6a.m. Villain Entry
I’ve always wanted to be the hero. Ever since I was little. No matter what movie I watched or story I was told, I always saw myself in the hero.
In 2012, I was a camp counselor at Camp of the Hills in Marble Falls, Texas. A christian camp that was held ever summer primarily suited for giving disadvantaged children from low-income communities an opportunity to experience the love of Christ for a full week. One of the many traditional and unique aspects of this camp was their Crucifixion Reenactment which has been traditionally staged by the camp counselors every Thursday during the summer sessions. It was a sacred honor and spiritual badge, if you will, if you were the counselor who had the monumental, daunting and yet energizing burden of playing Jesus. In the summer of 2012, this burden was mine. For eight straight Thursdays, I was betrayed by my friends, beaten, crucificed, died and rose on the third day to love those very same people who betrayed me, beat me, and crucified me. I was metaphorically, spiritually and at times, literally in the shoes of Jesus on a daily basis; and it was just as fulfilling as it was exhausting. I found myself relating so much to the Hero than I ever have before.
Fast forward eight years, to 2020. It has been a long time since I felt like that. My recent life experiences have shown me that I am indeed more like the friend who betrayed Jesus for money. I’m more like the friend, who one minute could walk on water towards Jesus and soon after, vehemently reject the idea that he was ever even associated with Jesus. I’m more like the onlookers who watched Jesus carry his cross rather than the man who came to Jesus’ aid and helped him carry his cross. Yes. I am more like the villain.
“You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” What if Jesus is revealing one of the greatest mysteries of His Father through Gotham’s White Knight here? Perhaps the true gift of “LIFE” is that we discover how much we are the villain. How much we become the villain. What if, in becoming the villain, we discover that we are not the villain who sets out to BEAT the hero. But we are the villain who sets out to understand why they NEED the Hero. The more life you are given, then the deeper and richer your understanding can be. Perhaps then, with that life we’ve been given, we can find true salvation in the Hero as Villains.