SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST OR TRIUMPH OF THE MEEK?
On Friday nights while all of us should be at our Cell Groups, ntv7 is showing the 2nd series of Survivor—this time at the Australian Outback. While I don’t want you to cut short your CG meeting to head home to catch the programme—still, I think watching a couple of episodes is good. Discuss the values that are presented there.
Survivor has been very popular. I don’t have the statistics for the second series but in the first series filmed in Pulau Tiga off the coast of Sabah had an average weekly viewer-ship of 28 million in the US and the grand finale drew a record-breaking 72 million Americans to the TV to see who would be the ultimate survivor and win the US$1 million prize money.
In Malaysia it was watched by 519,000 viewers—comprising mostly of young urbanites in their early 20s to 30s.
Why is Survivor so popular? There are probably many reasons. Slick promotion. Comments by the media that inadvertently created even more interest. A lot of people watch the programme—which they call it a reality-based gameshow—is, in my opinion quite interesting and exciting—the outcome being quite unpredictable.
Imagine putting 16 people together from different backgrounds—trying to surviving together and at the same time competing against one another for individual survival.
You see, after each round the participants meet together to cast their votes to see who will be dismissed from the group. It can be for any number of reason—because I think you
are not pulling your weight, or you are no good or simply because I don’t like your face. The ultimate goal then is not to get voted out. And the way to survive is to make sure that there are people on your side—alliances are made—and broken—leaving behind a trail of betrayal and suspicion. It’s better than soap opera—better than Dynasty and Dallas. This is real life played out in a gameshow. That, is perhaps, what makes Survivor so popular—it is so close to what the real world is like.
Survival of the Cunning
Headings in the newspapers on this programme reads: “Survival of the Cunning”; “It Pays to be Ruthless and Rotten”.
And the winner in the first series was Richard Hatch—openly gay and who had come to Pulau Tiga determined to win. This is how one article in the Star puts it,
“Hatch, a former West Point, played like a snake but earned the respect of his fellow castaways. While others went there to make friends, Hatch was there for the money. He quickly cemented a pact with the three other finalists and they managed to kick others off the island one by one.
In the end, it was left to t a jury of seven ousted castaways to decide between Hatch and Wigglesworth and, their decisions showed, it was not about the better or nicer person but who played the game better. In picking Hatch as the winner, the jury was rewarding him for his smarts and his integrity [I am not so sure about that]—although he was ruthless.”
One person who was asked about his view of the show, I believe, nailed it on the head when he said, “It’s sorry that our society is this way, but the people who are conniving and back-stabbing are the ones who make it. I think many of us will agree—that that’s the picture of our world. In Hollywood and Bollywood they can and still script to let good triumph over evil. But in Survivor no one controls the plot and how things eventually turn out. That is why it is closer to real life than the movies that come out of Hollywood.
And we sigh—what’s the point in being good, if being good can’t help us win!
Survival of the Strong
Scenario No. 2. 20 years ago the Allied Forces stormed into Iraq to end the Gulf War. Philip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew wrote about his thoughts when he heard General Schwarzkopf at the morning press conference, through a live-coverage on TV, after the invasion of Iraq. At that time he was also watching a movie on video about Jesus in preparation for a class he had to teach. But, Yancey said,
“Soon I to abandoned the VCR altogether—Stormin’ Norman proved entirely too engaging. He told of the ‘end run’ around Iraq’s elite Republican Guard, of a decoy invasion by sea, of the allied capability of marching all the way to Baghdad unopposed. He credited the Kuwaitis, the British, the Saudis, and every other participant in the multinational force. A general confident in his mission and immensely proud of his soldiers who had carried it out, Schwarzkopf gave a bravura performance. I remember thinking, That’s exactly the person you want to lead a war.
The briefing ended, CNN switched to commercials, and I returned to the VCR tapes. Max von Sydow, a blond, pasty Jesus was giving an improbable rendition of the Sermon on the Mount in The Greatest Story Ever Told. ‘Blessed … are … the … poor … in spirit,’ he intoned in a slow, think Scandinavian accent …. I had to adjust to the languid pace of the movie compared to General Schwarzkopf’s briefing, and it took a few seconds for the irony to sink in: I had just been watching the Beatitudes in reverse!
