A Better Hope for a Serious Man

One of the marks of a good movie is that days after seeing it questions about it remain with me. I’ll be doing the dishes and just as suddenly as that microwaved cheese stuck to my plate is scraped away the mental pathway of artistic clarity opens up and an epiphany will strike me. Or I’ll be in the shower washing what remains of my once full head of hair and I’ll ask under my breath “is that what that scene meant?”

Recently I watched a Coen brothers film entitled “A Serious Man”. When it was over my friend and wife and I contemplated its meaning and were lost for words, there seemed to be no real meaning to the film. I asked the world of facebook for its thoughts and heard nothing except for a lone, distant “like”.

The movie is set in the 1960s in suburban Minnesota. The Protagonist, Larry Gopnik, is a Jewish physics professor who suddenly sees his world imploding around him. Every relationship in his life is suddenly and suffocatingly strained. One thing after the other begins to crumble and his life is seemingly headed toward ruins. In a panic he goes to the local Rabbis and his lawyer for counsel. He talks to one and then the other but their counsel is more confusing and depressing than helpful.

As the story unfolds and the hope of redemption slims he asks angrily “Why is this happening? I have tried my whole life to be a serious man. I am a serious man, why is God doing this to me?” I won’t give away the denouement, but I will say that the directors do an excellent job of asking the question “why do bad things happen to good, or at least decent, people?” However, in typical Coen brothers fashion they don’t give an answer, just a mischievous wink.

A few weeks later I was reading through the book of Job. As I was reading it my mind flashed back to various scenes of “A Serious Man”. When I read about Job sitting in sackcloth and ashes bewailing his situation while his misguided but concerned friends looked on I saw the scene where the man who is trying to steal Larry’s wife is also trying to comfort him. Then I read about Job defending himself and saying “I haven’t done anything wrong, if I had then let punishment come, but I haven’t, I promise.” That’s when I saw Larry proclaiming he is a serious man to his Rabbi. Yet again, Job laments that God is not even hearing his complaints, he is castaway, floating in an ocean of accusation with no accuser to confront him. I read this and I saw Larry practically pulling his hair out yelling “How can he ask us to field these questions if he doesn’t give us any answers?!”

In the book of Job and the film both characters ask why bad has befallen them if they have done nothing wrong. They both believe that there is an unspoken contract with God that if they do A then God gives them B. If I am moral then I live a comfortable life. If I’m good to my family then I will have a happy family. If I follow your rules, God, you are obliged to provide for me as I wish. This is the law in linearity...and it leads only to disappointment.

I’ve also been reading the thoughts of a different Larry. Larry Crabb. The ideas in his book “The Pressure’s Off” have begun to resonate more clearly with the images of the film in my mind and the sympathetic emotions I feel for Job in my heart. The thesis of Crabb’s book is that we think that God operates on the law of linearity, but this not so, God is calling us not to a better life, but to a better hope.

Crabb points to the new covenant proclaimed by Christ. It used to be that as long as God’s people obeyed his commands (the Law) then he would bless them. As New Testament readers we understand now that the Law was put in place to show that none of us could ever live up to its standards, we would always fall short. Therefore, when Jesus came, lived life perfectly under the law, then was sacrificed on behalf of a people who could not live perfectly under that law, he ushered in a new era, an era that points to a better hope, rather than a better life. Hebrews 7:18-19 tells us that “On the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.”

God is saying he is not as concerned with us being happy as he is with us knowing him. Yes, he wants to give us good gifts - he is a good father after all - but the greatest gift he gives is himself, and that is the better hope.

Job complained because the law of linearity states that he lived well, gave generously and was a good father and husband, therefore he deserved a good life.

Larry Gopnik complained because the law of linearity (and as a physics professor he knows that laws are logical and cannot be contradicted) states that by all accounts he is a serious man and should not be suffering the way he is.

I complain because I try to be a good man but things often don’t go my way and my life is not the one of bliss, triumph and far-reaching effective ministry I believed it would be when I signed up for ministry. I’ve done all the training, completed all the steps, did what needed to be done yet I’m still unsatisfied and restless.

Why? Is it because I, like Job and Larry Gopnik, believe that God owes me? Is it because maybe I love God for his stuff rather than for himself? Is it because I’m like the prodigal son and want my father’s inheritance more than I want my father’s presence?

The promise of a better hope is something that is missed in “A Serious Man”. The ending is unclear as to whether it is a comedy or tragedy, and God remains a mysterious, unknowably powerful force. He is that indeed, but he is nearer than he is farther and this truth is hidden in the book of Job. At the end of Job’s lament, after God asks him where he was when the world was made Job realizes his place before the Lord. God responds to him, not with an answer, but with his presence, and that is enough for him.

I wonder what this new way of living would look like for Larry Gopnik. I wonder what it looks like for me.

p.s. I recommend both Larry Crabb's book and the Coen brothers' movie, though parents be warned this isn't a movie to show the kids, it's rated R for a reason.