January 15, 2012

The Outlaw Hero

Mark 1:12-13

 

Did you hear about the dyslexic Robin Hood? He stole from the poor to give to the rich …

The Robin Hood story continues to capture our imagination for one very good reason: We love the outlaw hero. That sounds like a contradiction in terms, but the point is that sometimes we have to break the law—or at least stretch it—to do what is right.

The image we are focusing on during this season after Epiphany and before Lent is the mask. As you know, outlaws sometimes wear masks in order to hide their identity from the law. Outlaw heroes sometimes wear masks for the very same reason, although their motives for engaging in criminal activity are very different. The African-American sociologist, John Roberts, says that “Outlaw heroes arise when the way of life of one segment of a society is threatened by … the law.” They stand up for what is right and challenge authority when necessary.

Sometimes there is a very fine line between an outlaw and an outlaw hero. That is, sometimes the outlaw hero is a little too “outlaw-ish” for a lot of people. Think of Pancho Villa, Billy the Kid, and Belle Starr, as well as the real life Sicilian Robin Hood, Salvatora Giuliana. But the truth is we like them to be a little “bad.” One writer said, “Traditional heroes have never quite served the same purpose as the outlaw hero has.” There is something real and authentic about outlaw heroes. We can relate to their flaws and imperfections.

This is true whether we are talking about fictional characters such as “The Dukes of Hazzard,” or those whose outlaw hero status is largely created through a well-honed public image, such as Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson (and the boys). Then there are the comic superheroes that have their “run-ins” with the law. Think of Batman, Spiderman, and even Superman.

But none of these characters exemplify what it means to be an outlaw hero more than the aforementioned Robin Hood. According to British folklore, during the late 1100s and early 1200s King John, brother of King Richard, became mad with power and wealth. He taxed the peasants of his kingdom to near starvation, caring only about money and power. At this time Robin Hood lived in Sherwood Forest, an area taxed particularly hard by King John. Robin Hood soon became an outlaw, stealing from the rich to feed the poor. He could not just sit idly by as his community was being treated so cruelly. Like many other characters, both fictional and real, Robin Hood is what we call a Christ figure. He surrounded himself by a group of fellow outlaws, the Merry Men, and he had the love of a woman named Maid Marian? Think of Jesus’ twelve male disciples and his “friend” Mary Magdalene.

So what is it that makes an outlaw hero a hero? For the outlaw hero, making choices, practicing the art of discernment, reaches a level few of us ever have to reach. How many times have you had to decide whether or not to break the law in order to accomplish something good? Is this why we are so attracted to the outlaw hero? I read this the other day: “There are many ways to describe outlaw heroes’ attractable qualities to the common audience. One would be the strong-willed choices that they make. Every day, people in today’s society must make choices: what shoes to wear, what to eat for lunch, etc. However, for the outlaw hero, their choices consist of whether or not to obey the law to achieve their goal.”

… Which brings us to Jesus of Nazareth, an outlaw hero if there ever was one! The Gospels tell us exactly when this moment of discernment occurred in Jesus’ life, or at least its most crucial point. Mark 1:12-13 describes it very briefly:

 

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

 

Here’s the setting for this: Jesus has just been baptized by John in the Jordan River. As I noted last week, this alone was an act of sedition, an act of rebellion against the religious authorities, an unlawful act.

But Jesus could have taken his sopping wet robe and headed back to Nazareth to work in the family business, raise a family, and blend into society. He could have ignored his call from God at the moment of his baptism, the validation of his identity: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” Instead, he was immediately led into the wilderness. Alone. With no one but the wild beasts to keep him company. Mark says the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, as if the Spirit were Danica Patrick gunning her green Chevy Impala.

Mark writes that Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days, which means a long time. Matthew and Luke’s Gospels give us a fairly lengthy explanation about what happened while Jesus was in the wilderness, but Mark is not so presumptuous. He simply states that Jesus was “tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.” That’s it. He doesn’t say how he was tempted. He doesn’t say whether any of the wild beasts salivated while sizing up Jesus for a meal or gently ate from his hand. He doesn’t even describe how the angels “waited” on him.

