The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed Is Death

Why I'm Writing About Harry Potter Now

For various reasons (none of them good) I never finished reading Harry Potter when the books were new. Fortunately, I have remedied that in recent weeks. I really enjoyed finishing the story and wanted to write some of my reflections. As you may have gleaned from my ability to put off the ending to such a gripping tale for several years, I'm not an expert on the story or the wizarding world, nor am I an expert on the author and her intentions. The following is absolutely my own interpretation of and reaction to the story and is in no way intended as comprehensive literary criticism nor as a necessarily unique interpretation.

Incidentally, I also just read through 1 Corinthians, a verse of which is engraved on Harry's parents' tombstone--"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." I shall thus frame my meditation around 1 Corinthians 15.

The Good News -- Unrelated to Harry Potter

1 Corinthians 15 begins with perhaps the most concise historic / factual account of the gospel (i.e., the good news that Jesus came to proclaim). 

• Christ (Jesus) died for our (i.e., every person's) sins in accordance with Scriptures 
• He was buried and rose on the third day in accordance with Scriptures
• He appeared to his disciples and then over 500 witnesses (i.e., this was Paul's challenge to say 'go ask people who were there--we're not making this stuff up)
• He then appeared to the apostles (i.e., those he commissioned to plant the early churches), and finally of those Paul, author of the letter
• Summary: The good news Jesus preached was of his own victory over death that that was effectual in paying for the sins of all people. Our relationship with God was restored and hope given not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well.

While I could (and have, and will) discuss other aspects and implications of the gospel ad nauseam, the main point I want to meditate on is that the actual good news is about Jesus, not about others who demonstrate entailments of the gospel or are types and reflections of the actual savior. While Harry Potter is the 'savior' of his story, I am not making a claim that he models or reflects Jesus, nor that the analogies I will later draw relate to the gospel, which is first and foremost good news of Jesus.

Characters: How Do I Fit in the Story?

When I read fiction, I like to try and immerse myself in the story. Perhaps I will try to identify with one of the characters and attempt to empathize based on my experience or hypothetical reactions to their situations. One of the things I love most about Harry Potter is the richness with which characters are developed and portrayed. The other thing I love is the story itself, which I think Rowling tells beautifully through her characters.

Not Harry

Harry as savior was great from a human standpoint because he relied so much on other people in order to succeed. The fact that he is not the only sacrificial lover makes the story all the richer. Add to that his character flaws (e.g., isolating rage, arrogance, pride) and not-infrequent uses of unforgivable curses, and we have a very human and pretty accessible protagonist. 

However, Harry as savior also means I'm reticent to assume I'm intended to identify with him. The value or truthiness of the prophecy in the story is questionable, but it does suggest (as it plays out, anyway) that Harry is in some way unique--mostly in the circumstances of his receipt of love that protects him from death. At any rate, if I tend to see the story as about myself, then I have missed the point. I think we can certainly learn from Harry, but I didn't walk away thinking he was my vantage point in the story. 

Perhaps, I thought, I was Ron: on the right team, perhaps largely unhelpful, but occasionally given a moment of glory and chance to be the hero. But I think the uniqueness of Harry's role as savior is that he is not the only savior, but the leading savior: without Ron and Hermione, Harry cannot succeed. Without Dumbledore's guidance (which admittedly he does submit to in a quasi-Son-to-Father way), Harry would be lost. Without his mother's love, he's just another casualty of Voldemort's megalomania. 

Snape or Malfoy: The dilemma

Ultimately, however inelegant, I think the story frames it such that we want to emulate the heroes (Harry's ultimate selflessness, Ron and Hermione's loyalty, Neville's bravery), but I don't think we are the heroes--not to say a good deal of us do heroic things on small and even large scales. But on a cosmological level, I think the story does a fair job of relating to the sinner's plight: be like Draco Malfoy and assume superiority and remain loyal to the Dark Lord, aka the prince of this world, aka the Devil, or be like Snape, known to have allegiances to the Dark Lord but committed to remorse (i.e., repentance), suffering for our enemies, and a life of sacrifice without accolades or sometimes even base recognition. 

The fact that Snape was at one point genuinely on the wrong side is what makes him seem more relate-able. For once, I too was an enemy of God. But only through true repentance and acceptance of another as my savior (not necessarily well-done by Snape), can I be justified and made whole. And the beauty of Snape's story is he suffered. He was miserable in his remorse and commitment to help his 'enemy' Potter and actually living in the world of the enemy, Voldemort. And he sacrificed for him (sure, it was for Lily, but for illustrative purposes let's say it was for Harry, of whom he was not fond).