Blessed are the strong, was the general’s message. Blessed are the triumph. Blessed are the armies wealthy enough to posses smart bombs and Patriot missiles. Blessed are the liberators, the conquering soldiers.”
Who is right? Schwarzkopf or Jesus? I know you want to say, Jesus—because you are all good Christians. But I suspect you also want to say, “In the world which we are living in, the reality is that Schwarzkopf is also right—perhaps more right than Jesus!
Survival of the fittest, survival of the cunning, survival of the strong—they appear only too true. Richard Hatch’s win in Survivor and Schwarzkopf’s victory in the Gulf War have shown us that this is true. Don’t tell me that you don’t sometimes envy people like that. And we are tempted to adopt the ways of the world—because they work! So we fight our way to the top, we scheme to get our way, we get close to those who have the power to help us get what we want. Somebody said, “I’m getting sick of the rat race. The rats keep getting bigger and faster.”
Just how realistic is the way of Jesus, the way of the Beatitudes, and the Sermon on the Mount? Just how true is Jesus’ statement, “Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth”? (Mt 5:5.)
Triumph of the Meek
The Christ-follower Lives by God’s Values
If you want to talk about what is the realistic thing to do to live in this world—then I suppose, Richard Hatch, Schwarzkopf and people like have the right answer. But I believe the primary issue is not how we can realistically live in this world—but whose values you want to live by—the world’s or God’s?
The Christ-follower lives by God’s values. This is antithesis No. 1 to the often accepted philosophy of Survival of the Fittest.
Daniel had the choice—whether to offend the King’s officers by refusing to eat unhalal food (non-kosher)—and thereby, forgo the opportunity of a better life in the services of the king of Babylon, or to disobey God’s clear command about the kind of foods the Jews could and could not eat.
Daniel chose to the first. And it wasn’t a choice of what is the more realistic thing to do to live in this world, but rather who’s values am I going to live by. And Daniel chose God’s values.
It was the same—when Peter and Jon were told by the religious authorities not to preach anymore in the name of Jesus. They were threatened with harm if they did so. Their reply was this, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.
The result? In the case of Daniel—the Lord blessed him and he became a man whom kings sought counsel. And he took the opportunity to influence them for God.
In the case of the disciples—the Lord also blessed them and many were brought into the Kingdom through their ministry. But they also suffered greatly under the hands of the religious authorities for their uncompromising stand for the Gospel.
Sometimes it pays (humanly speaking) to choose God’s values, but most times it does not pay—you get snubbed for being the “holy-holy kind”, you get laughed at for being unrealistic (read idealistic), people think you are weak because you will not retaliate.
The Christ-follower is Willing to Wait for His Rewards
The Christ-follower lives by God’s values even if it hurts him. People generally don’t want that. In fact they want to be rewarded now! It’s the age of “instant gratification”. Why do people fall prey to African con-men who says they can change blank paper into US$? Why do people part with their life’s savings to con-men who say they can change a piece of stone into a diamond? Because people we want their our rewards now—never later. They want their promotion, now. They want their pay increment, now. And so they muscle their way through life.
But in the economy of God, rewards are not always immediate. In fact most of the time it is later rather than immediate, non material rather than material, eternal rather than temporal. And this is what we are told to look for. The Christ-follower must be willing to wait for his rewards. This is antithesis No. 2 to the philosophy of Survival of the Fittest. Read the Beatitudes again and that is the picture you get.
The third Beatitude is perhaps the only one that appears to speak of a rather temporal reward. But does it mean right now—right here—this piece of real estate? Does it mean that Christians are going to be so successful and pervasive—as we practice and live by God’s values—that we are going to take control of commerce and industry, governments and media—that we will literally take charge of the world?
Some people think that Christians are going to be so successful in evangelising the world that whole nations are gong to turn to Christ. Or that such a mighty revival is going to breakout that we are going to get Christian Korea, Christian Singapore, Christian Malaysia. The United States is not even Christian!
