[As I said yesterday... some spoiler today, if you are a movie purist :)]
No one is beyond hope, or beyond temptation.
I think this is one of those lessons that strangely gets harder to remember the longer one has been a Christian. After years of striving to live holy and putting a good effort into cleaning up our lives it is only natural to believe that we are just a touch above the average citizen. There really is no question that we are above the trouble makers and criminals.
One of the culminating scenes in The Dark Knight occurs when the Joker has stranded two sets of people on two ferries. Each ferry basically gets the choice of a) Blow up the other ferry before they blow you up, or b) Hope you don't get blown up before midnight... and then get blown up by the Joker. On each ferry there is a guardian holding the detonator that will (supposedly) blow up the other boat and save everyone on their own ferry. It was quite interesting to see how the writers played this story out, having a criminal step up and do something quite heroic while the "good" people voted... deciding to kill 450 other people. One caveat is that one boat was filled with criminals while the other was filled with normal citizens. Of course the boat with criminals also had police and military personnel, but apparently they did not factor in when the voting took place on the Citizen boat.
It was a moving moment when I saw it on the screen. It became even more poignant when I walked outside. You see, when we arrived at the movie theatre there was a small crowd of people that looked mostly like me... couples going to see a movie. When I left the theatre I was immediately surrounded by people who seemed to range from 12 - 17 and could only be characterized as thugs. I mean, what else do you call a 14 year old kid standing in your way as you are trying to exit a movie theatre? It was interesting to me how quickly I assumed that this mass of youth somehow wanted to harm me, or at least would take advantage if any opportunity arose. I wondered, "What if they were on a boat and I had the choice of blowing them up or trusting that they would die before blowing me up?" I think that any honest person would think, "We have to get them before they get us! You cannot trust those kids!"
I am not trying to argue for the rights of young people to congregate late at night and... loiter. But, I am trying to argue against my natural inclination to assume that I am the good person in the group and "they" (whoever they may be) are the bad persons. The truth is that given the right circumstances I can still be tempted by evil as much as any man, and it will do my heart and soul good to remember that when I have the chance to offer grace and forgiveness to my fellow man. There is one, often painful, side effect to this way of thinking... and that will be our final lesson revealed tomorrow.
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