I’m sure Mark meant that the angels attended to his needs, such as food and water and toilet paper (okay, maybe not toilet paper). But I sort of like the thought that the angels waited on him like we wait on someone to make a decision. What are you going to do Jesus? How are you going to live out your calling as God’s “Son”? What’s your next move? We’re waiting for an answer! The angels could have been waiting to see which mask Jesus would wear as he emerged from his wilderness isolation. Will he wear the mask of a disciple of John the Baptist? After all, he had just submitted to John’s initiation rite of baptism. Will he wear the mask of a prophet, a rabbi, a peasant, a Roman sympathizer, a Zealot?

We’ll find out next week and the following weeks what Jesus decided to do specifically, but we can say what he decided to do generally: Become an outlaw hero. Become Robin Hood without the bows and arrows.

---------------------

We talk all the time about the things Jesus said and did, and this should always be our focus as the Church of Jesus the Christ. But there is no doubt in anyone’s mind who reads the Gospels that Jesus was a radical person. He wore a radical mask, as outlaw heroes generally do.

The word “radical” is one of the more interesting words in the English language. It comes from a Latin word that literally means “root.” A radical is one who wants to change things in society from its roots. A radical isn’t interested in surface change. A radical isn’t interested in just tweaking the system. A radical is one who wants to pull something up by its roots and create something new.

All Christians agree that the Church is called to transform society and individuals for the better. We are not just in the change business. We are in the transformation business, which is more radical than change. We are not called to seek surface or token gestures of change. We are called to engage in radical, systemic transformation. In my mind, this is the single most important way we fall short of God’s calling in our lives. Like the boy Samuel, we hear a calling in our lives, but we don’t know where it’s coming from or how exactly we should respond. We certainly shy away from answering God’s call in a radical way.

In his book (appropriately titled) Insurrection, the Christian writer Peter Rollins talks about the difference between radical acts of transformation and token gestures of change. He acknowledges that we are called to attack “systems of oppression” and fight for a better world. He says we should be forming “insurrectionary groups,” groups (or churches) that challenge “the system by offering an alternative vision of the world.” I’m not quite sure that really sounds like us. It sounds like Jesus. It sounds like the United Church of Christ at times. It even sounds like Robin Hood. But I’m not so sure it sounds like us. We prefer change that requires less rooting out and, shall we say, more trimming.

Token gestures of change can come in many forms, even from those who literally wear a mask. In his book Rollins talks about Batman. Most of you know Batman’s story. When Bruce Wayne witnessed the brutal murder of his parents by a common thief on the streets of the fictional city of Gotham, he puts on a mask and becomes obsessed with stamping out street violence. This seems like an attempt to pursue radical transformation of the city. But do his crime-fighting antics on weekends really serve to make any real difference in Gotham? There is, after all, only one Batman for the whole city. And Batman ain’t Superman! As one criminal says in the Batman film, The Dark Knight, you would have more chance of winning the lottery than bumping into Batman.

Furthermore, Bruce Wayne could do a lot more good than siphoning off vast sums of money from Wayne Industries, the business that he owns, to fund a high-tech, covert military campaign against the criminals of Gotham. Rollins makes this observation: “One must wonder whether it might not be much more effective if (Bruce Wayne) took that money and spent it on developing a strong educational system within the city, setting up training programs for the unemployed, and helping small businesses develop.”

The point of all this, I guess, is that being an “outlaw hero” requires more than just an ability to beat up street punks, or even, as in the case of Robin Hood, shoot a straight arrow. A true outlaw hero is one who can lift up people’s spirits, bring radical change to social structures, free cultures from repression and depression, confront authority when necessary, and stand up for what is right even if it’s against the law.

… Which brings this back to us. As members of Jesus’ gang, we can engage in token acts of change, perfunctory acts of charity, or random acts of kindness, not that there’s anything wrong with those activities. Or we can seek to transform ourselves and communities and societies by getting to the root of the problem. We can be outlaw heroes. As the song written by David Bowie and performed by the Wallflowers says, “We can be heroes … just for one day.” Which mask will you be wearing today?