There Is No Now Here...

So, some of you are just done with LOST talk, and I apologize if you are angered by stumbling over another blog post on the finale. If you are a die hard fan who has not seen the finale, don't read any further. Seriously. For myself, the need to process the last ten minutes of the show has caused me to wrack my brains for most of the night, and these are a few thoughts I've come up with in between sleep cycles. And let me just say, for the record, I understand that the writers and producers of LOST were not trying to come up with a "Christian" ending. My analysis of the ending is done in light of my own faith, but I see where they have certainly pulled on many themes and traditions that are a part of historic Christianity... and where they have pulled on themes from other world religions.

Affirmation
- I appreciate the desire to show reconciliation and restoration in the lives of the main characters. By bringing the 'tribe' together in the end, I felt that the writers were trying to express the uniqueness of their relationships and their community. They had invested a great deal in one another and I think that was perhaps what Christian Shephard meant when he said that they had built the church as a place to find one another - they wanted to continue to love and enjoy one another. We see the restoration of relationships that had been disrupted by death (Jin and Sun, Hurley and Libby, James and Juliette, Sayid and Shannon were among the most poignant for me). We see long-strained relationships renew their sweetness (Kate and Jack, Jack and Christian, Jack and Locke). And people are no longer bound by tears and sadness. It is the "putting back to rights" or the undoing of all that is evil that comes with redemption. And not just a restoration back to a former glory, but a redemption to a greater glory!

- What this leads me to also affirm is that I do believe that Christianity teaches that we will be bodily resurrected one day, and that we will in fact be ourselves. The question in common, "Will I recognize my spouse, friend, parent, child in eternity?" and I think that the answer is yes. So what a beautiful picture of how in eternity we will be able to enjoy one another's presence, to smile and laugh and delight in those people. In the book of Revelation, eternity is described as a marriage feast between the Lamb (Jesus Christ) and his bride (the Church, that is, believers). In the days when John wrote Revelation, a marriage feast was a big party, lasting a very long time, celebrating the union of the bridegroom and his wife. I don't think eternity will be boring, or that we won't have any recognition of those we love. Rather, we will have a giant celebration with every brother and sister in the Lord, we will rejoice in the mighty works of redemption he has done, and we will rejoice.

- We don't get to choose who is in eternity. I fully believe in the exclusivity of Christ, that he is the one true gate into the Father's presence. But I sometimes need to be reminded that the Lord is generous with his gospel and that the people I spend eternity with will not all be people of my own choosing, people that I feel comfortable with, they may even be people that I, in my finite sinfulness, want to see in hell. Even though Ben Linus was sitting outside of the church (not sure what that means), and even though I have always felt some sympathy for his character, many people might be disgusted at the idea of Ben entering into that church with the others. But grace is freely offered to those who see their need, and last night, if not over the last season, Ben has seen his need.

Critique
- My foremost critique would have to be the man-centeredness of the 'space' that was created by the tribe. It's nice and all to see them happy, and I really do mean what I said in the above paragraph: we're going to be absolutely overjoyed in eternity! But here's the deal, it's the marriage supper of the Lamb, it is about the one who redeemed, Jesus Christ (who is in fact shown to be represented outside of this 'space'). I get tired of myself now, and honestly, I get tired of other people a lot sooner, so I'm not quite sure how an eternity of me and you would go, even if I were somehow a 'better' form of me. As it is, I don't see how I'm supposed to get 'better' without Jesus and so eternity with just me is pretty unpalatable. I expect something more. I expect an eternity of Jesus.

- So when the Losties sit down in their pews and look forward, towards what I don't know, I was really expecting something like what happens in C. S. Lewis' "The Last Battle" when the main characters all die on a train (hmm, so this has happened before): once the characters realize that they are in the Shadowlands, there is a cry for them to run, "farther up and further in!" They are moving towards a stronger reality than the one they had just left (though I usually at some point ask myself whether Lewis was engaging more of a Platonic view here than a biblical view, but that is for another post). The writers have referenced Lewis before, both in the name of the anthropologist, Charlotte Staples Lewis, and the Lamp Post, the Dharma station beneath a Los Angeles church (which, for a while, I honestly thought was what appeared in the finale last night). So, it's not that I expected a fully-formed Christian understanding of eternity, I just didn't think, as they sat down, that there would just be a fade to white. That actually strikes me as being far more of Hindu concept, that we are going to be assimilated into the Great Nothingness. Again, not totally sure that this what the writers intended. But it's what I thought of when I saw it.

- There were several missing characters from this eternity. Yes, Michael is on the island. And Ana Lucia was in the sideways/purgatory LA, as are Alex and Rousseau, the Widmores and Daniel and Charlotte. But what about Mr. Eko? Of all people, he seems the most likely to be in eternity... is he stuck on the island, too? And please, don't take this the wrong way, but what about the children? Charlie and Claire had Aaron with them, but where was JiYeon? Or Jack and Juliette's son David - is he even real? I suppose they haven't died yet, but if there is no 'now' there, why not? I'm sure the list could go on of all the questions that didn't get answered or resolutions that didn't happen. I'm not trying to make that list, these are just a couple of holes that I see.

Thoughts
- And in the end, here's the thing that kills me: it actually makes a little sense as to why they ended the show in this way. First, it closes the show. Everyone's dead. So, the plane gets off the island, and those six survivors (hmm...) get home? Do they die later on? Whatever, we just know they are dead. Hurley and Ben? We just know they are dead. So, in theory, there's not much of a point in coming back to a sequel, or clamoring for more information on the characters. What we love about something like J. K. Rowling's ending to the Harry Potter series is that Harry lives, and lives a full life, even if we don't see much more than a few minutes of it. There's no deception that he's had everything easy as pie, but you get a sense that he's content and happy. With this closing episode of LOST, you have no such affirmation. And though it creeps me out just a little, here's the honest truth: we all die at some point. And reality does not afford us much in the way of assurances that everything will be just fine. The writers have painted a somewhat accurate portrait of life and loss, but do we not have a greater assurance that in the end, when we are seated at the Lamb's marriage feast, we won't just be smiling into the unknown light? We will in fact be rejoicing in the presence of the Father, we will know as we are known, and we will spend eternity praising the God who has created, redeemed and restored us.