Trinity Goes to the Movies

Troy: The Quest for Immortality

Mathew

August 5, 2007 
 

Let me begin this morning with these words from the Omaha Indian Tribe:  

No one has found a way to avoid death,

To pass around it;

Those old ones who have met it,

Who have reached the place where death stands waiting,

Have not pointed out a way to circumvent it.

Death is difficult to face. 

And so it is. Death is the one inevitability for all living things. Each and everyone of us here will die. And yet it is difficult to face. In fact if we are truly honest we fear death more than anything else.  Poet Edna St Vincent Millay sums it up; 

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave

Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;

Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty the brave.

I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned. 

We are not resigned to death. Like Dylan Thomas we do not want to “go gently into that dark night.” Our every instinct is to “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

     Just because I have seen death a lot doesn't mean I understand it any better than you. I get it intellectually and even theologically. But the reality of it is hard to fathom. I remember reading a book entitled, How Could I Not be Among you?  I think that is how a lot of us look at death. It just seems impossible to imagine the world without me in it. And yet it existed for generations before me and I hope it lasts for generations beyond me. But right here and now it just seems to be the darndest thing. I like everyone else in this sanctuary will someday be dead. It's just too weird to contemplate.

    Perhaps because it is so weird people have always tried to figure out a way to cheat death. I watched a show on PBS not long ago about one of the greatest leaders of all time-Ramses II of Egypt. How do they know so much about this Pharaoh? Because he created for himself and for his loved ones lavish tombs, filled with incredible paintings, sculptures and hieroglyphics of Egyptian life in 1200 BC. Even Ramses body was preserved in hopes that he might thus escape death. Today his wizened mummy loves on in the Cairo museum for all to see. But I'm afraid that Rames is still dead.

   Another way to try to escape death is through seeking glory or fame. This is what our featured movie is all about. Troy depicts a battle fought between Greeks and Trojans over 3,000 years ago, the same battle told by Homer in his ancient epic The Illiad. As the movie opens King Agamemnon of Mycenae has just conquered Greece, and now he turns his attention to Troy, a city in modern-day Turkey. Tired of war his brother, King Menelaus of Sparta wants only peace and makes a treaty with Prince Hector of Troy. However, Hector's brother Paris seduces Menelaus's wife Helen and takes her back to Troy. Agamemnon, seeing an opportunity to attack Troy and extend his power while defending his brother's honor, summons armies and heroes from all over Greece, promising them riches and glory if they take part in the greatest war the world has ever known. One of these heroes is Achilles said to be the greatest of all warriors. Ever the reluctant warrior Achilles is coerced into joining the cause war resulting in huge battle scenes and ultimately the death of all the major characters.

Ostensibly, the movie is just another action film, but beneath all the sword play lies a much deeper message. The film begins with an ominous voice over, “Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity, and so we ask ourselves, will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we're gone? And wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?”

The answer the movie gives comes at the end with another voiceover at the lighting of Achilles' funeral pyre in the square of destroyed and plundered Troy, "If they ever tell my story, let them say 'I walked with giants'. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses. Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles."

There are two other key moments in the film where the deeper meaning becomes obvious. When Achilles' mother discusses with him what going to Troy will mean she says, "If you stay in Larisa, you will find peace. You will find a wonderful woman. You will have sons and daughters, and they will have children, and they will love you. And when you're gone they will remember you. But when your children are dead and their children after them, your name will be lost. If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories for thousands of years. The world will remember your name."

Finally during the final battle between Hector and Achilles, Hector stumbles on a rock, giving Achilles the obvious chance at killing him quickly and easily. Achilles towers over him and shouts “Get up Hector! I will not let a stone take my glory!”

Theses scenes show us that Troy is really about the fear of death our deep-seated need for immortality. For the Greeks immortality is available to humanity only through heroism. The best we can do to gain immortality is to do great deeds of heroism and to make a name for ourselves. To be remembered in glory is to live forever.

