The film, The Hobbit, opens with a band of wandering dwarves and the wizard –
really an angelic being – helping them recover the treasure lost when a
marauding dragon destroyed their Kingdom under the Mountain and many loved ones
in the wreckage. Gandalf tells them the
essential member of their company is the hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. Mr. Baggins is what we would call an upper
middle class fellow who wants to be left alone to enjoy his pipe and
prosperity. He eats six meals a day – as
Hobbits do – and dislikes adventures – they make you late for dinner. (He likes parties and sporting events – but
they don’t make you late for dinner.)
Over the story he learns there is a lot more to him than he ever knew,
and a lot more that God has for him – even though God as such is never
mentioned in the story. Tolkien’s
Christian faith is the obvious underpinning of the story for those who know
anything of either.
If
The Hobbit is about anything it is
about the Biblical concept that God’s strength is perfected in human weakness. When he is asked why he chose Bilbo for the
adventure Gandalf says he does not know.
He says the wizard Saruman – the greatest of the order of the Istari or
Wise or Angelic Ones – believes it requires the great powers to stand against
evil and keep it at bay. But Saruman
himself will be corrupted and go over to the darkness in the Ring epic –
because he trusted in power rather than in weakness submitted to the good. Gandalf believes it is compassion that keeps
darkness at bay. He speaks of Bilbo as
one who exercises everyday compassion, and courage. He says of Bilbo, “I am afraid and he gives
me courage.” From Gandalf, that’s a
mouthful.
Bilbo
does his best to rescue his friends from giant trolls who eat human flesh when
the more realistic dwarves throw in the towel – and prevails with a little help
from Gandalf. He steps up to the plate
by leaving his own doorway at all, and when he meets the utterly corrupted
Gollum in a tunnel beneath a goblin infested mountain because the strong and
the wise have already failed. He finds
and stewards the one ring of power. He
will later give it up, though not without an internal struggle. He sees the head dwarf, Thorin, about to die
and stands between him and the goblin about to split him apart – because he can
only live with himself if he does.
It is compassion
more than courage that says he knows how badly he wants to return to his own
home and so determines to help the dwarves recover theirs. He spares Gollum out of a compassion he does
not understand – because it is a gift – and makes possible by that choice the
success of the later and greater quest.
And it will be his appreciation of the little things back home that are
so much more important to him than possessing riches that enable him to broker
peace between warring peoples in an upcoming film through his personal
sacrifice.
Bilbo seems
largely unaware of how closely Tolkien’s God walks with him, but readers and
filmgoers have every opportunity to see the story for what it is – a parable
for our time and an encouragement for our hearts. Nothing really happens by chance; Bilbo is
moved to center stage by gift and by calling.
So are we. Our world darkens as
thoroughly as Middle Earth – and those bullies who call themselves true
believers are more dangerous than mercenaries and robber barons. There are wars and rumors of wars, men
calling evil good and good evil, and followers of King Jesus hated by
association with the onrush of glory in the authority gained through
submission. Jesus says, “Do not let your
hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust
also in me…And I will do whatever you ask in my Name, so that the Son may bring
glory to the Father.”
The Hobbit is
not about Senator This or President That or General So-n-So, and neither is the
Kingdom of God. It is about raising the
dead by being willing to die – to step up to the plate and ask not, “What can I
do?” but “What would you do with me?” But that requires repentance – turning about
and re-focusing on God in Christ through His own Spirit. Such weakness offered up brought down the
communist empire. The world doesn’t get
that, but we in the Body had better recover it as we approach the celebration
of Pentecost.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living
As Ambassadors of Relationships and The
Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by
e-mailing him at
praynorthstate@charter.net
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