GHOST RIDER'S BAPTISM

I finally got around to seeing Ghost Rider Saturday. It had already made its way to the “cheap theatre.”

While this was great for my wallet, it had worked something of a toll on my expectations. The relatively quick pricing downgrade wasn’t the only negative precursor. Many of my friends- most of them huge Marvel fans- weren’t impressed. I heard its “feel” compared to that of Ang Lee’s Hulk. To my way of thinking this wasn’t a plus. “Lifeless,” they said, and no less than my second born’s impeccable taste (well, there was the Darkness Falls incident) found it lackluster. She didn’t like it.

I knew what they meant. There are certain movies that send you out cheering and energized. Others, Van Helsing comes to mind, just feel flat- regardless of the cool material. So I knew what to expect and it wasn’t much.

But…I had a good time.

It was no Blade Runner, but I thought Nicholas Cage made a fine Johnny Blaze. The special effects were well done and the story line involved marvelesque demonic characters. Mephistopheles, flaming skulls and explicit spiritual themes, what more could you want? Well, maybe a little more drama. It wasn’t exactly a nail biter, but ….Sam Elliot was in it. So there you go- a good time.

I’m pleased to report that I give it belated thumbs up. You ought to see it. It was fun and a natural spring board to all sorts of thoughts about true truth.

One of the most obvious of these was Johnny Blaze’s search for redemption. The story revolves around an ill advised transaction he made with the Devil. He traded his soul in exchange for the health of his dying father. These things never turn out well. Literary tradition is unanimous on that point, and it’s from the weariness of living with the fear of the “Monkey Paw” ramifications of this deal that the young man asks a friend if he believes in second chances- if one bad decision must haunt us for all eternity.

I was longing for someone to step up and speak Christ’s perspective, but no one did. No one could.

Sam Elliot’s character is also searching for redemption. He has the same problem as Johnny. What are the odds- same town and all? Anyway, his Faustian deal was motivated by simple greed. Compromised though he was, he was able to see the accelerating evil in what Satan had asked him to do. He chose to frustrate hell’s evolving plan- literally riding off in a God-ward direction.

Unaware of the forgiveness offered in Christ (this in spite of living on hallowed ground for the last century or so), Elliot’s character explained that he had spent his life trying to put things right and that he only hoped God gave second chances.

Scripture calls this turning from evil to the good, repentance, and Ghost Rider brought out the nobility of this holy rebellion. It occurred to me that the church’s telling of its story is not nearly as powerful as the one I was watching. Of course, the Christian story is more than its equal in everyway. So much so that it seems we’d have to go out of our way to mediocre it down.

Perhaps I tell it so poorly because I lack a real sense of conflict; maybe that’s because I forget the real nature of sin. Sin hurts. It dehumanizes. Sin destroys. In the most classical sense, sin is evil. It’s precisely not the way things are supposed to be.

We are those who have joined in the battle to set things aright. We oppose sin because it deserves to be opposed. Because, like the Care Taker in our film, we realize that what we are involved in ought to be stopped. We spend our lives trying to make things as they should be.

In contrast, when I think sin, I tend to think of broken rules, being excluded from a privileged inner circle and…well, the type of “in crowd” all of that implies. It's just not the same.

One narrative brings to mind epic sacrifice, camaraderie in battle, and an opponent worth having. The other reminds of snooty country club memberships, petty administrators and selfish misplaced motives. They don’t make a lot of “get into and then stay a member of the preppy country club” movies. There’s probably a reason for that.

The true story of Ghost Rider- the one you and I inhabit- begins differently from Marvel’s version. Unlike the two heroes in our film who fought evil because of or in spite of fear, we begin our battle in peace. We don’t have to hope for God’s forgiveness of our own participation in Hell’s corruptions. We’ve been granted it by God himself in our baptisms.

That’s what I thought the movie was missing. It spoke truthfully of repentance, the stakes of the battle, the ugliness of sin and the fear that such a vision brings with it. By the end of the movie Johnny Blaze had put Satan on notice that it was he who needed to be afraid, but this was more of a Testosterone surge than the verity of being on God’s side. It would have been much more convincing if God had shown up, placed his armored hand on Johnny’s shoulder and laughed down the old dragon.

The movie just needed an old fashioned Baptism.