Of the Strength of Men

I

just finished reading the latest Tolkien book, Children of Hurin. I hadn’t planned on finishing it this quickly, but my untimely bout with the flu resulted in some extended downtime cozying up with the tome. Children sure didn’t brighten my spirits; the story is wild and viciously dark. Yet, there are bright spots too. If you’re familiar with Biblical stories you’ll find The Children of Hurin is a story that looks kind of similar to the story of Sampson; you have an incredibly powerful hero with a mighty calling, but the hero struggles with sharply pronounced character flaws.

Stories in that vain have a vivid attraction, because I think humanity as a whole finds itself in a similar condition as the hero–we have desires for glory, aspirations for success and an eye for a mighty worthwhile vision. And yet, huge chinks are always showing up in our armor, bad decisions, shortcomings in character, and sometimes even the vindictiveness of fate herself. Our earthy humanity hinders us from being much of a savior. Redemption, we find, is something we need more of ourselves rather than something we can deliver to others.

In the end, the epic quest might be won, but death usually follows–Sampson wasn’t a god and neither is Turin; looking at the stories of both Sampson and Turin one finds hints that the quest is far bigger than Sampson or Turin ever understood, because each of them restricted the mission to what they thought their great strength could handle. The truth of the matter is that the greatest of human strength wanes quickly in the shadows. It bursts forth glittering in its audacity and emphatic righteousness and gathers many to its banner; then it either withers slowly or gets cut off in mid growth and is cast to the dirt dead and soiled. Men are destined to have visions that they are forever powerless to fulfill. Indeed, the only way to live forever in a glorious kingdom is to sacrifice one’s personal power and purpose and to accept the awful fact of self-insufficiency. Only then can we enter into the presence of Someone greater, for once a Man completed a great quest and died, as men usually do at the completion of great quests, but this man was different. He didn’t stay dead.