Imagine a world where a very few get very rich and live long happy lives with everything their hearts desire while most people struggle to live day to day and are exploited by the rich who don’t care if they live or die. That’s the world of the movie In Time but it’s not really that hard to imagine is it? Really it just sounds a lot like our world.
It seems things will stay that way forever until a hero comes along… with the strength to carry on… and that hero is Will Salas. After a stranger gives him wealth beyond his wildest dreams Will decides that he is going to change the world because he’s sick of watching his friends and family die too young. For the rest of the movie he spends his time doing that and to a certain extent he succeeds. He tries to make the lives of the poor longer and more prosperous by being a Robin Hood of sorts; stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor leaving himself just enough to do it again tomorrow.
We all root for him and forgive him for his stealing because deep inside we all want justice; we realize that exploiting people for your own gains is wrong. But something troubled me about Will Salas and his need to save the world. It wasn’t until one of the most powerful people in the world said to Will “You might upset the balance for a generation, two, but don't fool yourself. In the end nothing will change, because everyone wants to live forever. They all think they have a chance at immortality, even though all the evidence is against it.” That’s it! That’s the problem! We all want a hero to set us free from oppression but this freedom will only ever be temporary because what’s wrong with the world is not what’s outside of us, but what’s inside us; our heart.
If we are given something, some wealth in this world, we only need to look around to see that most of us would not become like Will Salas. We would either become like Will’s friend who frittered his wealth away quickly and died as a result or we would use our wealth to exploit or ignore the poor and climb the ladder to riches.
But even those of us who are happy with our comfortable lives still have problems, and we yearn for a saviour to set us free from the troubles of this life, just like the people in the time of Jesus. Jesus announced to the people that He was the saving King they were waiting for and automatically they thought “oh you’ve come to set us free from the Romans who are oppressing us and keeping us poor and downtrodden. That’s the kind of saviour we want! All hail Jesus! Life is going to turn out OK after all.” But Jesus did not come to earth to be that kind of saviour.
Instead Jesus tells the people a story about a rich man who stores up wealth for himself and thinks “great! Now that I have enough wealth I can relax and do this, that and the other thing.” But God says to him “You fool! Tonight your life will be required of you.” And that’s the problem with saviours like Will Salas; they do their thing and life is good (for a while), but there remains an enemy waiting patiently for everyone which neither Will Salas or you or I can do anything about; death.
What we need, but don’t want, is a saviour who will not necessarily rescue us from oppression and suffering in this life but who will save us from ultimate suffering – death and God’s judgment. Only Jesus, the suffering servant King who purchased our eternal life by giving up His life, is that kind of saviour.
