Halo 3: The Way the World Ends

Today we finish out Halo 3 as well as this opening series on the Halo Trilogy. In this final installment we’ll look at what we want in a good ending.

That video was our first glimpse into what was to come with Halo 3. Everything in that announcement trailer- Cortana’s voiceover, the visuals, the score- all convey one simple word: EPIC. This is the end, the big one, the story to wrap everything up (we’re ignoring Halo 4 for now). Master Chief is going to “Finish the Fight.”

The epic nature of Halo 3’s story speaks very strongly to something fundamental about all of us. We want resolution. We long for the good guys to win and the bad guys to get blown to bits. That’s why the game’s tagline, “Finish the Fight,” is so appealing. We want that great final battle that draws the struggle to an end and brings on peace and better times. Or at least a big explosion.

The most dramatic part is Cortana’s line at the end which comes from a T. S. Eliot poem. The full statement goes like this: “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.” That line is dramatic, but it’s also pretty lame. Let’s face it, if we’re going to go out, we want  it to be spectacular. Think of every near-apocalyptic disaster movie and it always involves some scientifically factual and entirely plausible situation involving an asteroid, the discontinuation of the rotation of the earth, a flood, electromagnetism, aliens, etc. When humanity’s creative storytellers talk of our demise, it tends to be quite over the top.

That climactic tension between imminent doom and a last minute save is something we all want to see. This is why Halo is so fun to watch and so enjoyable to play.

Most people don’t give the Bible enough credit, but the end of days as described in Revelation is also quite epic. There are beasts, dragons, plagues and armies in a global battle against the evil trying making one last push to overcome what has already been determined: God wins. Jesus, yes that Jesus, shows up with a tattoo on his thigh, a sword in his mouth, and the authority to put an end to evil and death itself. There’s fire, war, kingdoms overthrown, lightning, destruction and at the middle of it is God on his throne doling out heaping bowls of justice. Seriously, go read Revelation, there’s some crazy stuff in there.

The best part comes at the end after all is said and done and Satan is cast into a giant pit. Jesus rounds up all of the people he has redeemed and holds a massive feast with the best food and drink and the company of God himself. That’s an epic conclusion- war followed by food and a party.

Question:

What does your picture of an epic conclusion look like?

That’s it for the Halo Trilogy. Come back next time for our first topical series looking at men and masculinity.

Halo 3: Salvation

Halo 3′s religious symbols provide unique retelling of one of the Bible’s stories of true salvation. Today we’ll discuss what salvation really means and where Jesus fits into all of this.

The Ark is the primary focus of the action in Halo 3 and it also serves as a symbol for what’s happening in the story. In order to understand this symbol better, let’s look at the Biblical story of the Ark. This story can be difficult to understand and there’s more to say than I can fit here, so I encourage you to read and study on your own. The account of Noah and the flood is found in Genesis chapters 6-9. Everyone on earth had become so evil and corrupt that God decided, with great sadness, that he should start over. He chose Noah to build an Ark for himself and his family so that they could be saved from the impending destruction of the flood. Likewise, Master Chief is seeking to access the Ark as a means of saving humanity from the Flood.

Noah, but with power armor and grenades.

The story of the flood in Genesis is an incredible story on it’s own, but it also act as yet another example of a theme that is laced throughout scripture- salvation. It’s easy to look at this story and paint God as a blood-thirsty tyrant who enjoys taking vengeance on those who oppose him, but Genesis 6:6 says that seeing humanity’s condition “grieved him to his heart.” Man’s rebellion against God is not like the colonies revolting against the king of England, or humanity fighting to get out of the Matrix. Man’s rebellion against God is more like a stubborn and ignorant child refusing to heed the warnings of a caring parent. God knew that if he continued to let us have our way, things would only get worse.

If you listen closely to the Prophet of Regret’s sermonizing in Halo 2, you may catch a line where he talks about the “cleansing flame.” For those not deluded by the Covenant’s religion, that flame is actually the destructive force of the Halo rings wiping out all life in the universe. However, what otherwise may have been a throwaway line of dialogue brings up a very interesting point- destruction and salvation often go hand in hand.

