The Pick of the Week for this week is a blog by a man I really admire. His “sermons” are hard-hitting, and they really cut through one’s pretensions. If you are a Christian and you think you’re comfortable with your faith, prepare to be offended by the Truth. If you are a seeker and you want to hear of God’s love, this is not the place to look for a comfy, huggy Gospel.
But that’s the great point about this blog. It’s pure, unadulterated truth, through the eyes of David Chan. This blog has helped knock some sense into me, and helped me get back to getting to know Jesus. If you wanna be serious with Jesus, this is a great place to start.
Excerpt from David Chan’s Looking Down on Giants:
I guess it can’t be helped. For those of you who can’t relate, Sylar is one of the main characters in the hit series Heroes. He plays the villain, and he does so quite well. He has a grin that stresses a lot of the viewers because after the smile usually comes the death of one of the good guys, via removal of the crown of the head. Yes, it’s cruel and it’s graphic, and the reason for why he takes off the tops of the heads of people is so that he can gain the powers of his victims. I love his acting and I love his role.
A lot of people have asked me why I’m rooting for Sylar. Why am I on the side of the bad guy? Why do I want him to win and to get all the powers of all the good guys? Well, there’s a very simple reason for why I’m on his side, and the reason goes far beyond acting and role preferences.
You see, we are in a war. Whether we like to believe it or not, the war is real. It’s a war for our souls and for our minds and for our affections and loyalties. This world, however, has become numb to the reality of this spiritual war I’m talking about. The busyness of life and the noisiness of everyday dull our senses and make us believe that all there is to this life is what we can experience through our five senses. Movies today promote so many happy endings and it’s become common. It’s become so common that we have taken very lightly the war that is being waged. But then, I thought to myself, what if people are shocked by a bad ending? What if people actually experience a bad ending from a movie, a series, or a story? What if movies were made to make people think instead of simply entertaining people to death? What if Sylar wins? Yes, people would hate the series. People would feel bad and would probably hate the show. Why? Is it because people want happy endings? Probably. But I believe there’s a deeper reason: people don’t want to acknowledge the fact that they too are losing in the war they are waging. They want happy endings to the things that they fill their minds with so that they could escape into that happy ending. Why? Because they know that their lives are not headed there.
Escapism at the spiritual level is eternally more dangerous.
WARNING: SPOILERS UP AHEAD!!
So in episode 10 of Heroes season 2, we find Sylar with Maya. He has successfully convinced her that he’s a good guy. He seduces her with his smile, his charm, his sensitivity and understanding. He pretends to know what Maya is going through. Then in one scene, he accuses her for being a horrible person and puts several lies into her head. He tells her that her brother hates her even if her brother actually loves her very much. Maya believes him and in the process, even learns how to control her ability. Now, Maya thinks that it was all thanks to Gabriel (Sylar’s real name). All this time, her brother knew that Sylar was evil and had ulterior motives. He even shows her proof of Sylar’s crimes. And instead of leaving Sylar, Maya decides to leave her brother instead. A few scenes later, Sylar kills Maya’s brother without her knowing. And the irony of it all is that Maya falls in love Sylar! He has stolen her affections and later on, possibly, he would kill her and take her power, and all this will happen AFTER Sylar has taken advantage of her emotionally and even physically.
Sylar plays Satan’s role very, very well. Isn’t that how satan gains our affections? Seduction, manipulation, deception… we end up forsaking the people who love us most, the very people who love us enough to us the painful truth, risking themselves in the process. The result is we get so deceived that we actually fall in love with satan without knowing that he has already murdered the things in our lives that we value the most.
END OF SPOILER
And that’s why I want Sylar to win. I want people to think. I want people to hate the possibility of evil being victorious. I want people to be aroused to the danger, to be made aware of the plight we are in. I want people to wake up, and I think that Sylar winning would do that quite effectively. Wishful thinking, I know. Lofty thoughts. I know. But it’s worth a shot.