Plot Points and Themes

Resurrection

Interestingly enough, 1 Corinthians 15 speaks at length of the importance of resurrection to the gospel: Jesus's death is only good news if in fact he rose from the dead--because that is the promise that we have. Since we have died to sin, we need new life, otherwise we have just plain died, there is no 'good news' to hold on to, and we (Christians) are to be pitied above all others (for wasting our lives on such foolishness).

But just as death came from one man (i.e., sin came into the world from the first sinner), so shall life come from the perfect man (perfect because he is God). In other words, the good news is Christ has conquered death, and he delivers his kingdom (that he conquered when he defeated death) to God, and he will reign until all enemies are vanquished--the last enemy to be destroyed is death.

The Harry Potter story has a lot of interesting thoughts on resurrection (e.g., the Resurrection Stone, Inferi, ghosts, corporeal memories). The interesting thing about the Resurrection Stone is that is that it is insufficient to bring people back--earthly death to earthly life is not satisfying. Rowling portrays some sort of afterlife, be it through portraits, ghosts, or whatever King's Cross was where Harry met Dumbledore, and thus the magical version of resurrection in its actual sense is unsatisfying and morbid at best. Harry uses the stone for the purpose of memory, gathering strength from the loved ones who sacrificed for him--a great tale, but once again not reflective of the actual gospel which comes with actual resurrection to a new Earth, which is not being brought back from death into the same world in which we died. Here again is a great theme of memory and death that entertains but pales in light of truth. Still interesting that 1 Corinthians 15 says so much on resurrection when Deathly Hallows does as well.  

Conquering Death

Ultimately, Harry Potter is about how love mysteriously conquers evil. Paul talks about the mystery of the resurrection, and in other places talks about the mystery of the gospel. The whole Jesus thing is pretty complicated from a human standpoint, but ultimately makes God seem a lot more glorious when we put into perspective that we're the kinds of people who betray those we love, or who pursue grandeur or immortality at the cost of other's lives or safety. But in the end, the sting of death (sin) is conquered through Christ who gives us victory. 

To wrap it all together, the Deathly Hallows made the possessor victory over death only insofar as it made one conqueror of the fear of death. When God (also a trinity) is in us, we have conquered the fear of death, not necessarily psychologically, but spiritually because of the guarantee of an inheritance in the future kingdom that comes at the resurrection of those who call on the name of the true savior. 

Suffering Better, Not Less

Today I read 2 Corinthians 4.

God said "let light shine out of darkness" and the light shines out of my heart--to me, that's encouraging because I am more intimately familiar with the darkness of my own heart than most people, and God is even more knowledgeable about than I am. But through that darkness, the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God" shines.

I get the sense that the light of God through Jesus was intended to shine brightest in the darkest of hearts. In fact, the treasure of Christ in our hearts shines so radiantly we are dull as clay in comparison, but that again makes the light brighter. And we are not the light, or the attractive part of the package, so that we may show "the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us."

The power of God leads us to the following scenario: we are afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and always carrying in the body the death of Jesus. We suffer. But the power of God prevents us from succumbing: we are not crushed, not driven to despair, not forsakes, not destroyed, and the life of Jesus is manifest in us.

The encouragement is to suffer not less, but better, knowing that the same power that brought Jesus back to life is in us. We will be raised from our suffering . . . ultimately. Not imminently. We are going to suffer, but we can suffer well, with the courage of the Spirit in us, so we do not lose heart. Though our fleshly outer self wastes away, our inner self, where the Spirit dwells, is being renewed daily.

In fact, we suffer to prepare us for "an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison." Suffering, much like our own darkness, highlights the power of God, the glory of Christ, and the promise of eternity in the presence of pure light and goodness itself.

I pray that God changes my prayers to reflect a desire to see my suffering used for his glory, not eliminated for my comfort.

What to Give the One Who Has Literally Everything

The holidays are, for better or worse, a season of busyness--Q4 is ending, travel is common, parties are happening, and it's easy to lose track of the time. Before you know it, Jesus's birthday is here and . . .oops, I didn't get him anything! Though we know Dec. 25th is almost certainly not the day Jesus was born, we don't actually know the day, so it makes sense to use an imputed date for celebratory purposes--that way there's only one party to plan and one set of thank you cards to write.

