I have written before of my regard for the award-winning movie Troy, which is a modern retelling of the ancient Greek saga, The Iliad, by Homer. It recounts the events leading up to and during the ten-year long Trojan War, wherein warriors arrayed upon a supposed 1000 Greek ships sailed east across the Aegean Sea and laid siege to the city of Troy on the western coast of Asia Minor.
Ostensibly, of course, it was the kidnapping of the beautiful Helen, Queen of Sparta, that launched all those ships. But in reality, Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae (and the powerful older brother of Menelaus, King of Sparta), had just unified the various Greek city-states and was just looking for a reason to expand his newfound empire.
As Agamemnon prepares to go to war, he convenes a council of lesser (and previously conquered) kings. One of them, Nestor, King of Pylos, tells Agamemnon that he needs to get Achilles, the greatest of all ancient Greek warriors, to join the fight because “That man was born to end lives!”
As a lover of “all things antiquity”, I have viewed this movie on multiple occasions. And each time, when it comes to this particular scene, I am struck by this phrase. Achilles, if indeed he ever truly existed, was a fierce warrior. That he was a born to end lives is not in doubt. Indeed, in a later scene in the movie, he tells a captured Trojan priestess that he has killed men in no less than five countries. Wow!
And yet, as one out to end lives, Achilles is not alone. Rather, he is only one in a long line of conquerors whose only real claim to fame is that they were born to end the lives of other people. Such names might well include Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, Attila, Genghis, Saladin, Cortez, Pizarro, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, etc… Sadly, perhaps, many of these names are household terms.
And yet, ironically, the one name in all of human history that surmounts each of these is that of Jesus Christ. I say ironically because Jesus Christ was not born to end lives, but rather to save lives!
As the Bible puts it (in the New Testament Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 17)… “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
This was affirmed by Jesus Himself, when He later testified (in the New Testament Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verse 10): “The Son of Man came to seek and to save people who are lost.”
What a contrast! Born to end lives versus born to save lives!
With these things on my mind, I recently had an epiphany. Along with a great many other believers, I have historically placed a significant emphasis on the birth of Jesus each year at Christmas. As well we should. But not at the expense of an equally significant emphasis on the death, burial, and glorious resurrection of Jesus each year at Easter!
Being old school, I still operate with a 2007 160 GB Apple iPod classic. (Hey, it still works; and as long as it does, my philosophy will continue to be “Use it up, make it last, wear it out!”) On that iPod, I have a Christmas playlist with about a “gillion” songs, podcasts, audiobooks, and the like…
Yet, to my chagrin, it suddenly dawned on me this week that I did not have an Easter playlist! Ouch!!! After all, Jesus Christ was indeed born. But “why” He was born matters just as much if not more than “that” He was born.
So, why was He Born? He was born to give life, not to take life! As the New Testament Gospel of John (chapter 10, verse 10) tells us: Jesus Christ was born that you and I “might have life, and have that life to the full!”
Given these things, I might well ask: “What’s on your playlist?” These days, my playlists include ones celebrating not just “that” Jesus came (Christmas); but also “why” Jesus came (Easter)!
Of course, a given playlist on a given device merely reflects the longings and/or aspirations of one’s heart. For this reason, I chose to entitle this day’s blog post (written in the midst of Holy Week), not “What’s in your wallet?” or “What’s in your heart?”, but rather “What’s on your playlist?” After all, the former surely informs the latter, both technologically and spiritually!
FILM SOURCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film).
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/john/3-17.htm;
https://biblehub.com/luke/19-10.htm;
https://biblehub.com/john/10-10.htm.
Ostensibly, of course, it was the kidnapping of the beautiful Helen, Queen of Sparta, that launched all those ships. But in reality, Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae (and the powerful older brother of Menelaus, King of Sparta), had just unified the various Greek city-states and was just looking for a reason to expand his newfound empire.
As Agamemnon prepares to go to war, he convenes a council of lesser (and previously conquered) kings. One of them, Nestor, King of Pylos, tells Agamemnon that he needs to get Achilles, the greatest of all ancient Greek warriors, to join the fight because “That man was born to end lives!”
As a lover of “all things antiquity”, I have viewed this movie on multiple occasions. And each time, when it comes to this particular scene, I am struck by this phrase. Achilles, if indeed he ever truly existed, was a fierce warrior. That he was a born to end lives is not in doubt. Indeed, in a later scene in the movie, he tells a captured Trojan priestess that he has killed men in no less than five countries. Wow!
And yet, as one out to end lives, Achilles is not alone. Rather, he is only one in a long line of conquerors whose only real claim to fame is that they were born to end the lives of other people. Such names might well include Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, Cyrus, Alexander, Caesar, Attila, Genghis, Saladin, Cortez, Pizarro, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, etc… Sadly, perhaps, many of these names are household terms.
And yet, ironically, the one name in all of human history that surmounts each of these is that of Jesus Christ. I say ironically because Jesus Christ was not born to end lives, but rather to save lives!
As the Bible puts it (in the New Testament Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 17)… “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.”
This was affirmed by Jesus Himself, when He later testified (in the New Testament Gospel of Luke, chapter 19, verse 10): “The Son of Man came to seek and to save people who are lost.”
What a contrast! Born to end lives versus born to save lives!
With these things on my mind, I recently had an epiphany. Along with a great many other believers, I have historically placed a significant emphasis on the birth of Jesus each year at Christmas. As well we should. But not at the expense of an equally significant emphasis on the death, burial, and glorious resurrection of Jesus each year at Easter!
Being old school, I still operate with a 2007 160 GB Apple iPod classic. (Hey, it still works; and as long as it does, my philosophy will continue to be “Use it up, make it last, wear it out!”) On that iPod, I have a Christmas playlist with about a “gillion” songs, podcasts, audiobooks, and the like…
Yet, to my chagrin, it suddenly dawned on me this week that I did not have an Easter playlist! Ouch!!! After all, Jesus Christ was indeed born. But “why” He was born matters just as much if not more than “that” He was born.
So, why was He Born? He was born to give life, not to take life! As the New Testament Gospel of John (chapter 10, verse 10) tells us: Jesus Christ was born that you and I “might have life, and have that life to the full!”
Given these things, I might well ask: “What’s on your playlist?” These days, my playlists include ones celebrating not just “that” Jesus came (Christmas); but also “why” Jesus came (Easter)!
Of course, a given playlist on a given device merely reflects the longings and/or aspirations of one’s heart. For this reason, I chose to entitle this day’s blog post (written in the midst of Holy Week), not “What’s in your wallet?” or “What’s in your heart?”, but rather “What’s on your playlist?” After all, the former surely informs the latter, both technologically and spiritually!
FILM SOURCE:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film).
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/john/3-17.htm;
https://biblehub.com/luke/19-10.htm;
https://biblehub.com/john/10-10.htm.