Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

If a preacher were to have a super power, what would be the best super power for him to have?

A few years ago Kim (my lovely wife) and I started buying DVD boxsets of TV shows that looked interesting. We had never watched 24, Millennium, LOST, Alias, Firefly, or Battlestar Galactica before buying them on DVD. It is a frivolous little pleasure that we share together, putting the kids to bed, sitting on the couch and watching an interesting story without commercials. We typically buy them for each other as gifts for Christmas, Valentines Day, birthdays, etc. We always have our eye out for some under-rated series that slipped under the radar of pop culture that we can scoop up in the bargain bin.

This last Christmas (2007) we bought HBO’s Carnivale season 1. It is a supernatural story set in the 1930’s depression dustbowl, that follows two main characters. The first is a reluctant healer / messiah figure who is part of a traveling carnival as he searches for his father, and the second is a radio evangelist who grows in his ministry from a small parish church to a massive tent revival. Kim and I like the show quite a bit, but I don’t recommend it unless you enjoy the darkest, most evil drenched, depressing, offensive, oppressive and very sad kind of shows that may haunt your dreams or scar your soul. (Kidding … sort of. In other words, if you watch it don’t blame me, you have been warned.)

There is a scene with Brother Justin (the parish minister) that fascinates me. He is preaching to his little church and as he looks at the people in his congregation he has visions of their most secret sins. He immediately builds this into his sermon, and the people are all moved to repentance and baptism. He is walking around the church and he is peering into their souls. He looks at a little girl and mentions that lying and deceiving your parents is ungodly, he looks at a man and sees that he is an adulterer, he looks at an old lady and sees her stealing coins from the offering basket … one by one he calls out their secret sins and accuses them. One by one they are deeply moved.

As I watched the scene I couldn’t help but think how powerful it would be to have that gift. How wonderful it would be for a pastor to be able to speak so clearly to the people’s hearts. If a preacher was to have a super power, surely this would be the greatest one to have! Brother Justin just might be the greatest fictional character to ever be portrayed in a television series. A man of God with the ability to know the secret sins of men’s heart.

But, I was premature in my opinion of Brother Justin. As the story unfolds we learn that Brother Justin is not a godly man at all. He might actually be the Devil. He uses people, hurts people, and is filled with pure evil. Dang.

This reminded me of something that I already knew, but had failed to consider as I daydreamed about having the power to know the sins of the people that God puts in my life. The name “Satan” means “accuser,” it means that Satan is the accuser of men. Jesus is the judge, and at the same time the savior, He is the Righteous One who takes away our guilt … but He is not the accuser. That’s someone else’s job. The Tattletale. Satan, the Devil.

In a modern court of law Jesus is the defense attorney. Satan is the prosecutor. Isn’t that strange? Don’t we usually think of the prosecutor as the good guy? The slimey defense attorney is almost as bad as the crook he is trying to get off the hook!

Back to the question of the best super power for a preacher. It’s probably very much the opposite of Brother Justin. It might not be a power that gets you into the X-Men, or the Justice League, or the Avengers (in fact it might not make a very good action comic at all) but I think the best super power that a preacher can have is grace. The supernatural ability to let the bad guys off the hook. The power to not see the forgiven people of God as the miserable sinners that they are.

THE ADVENTURES OF GRACE-MAN! Think about it, that would make a terrible comic book.