The Bible is clear that both the wheat and the tares are gong to grow side by side until the day of judgement—when Christ returns and set up His millennial rule on planet Earth. And Christians (alive and those resurrected from the dead) will govern the earth with him. When that happens, then the promise the third Beatitude will be fulfilled. And beyond that—after the 1000 year reign of Christ—this old earth will be decommissioned—a new earth will be created. And this time only believers will populate the earth (Rev 21). But we are not going to see this until much later. For some of us we will not see it in our lifetime. But don’t scorn the future reward for something lesser now. Let us not be like Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge—because he couldn’t wait. He wanted it now.
The Christ-follower Puts His Faith in God
And this calls for faith in the God who has made this promise. That’s antithesis No. 3 to the philosophy of Survival of the Fittest
If people of the world do speak of faith—they speak of faith in Self. “You can do it.” “You have what it takes.” “Make your will power work for you—if not use other people work for you!” And the world believes that this is strength!
If anybody lived by this it would be Babylon—personified in Nebuchadnezar whose favourite song was I Did It My Way. That was the song he sang as he stood in the rooftop of his palace looking down at all his accomplishments for Babylon.
Now his empire was growing westwards towards the Mediterranean. It had fought its way across the continent and brought down Assyria (the former superpower)—and eaten up other nations along the way. Now it was heading southwards towards Jerusalem. When the Israelites heard about this they trembled in their sandals—and so did Habakkuk.
God had to remind Habakkuk—the righteous is to live by faith (Hab 2:4).
This was Habakkuk’s response—Ch 3:17-19 …
And was Habakkuk right? Note, the Babylonians came and they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple and took its people into captivity. Was Habakkuk right?
Look at the evidence again. Israel is still here today. And Babylon—where is it now? Saddam Hussein is trying to resurrect it, but he is certainly not going to succeed.
Then, we are told in the book of Revelation that Babylon will be destroyed again (Rev 18). This is not the Babylon of old. This Babylon represents the worldly systems whose values are completely opposed to God’s. The world that has been seeking to destroy the Church of Jesus Christ. Revelation tells us that that Babylon is going to be destroyed. And the Church? It is will still be around into the millennial rule of Christ. And it is the only Kingdom that is going to be around when the new heavens and the new earth are created.
That’s how the Bible story ends—not with the survival of the fittest, but with the TRIUMPH OF THE MEEK.
What I have just been talking to you about comes straight out of Ps 37. Read Ps 37:1-11 …
Illustration
20 years ago the Allied Forces stormed into Iraq to end the Gulf War. Philip Yancey in The Jesus I Never Knew wrote about his thoughts when he heard General Schwarzkopf at the morning press conference, through a live-coverage on TV, after the invasion of Iraq. At that time he was also watching a movie on video about Jesus in preparation for a class he had to teach. But, Yancey said,
“Soon I to abandoned the VCR altogether—Stormin’ Norman proved entirely too engaging. He told of the ‘end run’ around Iraq’s elite Republican Guard, of a decoy invasion by sea, of the allied capability of marching all the way to Baghdad unopposed. He credited the Kuwaitis, the British, the Saudis, and every other participant in the multinational force. A general confident in his mission and immensely proud of his soldiers who had carried it out, Schwarzkopf gave a bravura performance. I remember thinking, That’s exactly the person you want to lead a war.
The briefing ended, CNN switched to commercials, and I returned to the VCR tapes. Max von Sydow, a blond, pasty Jesus was giving an improbable rendition of the Sermon on the Mount in The Greatest Story Ever Told. ‘Blessed … are … the … poor … in spirit,’ he intoned in a slow, think Scandinavian accent …. I had to adjust to the languid pace of the movie compared to General Schwarzkopf’s briefing, and it took a few seconds for the irony to sink in: I had just been watching the Beatitudes in reverse!
Blessed are the strong, was the general’s message. Blessed are the triumph. Blessed are the armies wealthy enough to posses smart bombs and Patriot missiles. Blessed are the liberators, the conquering soldiers.”
Humour
Somebody said, “I’m getting sick of the rat race. The rats keep getting bigger and faster.”
