen One warrants it. Everyone else
is just cowering in the corner, helpless to bring about his or her own rescue;
only the Chosen One can make such a rescue happen. Total allegiance and service
and commitment are owed him, simply because he is the only hope.
Robert gets this because he’s read a lot
of Chosen-One stories. Those of us who have also read a lot of Chosen-One
stories – and frankly, any of us who’s read (or heard, or watched) a lot of
stories, full stop, is surely bound to have read a lot of Chosen-One stories –
ought to get it too. But bring the concept into real life and the ultimate
Chosen One of the story of everything, and I know I for one am prone to
forgetting it.
I owe the Lord Jesus my full allegiance and
service and commitment from the off. There’s a very real sense in which
what I do or don’t get out of offering that service is neither here nor there;
if I believe that he’s the Chosen One, the special one, the one who saves the
day, then offering it is the only right thing to do. If I can see that apart
from him I have no hope, but am just cowering in the corner, helpless to effect
my own rescue from being a prisoner of sin, then to pledge my service to him
and his way of doing things is the only way to belong to the solution instead
of the problem. Simply by virtue of who he is, the hero of the story and the
only hope, Jesus immediately warrants my complete loyalty to him. Even to the
point of death.
But of course, it’s better than that.
When Robert pledges his service to the Doctor, he isn’t expecting even to
survive, even to have his name remembered, let alone to receive any reward.
When I pledge my service to Jesus, by contrast, I can, by his extraordinary
grace, expect all of that. Check out the following selections of the tenth
chapter of the apostle John’s account of the life and deeds of the Lord:
But he who enters by the door is the
shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and
he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out … I am the good shepherd. The
good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep … My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never
perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given
them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the
Father’s hand.3
 |
| Sheep! There are loads of stock photos of sheep about, but I liked this one because of the snow. |
The Doctor may not ever know Robert’s
name; Jesus calls me by mine. The Doctor can’t guarantee that he will be able
to protect Robert; Jesus guarantees that I will never be snatched from his hand.
The Doctor may end up requiring Robert to die so that he might live to fight
another day; Jesus was prepared to die so that I might live forever.
In light of which, how much more reason
do I have to pledge my allegiance and service and commitment to Jesus than any
fictional character has ever had reason to pledge these things to the Chosen
One of his or her own universe? Simply by virtue of who he is, he warrants it,
and yet on top of that, he heaps me with irrevocable, imperishable blessings
that culminate in an eternity of immeasurable bliss spent at his side – in his
service. Adelphoi, let’s take this seriously, and spur one another on to take
it ever more seriously. Complete loyalty to Jesus – adoration married to
obedience – is our highest privilege: it’s our most fundamental duty, and it’s
our sweetest joy – because he calls us by name and he lays down his life for us
and he gives us eternal life, and nobody in all of time and space can snatch us
out of his hand.
Footnotes
1 It’s probably my favourite Doctor Who novel ever, and that’s
saying quite a lot: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Jacqueline-Rayner/Doctor-Who-Winner-Takes-All/14971523.
2 The Honest Trailer for The Lego Movie features Epic
Rap Battles of History, so of course you want to give it a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJGXsVHkhrk.
Although I disagree with it about Song of the Sea (my favourite film)
and The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (emotionally destroying, but
breathtakingly gorgeous).
3 Whole chapter: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+10&version=ESVUK.
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