Accept the Mystery

I have a group of friends that love movies as much as I do and Friday nights usually find us eating mexican food and then visiting the Warren Theatre, our local movie palace. About a week ago we saw a movie that I am still mulling over. The name of the movie is "A Serious Man", written and directed by the Coen brothers. Because of the rating (R) and the language (profane) this is not a movie for everyone, but it will make you think.

The protagonist is Larry Gropnik, a middle aged, Jewish professor who lives in the suburbs of 1960's Minneapolis. I'm not going to recount the entire plot here, but this is essentially the story of Job with a twist at the end. His life goes from normal to one disaster piled on top of another on top of another on top of another. He is completely bewildered - why are these things happening to him? He goes to three different rabbis for answers, but gets no satisfaction. At the end of the movie, just when you think his life is going to turn around, Larry is faced with two more completely unexpected, impending tragedies. While there are some very funny moments in the film, it is ultimately very bleak.

As we left the movie, one of my friends asked me "What was the message there?" At the time, the only thing I could think of to say was that I thought the message was that there was no message - the film makers were telling us there is no point to anything, that life is just absurd, and if there is a point to life, God won't tell us what it is. About midway during the movie, Larry is told he should just "accept the mystery". He asks his rabbi if God isn't going to answer our questions, then why does He give us the desire to know?

Job ultimately remained faithful and God restored everything Job had lost and more. Like Job, Larry questions God , but remains faithful - almost. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might want to see the movie, but at the very end he compromises his personal integrity in a small way. It hit me tonight as I was writing this that maybe that compromise, that "sin", is what brought on his final calamities. Were the filmmakers saying that we get what we deserve? If so, Larry's "sin" seemed small compared to what he was about to lose.

I re-read parts of Job so I can try to give my friend a better answer to his question about the movies message. I came aways with three things that Job says to me -

First, God doesn't cause our problems in this life, Satan does. Whether you believe in a corporeal fallen angel or not, we can't blame our miseries on God. If God is good, and I believe he is, then nothing bad can come from God. "By their fruit shall ye know them".

Next, why do some good people suffer when some bad people prosper? Why does one person live when another person dies? For an answer I have rely on what Paul says in Romans 8:28, "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God". Trials can drive us from God or, if we stay faithful as Job did, our relationship to God and each other can be made stronger. I am reminded of Jill's comment about Kristen's illness. She said that despite all the dark days and bad times, she wouldn't change a thing. Not change a thing? .......Wow......Jill is way tougher than I am. As someone who has known her for a long time, I have seen her grow in her faith and that faith has sustained her.

Finally, Job tells me that God answers us in his own way and in his own time. When Job demands answers from God, God replies "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" I think God is telling Job that His ways are not our ways; that our human brains can't comprehend the totality of God. We need to be transformed in some way before we can begin to understand completely. As Paul said in Corinthians 13:12, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."

So as unsatisfacory and imcomplete as those answers may be, until I meet God in Heaven, I guess I'll just have to "accept the mystery".

Peace.....