The haven of salvation is the Ark in both stories, but the flood itself in the Biblical narrative also acts as a form of salvation. In deciding to unleash the flood, God was ridding the earth of the rampant sin and destruction that had taken over his creation. The flood itself is a form of salvation in that it destroys what is evil in us. God’s destruction of sin would wash us away too, since we are sinful. This is why we need an Ark. 1 Peter 3:21-22 describes how Jesus’ sacrificial act, as represented by baptism, is a parallel of the flood that Noah experienced. Accepting Jesus and being submerged in water is a symbolic way of running to Jesus as the Ark and allowing God’s flood to wash away our sin.

Question:

What needs to be cleansed from your life?

That line from the game about “cleansing fire”? that’s especially interesting when you look at 2 Peter 3:7 where it’s said that the next destruction of the earth will come not by flood, but by fire. But more on that next time…

Halo 3: Believe

This week we’ll be looking at Halo 3 and the themes of heroism, salvation, and epic conclusions. We’ll start by looking at our always helmeted friend Master Chief and what kind of message we get from his portrayal.

(Source)

As you can see from the above video, there was a great deal of effort (and probably money) put into the promotional campaign for Halo 3. The previous games have led up to this point where the very survival of humanity is in doubt. And who is going to save the day? Master Chief of course. He’s the hero, the savior, the messiah. He’s the one to believe in.

The message of the video is clear- things are looking very grim. Gruesome scenes of war display the many ways that humanity’s soldiers are being defeated. Even Master Chief has been captured and is seemingly incapacitated. But what’s this? He’s very much alive, with plasma grenade in hand. Bet he can’t stick it.

This is how we view all of our heroes. Many movies that have this same plot point, where the plucky hero is a hair’s breadth from defeat before making an awe-inspiring comeback. Our view of a savior is one who can overcome an impossible situation and turn the tide. The hero is the one who inspires us to believe that salvation is near even in the darkest circumstances.

There seems to be no shortage of these messianic references for Master Chief throughout Halo 3. The game opens with mankind’s savior falling from heaven…errr….the sky, an image that has also been used for many other messianic heroes such as Superman and Thor. And speaking of Thor, what is the name of Master Chief’s armor? That’s right, Mjolnir, which is both the name of Thor’s hammer and Master Chief’s special armor. He’s not just any hero, he’s a god sent from another world.

Why does this idea of a super-human, god-like figure coming down to save all of us resonate so deeply? It’s because we’re all looking for a savior, someone we can believe in. It’s fitting that this post comes during the Christmas season, which for Christians is also the time of Advent. This is the time of the year when we look back on history as the series of God-ordained events that led to the coming of Jesus, just as the month leads up to the celebration of Jesus’ birth. Jesus’ coming was anticipated because he became the hero for the whole world, saving everyone from sin and death and reconciling humanity to God.

So we have Master Chief and we have Jesus. How do they stack up? Master Chief gained the loyalty of his followers through military feats. Jesus had some followers, but he also had a lot of negative press from the religious leaders. Master Chief was inducted at a very young age into a special military program where he was given advanced training and weapons. Jesus was born in a barn and was raised as the son of a poor working Joe. He didn’t get any special training or go to any fancy schools. Master Chief was memorialized with the highest honors after his “death” by all of humanity. Jesus was murdered by a mob.

That comparison obviously favors Master Chief, but that’s not the whole story. By most people’s standards, Master Chief is all we need. Is saving the day by blowing stuff up really enough? What about our sin and failure, who will save us from that? We all want salvation from our mistakes and inadequacies. Do you think that there is one who can save not just the universe but the soul? Do you believe?

Discussion questions:

What other popular characters fit this messianic image?

What heroic figures are most appealing to you?

Next time we’ll talk about salvation and the Ark, another Biblical parallel. Use the comments to discuss and thanks for reading!

Halo 2: False Prophets and Pharisees

Today we wrap up Halo 2 by exploring the solution to the problem of these zealously religious prophets.

Overly religious characters like the prophets don’t just appear in fictional games. Jesus squared off against religious zealots in his time on earth. They were called Pharisees and they were obsessed with rules and making rules for the rules. They were blind and deluded and they denied Jesus as God despite him being right there among them. Ultimately their religiosity was responsible for Jesus’ death. Some great stories of Jesus versus the Pharisees can be found here, here, and here. He fiercely combated their doctrines of salvation by works.