Troy may be ancient story but surely, it resonates with us. Not many of us here are seeking to cheat death by becoming great warriors. However, in a way we all seek to be heroes. We devote a great deal of psychic, spiritual and physical energy in attempts to be the best. To be the best in our career. To be the best in our given sport. To be the best husband or the best father. Not that these are unworthy goals, it's just that often our motive is fear. Fear that one day we will die and no one will remember us.

Not long ago I experienced a sporadic but profound sense of melancholy. My high school in Halifax is being torn down this summer and I began to reflect on my life and my accomplishments. Many of my school friends had gone on to great success, a well known novelist and globe and mail columnist, a movie producer, several doctors, a hand full of professors, and a few lawyers. Suddenly I felt quite ordinary. What had I accomplished?

I began to realize that what was really occupying me was an attempt to defeat insignificance, anonymity and death. I had that deep need to cheat death by gaining a reputation that can outlive me. I wanted to be remembered long after my passing.

Perhaps you share that feeling. Perhaps that is why you burn the candle at both ends, why you pour yourself into trying to make your children successful, stay at work longer than anyone else, why you try so hard to be successful. Friends I want to assure you that this effort to build a hedge against death and obscurity is futile. It produces nothing but frustration. I think that is what Emerson meant when he said, “O see how the masses of men worry themselves into nameless graves, while here and there, some great unselfish soul forgets himself into immorality.”

As Christians, we are offered something else other than this brutal quest for glory and immortality. Being fully human Jesus shared with us a fear of dying in obscurity. Early in his ministry, he stood on a mountain top as the tempter tried in vain to convince him to seek fame and glory, “Be a hero Jesus. I offer you all the power and glory any one human could ever want. People will remember your name forever. Who will ever remember a carpenter's son from the hick town of Nazareth? Who would ever remember a man who dies a criminal's death on the cross? You can be so much more Jesus!”

The Romans and Jews in Palestine would have understood Jesus very clearly if he had chosen that mantel. He did not. Why? Because deep in his heart he knew the path to "immortality" is not through acts of individual, powerful, prideful heroism. We don't gain immortality through our careers or our family, through the accumulation of wealth or material goods. We don't gain true immortality through any of our own deeds regardless of how good or memorable. Jesus knew the path to "immortality" is submission to the will of God and obedience, and so he risked obscurity by choosing a lonely cross.

Friends, life is not a strategy to avoid death. Life is found when we embrace Jesus, when give up our clinging and grasping, our fear and our desire to live forever. Jesus came to remind each and every one here that ever lasting life is given to us for free. God's eyes are blind to our feats of glory. God sees through the trappings and veneer of success.  Barry Bonds is no closer to immortality than you or I. Before God, we are all equal, the famous and the obscure. We can't earn our way out of death and into heaven. The truly good news is that we don't even have to try because the very thing we yearn for has already been given to us.

It is very telling that all the characters in the movie Troy are thoroughly secular. When Achilles prepares to destroy the temple of Apollo the god sworn to be protector of Troy, his lieutenant questions his decision to sack the temple, "Apollo seeks everything. Perhaps it is not wise to offend him." In response to this Achilles takes his sword and chops off the head of the golden statue of Apollo. Hector when chastised by Priam for not believing that Apollo will save the city gives a similar answer. The message is clear. "The gods are uninvolved, impotent or imaginary. They don't matter. Men make their own destiny."

   Jesus reminds us that this is just another myth. We can't save ourselves from death. We don't have that kind of power. But we needn't fear it either because whatever power death once had was vanquished by a cross on a hill far away. We can live freely, boldly and look death square in the face because Jesus has saved us from its sting. We may die obscurely, there may be only a handful of people who remember us years after our death, but there is one who never forgets. There is one who has already prepared a room with your name on it, who is keeping it ready for you. Life everlasting has already been granted to you. Stop living with fear, stop striving, stop trying to be a hero. We need no longer be “haunted by the vastness of eternity” for we live every day in the sure and certain promise that we will one day stand with God forever. We will all fall like winter wheat, but every name here will be remembered.