The Dark Knight

Week 2

Matthew 6: 25-34
25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or
about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the
body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or
reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not
much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to
his life[b]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do
not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was
dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is
here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O
you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we
drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your
heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his
righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not
worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough
trouble of its own.

Mixer:

1.)What was your favorite part of the movie this week?

Why?

Going Deeper:

1.) What is your experience of the Joker? Is he scary? Why or

why not? Consider the way he tells his own story differently
each time. Does this make him more or less scary?

One of the reasons I think the Joker is scary is that he has no origin. To
that end he is un-figure-out-able and tap into all of our dread and fear
of the unknown. For story telling purposes this is brilliant because it
makes him mythically evil, however I think the poignancy runs deeper
than this.

In the Bible we are never told the origin of evil. In fact we are warned
off putting too much energy into trying to figure it out. I see this play
out in the Joker character. If we can figure out his origins we can see its
edges, name it, control it and unfortunately, domesticate it.

But evil in the Bible is too big to domesticate (it like the Joker, just
wants to watch te world burn)– we are taught not to look for it’s origin

© Dixon Kinser 2009

but to look forward to it’s defeat. And it is defeated the way God
defeats it, with sacrificial love.

This is what Batman will have to discover. We doesn’t see how the
Joker is not a “simple” criminal, because he doesn’t want anything.

2.)Is the Joker a terrorist? What are ways we might be

tempted to deny the Gospel for our own security?

“The defeat of death through the resurrection makes possible, as

well as necessary, that Christians live non-violently in a world of
violence. Christian non-violence is not a strategy to rid the world of
violence, but rather the way Christians must live in a world of
violence.” - Stanley Hauerwas

3.) Twice in the movie this week people try and stand up to
the Joker claiming they don’t have to be “afraid of him”.
What are they? (One is the copycat Batman in the video,
and the other is a guest at the fundraiser party). Why
shouldn’t we be afraid of him?

4.) Read the Luke text above. Jesus tells us not to be afraid.
Is that realistic in the face of evil like the Joker? How do we
make sense of living as a people with out fear, when evil can
genuinely makes us afraid?

Here the theology of Christus Victor is important. Christus Victor is the

reality that evil and death have been fully defeated by Jesus on the
cross. Evil had its best shot at getting the last word but it lost. The
resurrection is the ultimate sign that death is defeated permanently.

However, we live in a world where people still die and evil still exists.
So, our goal as Christians is to bring God’s final act of creation (the
new heaven and new earth where sin and death are no more) into our
present with everything we’ve got. He live hopefully toward that future
reality knowing that the places we fall short and struggle will be where
God makes up the difference. This is why we don’t have to be afraid

What are ways we can help each other live this reality of
Christus Victor? How do we equip each other not to succumb to
our fears?

4.)Earlier we mentioned that the Bible doesn’t direct us

© Dixon Kinser 2009

 toward the origin of evil in the text, but rather toward
God’s activity in defeating it and God’s future where it is
no longer defeated. IN the mean time we are called to do
as God does with evil. Work toward its defeat like he did
on the cross – by forgiving.

Dixon says, the place we can begin to demonstrate evil’s

full and future defeat in our world today is through
forgiving others, and ourselves. This is where we start to
see the prayer “deliver us from evil” answered.

Do you think he’s right? In what ways is this true or not

true? What do you think of this contention?

“God’s forgiveness of us or our forgiveness of ourselves is the knife

that cuts the rope by which sin anger, fear ad death are still attached
to us. Evil will have nothing to say least because the victory of the
cross has been fully implemented.”

– N.T. Wright

Close the session by having people reflect on who they should

forgive and how they can receive fogiveness.

“People say if you’re not willing to fight and bomb our enemy you have
nothing to say in debates over foreign policy? Such a question assumes
pacifists (or Christians) have a foreign policy – I have something better
– a church constituted by people who would rather die than kill.” –
Stanley Hauerwas

© Dixon Kinser 2009

“Christians are called to be holy. Holiness is not an individual
achievement, but rather a set of practices to sustain a people who
refuse to have their lives determined by the fear and denial of death.”
(Hauerwas)

Jesus did not come to mae us safe. He came to make us disciples,

citizen’s of a new age, a kingdom of surprise.

Affirm that God’s story is comic – al wll be well

© Dixon Kinser 2009

We endure suffering becaue it produces hope – God will make up the
difference

God has promised to provide and to redeem. That is, t provide what we
need to go on and make up for the loss.

We are called to be a people of forgiveness in the present because that

is what we will be in the future. Also, forgiveness is the means by
which God has acted, on the cross and ressurection of Jesus, to defeat
evil once and for all. Therefore, we enact and make real that past and
future reality when we forgive.
In the future, our forgiveness will be complete and total (forgive all evil
done to us) ultimate answer to prayer – deliver us from evil.

We also have to accept God’s forgiveness and accept ourselves.

Frogveness in present – name act as wrong – condemn it, and then

release the offender from the guilt.

The atonement was not just an abstact trasaction making God’s

forgiveness available to tose who want it. It was the stunning,
powerful, towering achievment through which God’s new age could
begin.

Why is there evil – we’re not given a full picture – but the quest to
solve that problem is a quest for the Creators justice wic will one day
suffuse all creation!

© Dixon Kinser 2009

© Dixon Kinser 2009