True Christianity, however, is a life based on grace. Grace offers for free what we could not have on our own. We can never by any stretch of the imagination do enough good, go to enough church, help enough old ladies across the street, donate enough money, or activate enough ancient space super weapons to earn or merit God’s favor. Grace is a gift that can only be offered through Jesus.

Romans 5:8 says “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus’ sacrifice was given because we perpetually wallow in our sin with no way out on our own. An attempt to try to gain salvation for ourselves only leads to pride, self-righteousness and further problems. That is what the Prophets in Halo’s story illustrate. In their blind and deluded devotion to the pursuit of The Great Journey, they were actually pulling themselves and the entirety of existence towards destruction. That is the result of a works-based religious ideology.

We have a hard time with grace because it takes the work of salvation out of our hands and recognizes that God is in complete control. We don’t like being out of control of anything. Our tendency is to manage and organize our lives in order to make things happen for ourselves. It is actually a great relief to find that we don’t have to carry the burden of maintaining our own righteousness or earning our own salvation. There is no way that we could ever possibly be good enough for any significant length of time to warrant something as amazing as salvation and an eternal reward. If our salvation depended on the consistency of our behaviors or our ability to find some relic or collect some item, we would be completely hosed.

But God is just that awesome. He knows how lost we are and shows mercy by doing all the work of salvation. The work of Jesus is to make up for our shortcomings by taking our sins and giving us his righteousness. That is something that no Covenant prophet or Master Chief, or anything in else creation could accomplish. Christianity does not depend on what any one person or group can do through works, but what God does in spite of our pride and over reliance on rules and religion. Jesus is the only one who can step in and bring us along with him on his Great Journey.

Questions to think about:

What experiences have you had with crazy religious people and what did they believe?

How do you distinguish between Jesus and religion?

Was there ever a time in your life when you were sure of something you believed, but found out you were way off?

Sound off your reactions in the comments. Next week we’ll dive into the epic conclusion of the story in Halo 3.

Halo 2: (Don’t Stop) Believin’ in the Great Journey

The three Prophets, known as the Hierarchs, represent the religious intensity of the Covenant whom they lead and control. These characters are used to convey a certain viewpoint of religion and religious people.

The three Hierarchs are given names that ironically describe their roles and fates in addition to revealing the worldview being presented by this story. We’ve already met the Prophet of Regret. First, he attempted to invade Earth, a decision which he came to came to regret. He was followed by Master Chief to the Delta Halo who then regretfully tracked him down. I’m sure he was further filled with regret when Master Chief jumped on his floaty Professor X chair and punched the crap out of him…to death.

In the future, courtesy towards the disabled does not extend to aliens. (Source)

Later in the game, the Prophet of Mercy is attacked by a Flood form in the presence of the Prophet of Truth and his guards. They could have easily saved him from becoming one of the Flood, but Truth in his pride and ambition showed him no mercy.

The most telling, ironic, and hypocritical name is of the Prophet of Truth. He claims to be the all-knowing and powerful leader who will lead the Covenant on their mythic “Great Journey.” They believe that by activating the rings they will all be sent on to their idea of higher existence and godhood. As it turns out, one group’s Great Journey is another group’s galactic apocalypse. The Prophet of Truth’s religious claims about the Great Journey and the Halo rings turn out to be a bunch of lies based on myth and conjecture. Truth is actually a false prophet.

The Covenant represents religion in its most crazed form. However, there is a distinction that needs to be made between “Christianity” and “religion.” Many equate them as the same thing, and in the general sense of the word, Christianity is a religion. But “religion” can be understood in a different way. Religion believes that “if I do good things and follow the rules, I’ll be rewarded and go to [fill in the blank].”

The Prophets and the Covenant seek tangible forms of salvation- relics, locations, and weapons. They believe that by manipulating these things they will reach their desired goal- access to the Great Journey. That’s the lie that religion tells, that by our efforts and our goodness, we can somehow please God and make him love us enough to accept us. Even if we were somehow able to earn our salvation, it would make us full of pride and self-righteousness and bring us right back to square one. Our innate depravity is precisely why religion doesn’t work.

Now that the problems has been identified, we’ll talk about the solution in the next post. Check back Friday for the final part on Halo 2.