Now I don't always get people presents on their birthdays, but Jesus did die an unjust death and serve as the propitiation of God's righteous wrath toward me and rise again with new life that he's graciously offered to me (which comes with inheritance in God's kingdom), so I would feel awkward if I didn't get him anything. 

But what do you get someone who literally has everything? In my brief research for this post, I was unable to find a suitably concise list. So I took the task upon myself. 

Fortunately, Jesus (the Word of God made flesh) has left some clues in the paper version of himself.

Here's a non-comprehensive, concise list of things I, and anyone else who would like to follow Jesus in light of his atoning, life-giving, costly sacrifice can get him.

Things to Get Jesus for His Birthday

1. Mercy--In Hosea 6 (captured in this great Shane and Shane piece) God says in frustration at the Israelite's inability to get him the right thing, 'I desire mercy (NIV, steadfast love-ESV, loyalty-NASB), not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.' Jesus reiterated the importance of this passage by instructing the Pharisees (i.e., the pious, nice, good, church folk of the day) to go learn what it meant in Matthew 9. God is apparently not so much into rituals or tradition for the sake of it (oops), but is more into loving people, forgiving them as he forgave us. I like how Paul said it in Ephesians 4, 'Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as Christ God forgave you.' In other words, Jesus gave us forgiveness so we could use it to forgive others--kind of like a way better version of white elephant.
2. Humility--David, the great king of Israel, a man after God's own heart, did a kind of terrible job at showing mercy to Uriah, an active duty soldier, and his cry of distress to God in Psalm 51 starts with 'Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.' (I included this to reiterate the first point). David goes on to say he knows of his transgressions and sin, i.e., he is not shy about his own shortcomings--God wants us to be honest about our brokenness and not act self-righteous. David goes on with some beautiful theological exposition of God's saving grace, and says 'For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.' God actually makes clear that he has a pretty simple ask of us in Micah 6, 'He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy (NIV, kindness / steadfast love-ESV), and to walk humbly with your God?'
3. Love God, Love Others--It seems like two things, but Jesus seemed to think they were so integrally connected he tied them together as the greatest commandment. In Matthew 22, he tells us the greatest commandment is to 'love the Lord your God all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment' Tall order, but clear enough--Love God. But he goes on, 'A second is like it; you shall love your neighbor as yourself.' Love my neighbor, i.e., anyone with whom I am in proximity, as myself--like, actually? I spend a disproportionate amount of my time thinking about myself and how I can be happy and healthy (e.g., what job to take, where to live, how to make my wife and child happy so I can be happy, how to do enough good to feel good about myself). Jesus wants that from me, for me to love other people, even those who actively dislike me (cf. Matthew 5, Luke 6-love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you)? What if that's not at Target?
4. Glory--The subtext of all of this is Jesus just wants to make known what a great guy/God he is. Egotistical? For me to want people to spread the word of what a great guy I am, sure, but for someone who is literally the most good and most loving and infinitely capable of showing that love and forgiving people of the sin the breaks them apart and tears them up? It would probably be a bad idea not to make that person and their goodness/greatness known. In fact, God tells us that's literally why he made us. Isaiah 43 (which is a great Christmas text) says 'Fear not, I have redeemed you. . . everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.' (read the whole chapter if you haven't, it's pretty great).

A Non-Comprehensive List of Things Not to Get Jesus

1. Sin-I know I at least have given him plenty to die for, I don't think he wants anymore, even though that's I'll I've been giving him since. . . forever, and something I've been giving him way too much of this close to his birthday.
2. Self-righteousness--Really a subset of sin, this is a big problem in my life and something I see causing others distress all the time. Also known as pride, self-righteousness is kind of the opposite of humility and brings God no glory and shows neither he nor others love. So... yeah, don't give Jesus a box of self-righteousness for Christmas.
3. Rejection-Jesus's will is for everyone to know his goodness and his redeeming, saving love, that no one should perish by relying on their own lack of righteousness when God makes the new heaven and new earth pure and free of sin, death, and pain. He doesn't wish for anyone to die (cf. 2 Peter 3:9, Ezekiel 18:32). He invited you to his birthday party, how rude would rejection be for a present anyway?
4. An iPhone 6--I have no Biblical reason to believe this, but my gut tells me God doesn't like Apple products

Some textual analysis also reveals, God's interest in Himself (via his own name), his interest in telling off sin, and his frequent references to mercy, grace, forgiveness, and humility. 

