The
hero in the zombie series “The Walking Dead” is Rick Grimes, a former
sheriff. When the series began Rick
had a strong moral center, a need to protect, and a desire to build something
good in a world gone very, very wrong.
Often, Rick was placed in scenes opposite ruthless villains so that the
audience could hear Rick’s hopeful lines in contrast to the slick,
manipulative, self-justifying monologues of the villains.
But
our hero Rick has changed.
The bad guy this past season was a cannibal named Garrett, whose response to one
his victim’s plea for mercy was, “There is no going back, Bob."
In
the mid-season finale a handcuffed, unarmed police officer begged Sheriff
Grimes to take him back to the group’s camp.
Rick replied, “There is no going back, Bob.” Then he shot him in the face.
It
didn’t have to be that way. Rick didn’t
have to take it that far.
Like
the real-life Biblical figure Jephthah.
Jephthah
is one of the most inspiring characters in the Bible. He was the progeny of his father’s
adulterous liaison with a prostitute. As
soon as his father died, his brothers kicked him out, and he
became the leader of a street gang.
(Judges 11: 1-3)
God
raised Jephthah up out of the gutter and made him the leader of the Jewish people,
one of the great Judges of Israel. Under
Jephthah’s leadership, a minor clan on the neglected side of the Israelite
nation freed the children of Israel from 18 years of oppression under
the pagan Ammonite nation. (Judges 11: 4-33)
But
along the way, Jephthah did something terrible.
He made a hasty and unnecessary promise to God, though surely it seemed like a good idea at the time. It certainly sounded holy and pious when he
said it.
And Jephthah made a
vow to the Lord, and said, “If You will indeed deliver the people of Ammon into
my hands, then it will be that whatever comes out of the doors of my house to
meet me, when I return in peace from the people of Ammon, shall surely be the
Lord’s, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.” (Judges 11: 30, 31)
God
didn’t ask Jephthah for that promise.
God didn’t offer victory in exchange for a burnt offering. Right before Jephthah made the vow (verse 29) God had given Spiritual
assurance to Jephthah that the battle was God’s will. He didn’t have to take it that far.
Under Jephthah's leadership, the
Gileadite clan of Israel won the battle, but when Jephthah came to
his house at Mizpah, there was his daughter, coming out to meet him with
timbrels and dancing; and she was his
only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter. (Judges 11:34)
In
Leviticus 18:21, and Leviticus 20 God explicitly and repeatedly prohibited human sacrifice,
even making such practice a capital offense; but Jephthah the man who came of
age on the streets where nothing is free and you live or die by your word;
Jephthah could not back down.
He
killed his own daughter. And something in this great man changed. Jephthah had long been a warrior, but
something changed. He became a harder, morally compromised, ruthless, and broken version of the hero he had been.
In
chapter 12, a group from the powerful Ephraimite tribe of Israel crossed the
Jordan and confronted Jephthah. They
insulted him and his clan. They laid
claim to the treasure the Jephthah had taken in battle, and they attacked. Jephthah’s Gileadites won the battle, but for
Jephthah victory was not enough.
He
set up checkpoints along the Jordan River, and had his soldiers question every
man trying to cross over to the Ephraimite side.
And when any Ephraimite who escaped said, “Let
me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” then they would
say to him, “Then say, ‘Shibboleth’!”
And he would say,
“Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it
right. Then they would take him and kill him at the fords of the Jordan. (Judges 12: 5, 6)
Jephthah
ordered the slaughter of anyone----armed, unarmed, fighting, or
surrendered------anyone who even sounded like one of the people who had dared
to insult him.
They
killed 42,000 fellow Jews that day.
Did
it have to be that way? Did Jephtah have
to go so far?
No.
But
each of us, like Jephthah and Rick Grimes, are just a few moral compromises from
going too far. Each of us may be just
one or just one more terrible, pointless human sacrifice away from becoming the
villain we thought only other people were.
“We push ourselves and let things go.
Then we let some more go and then some more. And pretty soon, there's things we
can't get back. Things we couldn't hold on to even if we tried.”
--- Bob Stookey, “The Walking Dead”
--- Bob Stookey, “The Walking Dead”
Stop
and remember why you started fighting in the first place. Remember what you were supposed to be
building. Remember how you were
supposed to make it better.
Don’t
let that go.
Don’t
let the means dictate the end.
Don’t
let yourself become the villain.
And
if you already have, contrary to what some characters say, you can go back.
That’s
the chapter left for every lost hero or villain to write themselves: Redemption. And you don't play that scene alone.
“Come now, and let us
reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall
be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1: 18)
---Anderson
T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer and
consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the
Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);
and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute
for Human Development (NIHD).
Subscribe
to my personal blog www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
.
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