April 12, 2021
John Huston, an atheist, was chosen to direct the 1979 film adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood, the story of a troubled young man hoping to shuck off his fundamentalist upbringing by starting a church called The Church Without Christ. Like all O’Connor fiction, Wise Blood has its share of violence and morbidity. Huston was hoping to draw out a distinct nihilism. Yet, in the end, Wise Blood proved wiser than the director. Huston even said, “Jesus won.”
Jesus won. He won once for all by losing – losing His life for our sake. And when God raised Him from the dead, the victory was won for us all, even if your current circumstances don’t seem to reflect that truth. I love what Jesus says to us – “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
“We thank you, heavenly Father, that you have delivered us from the dominion of sin and death and brought us into the kingdom of your Son; and we pray that, as by his death he has recalled us to life, so by his love he may raise us to eternal joys; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Saturday in Easter Week – BCP)