Some Common Words Frequency within the Bible

Source: OpenBible.info

On Giving and Thanks

The following is a reflection on two particular holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas:

Consider the following Google Ngram view, which illustrates the percentage the key words make of all words in a large corpus of published works:


According to this pretty compelling piece of data analytics, Thanksgiving has gotten less and less important in our culture, particularly relative to Christmas (or at least we've been writing about it less and less).

Consider also the following Google Trends chart, which shows relative search volumes of the two words in the US:

As seen above, our search volumes skew heavily toward Christmas, on average four times as much as Thanksgiving--even in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

In fact, in recent years Black Friday searches have overtaken Thanksgiving searches in November.

Is this significant?

I find the premise of Thanksgiving quite appealing--time to reflect on what we're thankful for, gathered around family and friends. I also find that experientially, retailers don't seem that interested in creating a Thanksgiving buzz. On November 1st I noticed Target had switched from Halloween themes to Christmas themes. Thanksgiving was skipped entirely in my consumer marketing experience (perhaps my own fault for shopping at Target?).

I think the magic and experience of Christmas is wonderful, too, for sure. The colors, smells, sounds, and general aura of the 'holiday season' is a great distraction from (or perhaps complement to) the cold winter weather. But I fear what we as an American culture have done to Christmas has destroyed the true meaning of the holiday and made Thanksgiving a victim as well. (Again, this post is not about all holidays and how Christmas has overshadowed them, just about Thanksgiving).

What Thanksgiving Does and Could Mean

The history of Thanksgiving is perhaps a little too saturated with cultural and civil religion. However, Lincoln's declaration that we set aside a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens" brings up an important point about giving thanks: it is to someone.

To give thanks to no one in particular is a pretty vacuous or even self-serving gesture, isn't it? If I say "I'm so thankful for my job" with no object of my thanks, I'm really just saying "I'm glad I'm really awesome and got this job" or "I'm really lucky that the timing worked out." Am I thanking myself, the unfolding of events, fate, luck, or some other vague deterministic or random force for my circumstances? Am I thanking the privilege I have, particularly as one who is white and well-educated? I don't feel particularly thankful that privilege comes at the expense of others (though in honesty it might be hard to notice from how much I've capitalized on my privilege).

In its conception, I don't believe Thanksgiving was meant for thanking such abstract things. Now I could say "I'm thankful to my managers for hiring me," which is more precise and steers my thanks more intentionally. But again, I'm also implicitly thankful they didn't hire someone else, who, for all I know, needed this job even more than I did. However, I do feel gratitude toward my employer for hiring me, as the arrangement has turned out mutually beneficial (or so I perceive).

So perhaps we miss something in Thanksgiving when we are thankful in the abstract; perhaps we should be thankful in particular, and make a habit of actually thanking those who have been good to us. I personally know I am too quick to jump to the abstract in lieu of the particular and have a lot of opportunity this season to express particular thanks (e.g., my manager, my dad, my wife, my community group leader).

But what of the commercial emphasis on Christmas at the expense of a retail cue to think about Thanksgiving and a seemingly missing emphasis on the giving thanks part of Thanksgiving? Is it sufficient that we see the inventory of stores rearrange to emphasize the foodstuffs that we associate with Thanksgiving?

What Christmas Could and Does Mean

In my observations, the American understanding of Christmas is epitomized by the pithy phrase 'to give is better than to receive.' I believe this is because giving often requires a purchase and to give is to stimulate economic activity, which we for some reason think should be perpetually upward. To extend the benefits and mitigate the limited seasonality of 'holiday shopping,' it appears retailers and marketers have gone with the approach to extend the shopping season back into early November.

To be fair, I think there is something wonderful and magical about Christmas in that soft, colorful lighting and enchanting music (not carols or jingles) add to the glory and charm of winter. I don't like associating Christmas with fall; to me it ruins the magic. Granted, winters seem more intense and perhaps arrive earlier as well, but I felt the best part of Christmas was how ephemeral it was. For a brief period we get to enjoy trees covered in lights and music that makes snow more enchanting.

