True Stories
We are always being catechized by the stories we ingest.
I just finished the novel “No Country for Old Men.” Masterfully written by a gifted wordsmith, the novel nonetheless gives a flattened, defective view of the world. How? One of its central characters, Anton Chiguhr, is portrayed as a murderer who will never have to give an account. The tone and atmosphere of the book, the thing that colors all of its bleak intrigue, is that there is a man who can travel the world killing for his own inscrutable and ever-present “principles” who will always be above us all. He is unstoppable, unflappable, and will never lose. It is a world ungoverned by the God of Heaven and Hell, the God who actually exists. And if a person is trained to see the world as this novel sees it, as works like “American Psycho” or “Silence of the Lambs” see it, the person will be seeing the world inaccurately. This is not a chaotic world governed by chance and a few unbeatable wicked men. That is not where we actually are.
In the Psalms, the Lord’s people are comforted, as they should be, that the wicked will have their plans, their designs for the world and for their eternity running alongside it, frustrated. As they should be. That confused, terrified look on the murderer’s face when the Law has finally caught up to him, that’s justice. And justice is coming. That look really is coming. For all the finally unrepentant, and for the Devil and his rebel angels. There are no Anton Chiguhrs or Hannibal Lectres in Hell. Everyone is weeping and gnashing his teeth out there in that darkness.
Jesus bore all that Hell on Roman wood in Palestine for all those who will follow Him, but for all the wicked among us who persist in their evils, His judgment is coming. The hero wins in this story, the real and true story that’s actually happening with us in it. His victory is as sure as gravity, and it’s begun and will soon be as visible and plain to see as the sun at noonday.
When we read and believe stories about the wicked being impervious, cool, collected, and never having to face justice, we’re learning a false thing that’s never been true of the world. Stories tell us what the world is and what we are in it, and stories, like the men who tell them, can lie while still being entertaining. The stories we ingest are always shaping us. They inform what we expect and assume about the world, the sort of place it is and how it works and who is really in charge of it. They foster a love of certain behaviors and a distaste for others. They give us permission to take up what they teach as virtues and to put away what they teach are sins. Stories catechize us.
I was engrossed by “No Country for Old Men,” but it nonetheless told me something false about the world. The wicked have never escaped the eyes of God. Every last one of them will either have had the fury their evils deserve drunk by Jesus on their behalf or have it poured out on them a half-second after they’re dead. Justice is being done, has been done, will be done in the world we’re actually in.
The world that actually exists is Yahweh’s world. He can tell me its truest features and its truest meaning.