However, I, not being particularly fond of commercialism in general, do not particularly enjoy the retail side of Christmas--what has become an obligatory exchange of things for practicing Christmasers. Christmas has a more complex history than Thanksgiving, but its evolution into a season of sales and economic activity at the end of Q4 does not seem at all in line with its spirit (though it does create a lot of pretty colors and packages).

I think the term 'holiday season' more adequately captures what Christmas has become, and given its history I don't find Christmas that particularly Christian a holiday to begin with. So I don't mind that conservatives feel like they're losing the war on Christmas, nor do I mind that Christmas is still metonymous for the magic of the winter holidays.

But should Christmas subsume Thanksgiving to bring winter cheer to late fall? I don't think so.

What I'm Thankful for

Christmas as the symbol of winter cheer and the season of perpetual hope is great--Christmas as the dogmatic celebration of the birth of Jesus is not so much something I'm into. Perhaps not the reason you might think--it's because I feel I should celebrate the birth of Jesus (nominally the purpose of Christmas) for Thanksgiving.

Ultimately, I agree with Lincoln that we should take time to give thanks to God. Not only is God particularly the object of my thanks, but Jesus is particularly the subject of it. The incarnation of Jesus, God's condescension to the baseness of humanity, gives us hope that we can be free of sin (i.e., that which is not of God, who is good, which therefore is not good) and promised a restoration and redemption of all things. Of course, it is not Jesus's birth as a baby that brings hope, but rather his 'birth' (i.e., new life) after his death that effectually conquered the power of sin and death to free us to a living hope.

The birth of Jesus as an event (i.e., a birthday) is a very small piece of a much grander narrative of reconciliation and redemption that is worth being thankful for, but not necessarily worth buying a lot of stuff for. I am thankful for the incarnation much more so than I am for the Nativity scene. Through it (and it's culmination in Christ's death and resurrection) there is power to be reconciled to God and made new--that is what I am most thankful for. If it is in fact better to give than to receive, God has given us literally everything, and that makes him the best.

In fact, I can, because of God, be thankful to God for any given thing. And I should be thankful for everything He's given me, even if it's not something I particularly enjoy. Thanksgiving has the possibility to be a time of deep reflection and a chance to reorient our hearts toward God in a way that fosters humility and leads to selfless giving--which is perhaps what Christmas is meant to be about, but lacks because we don't take the time to root our giving in thankfulness to the one who has given all--including the dignity and life of His Son--to us. And He has so abundantly much that we can give to others, not just things, but the same love He showed us when he forgave our sins and brought us back into His family. And what better time than Thanksgiving to add to our family and multiply what we have to be thankful for?


My meditation for this holiday is Psalm 118:

1 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    for his steadfast love endures forever!

2 Let Israel say,

    “His steadfast love endures forever.”

3 Let the house of Aaron say,

    “His steadfast love endures forever.”

4 Let those who fear the Lord say,

    “His steadfast love endures forever.”

5 Out of my distress I called on the Lord;

    the Lord answered me and set me free.

6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear.

    What can man do to me?

7 The Lord is on my side as my helper;

    I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.

8 It is better to take refuge in the Lord

   than to trust in man.

9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord

    than to trust in princes.

10 All nations surrounded me;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

11 They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;

    in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

12 They surrounded me like bees;

    they went out like a fire among thorns;

in the name of the Lord I cut them off!

13 I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,

    but the Lord helped me.

14 The Lord is my strength and my song;

    he has become my salvation.

15 Glad songs of salvation

    are in the tents of the righteous:

    “The right hand of the Lord does valiantly,

16 the right hand of the Lord exalts,

    the right hand of the Lord does valiantly!”

17 I shall not die, but I shall live,

    and recount the deeds of the Lord.

18 The Lord has disciplined me severely,

    but he has not given me over to death.

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness,

    that I may enter through them

    and give thanks to the Lord.

20 This is the gate of the Lord;

    the righteous shall enter through it.

21 I thank you that you have answered me

    and have become my salvation.

22 The stone that the builders rejected

    has become the cornerstone.

23This is the Lord’s doing;

    it is marvelous in our eyes.

24This is the day that the Lord has made;

    let us rejoice and be glad in it.

25Save us, we pray, O Lord!

    O Lord, we pray, give us success!

26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of theLord!

    We bless you from the house of the Lord.

27The Lord is God,

    and he has made his light to shine upon us.

    Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,

    up to the horns of the altar!

28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;

    you are my God; I will extol you.

29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;

    for his steadfast love endures forever!