“God loves this universe. And gave Their one and only son so that all that believe in him will not be destroyed but have life without end” (John 3.16).
Everything goes wrong so fast. Before you take a breath adversaries have appeared and the attack has begun. In explosions and flickering darkness, beloved characters die and, then, the Enterprise—which has long travelled the stars—is destroyed.
Of course that’s just the first few minutes of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. And we learn this was all a simulation, a test for the best and the brightest in Starfleet known as the Kobayashi Maru. It’s an odd test, one no one has ever won…except, as we learn, Admiral James T. Kirk who, we learn later in the film, beat this simulation by being creative. I’ve never believed, he tells us, in the no-win scenario.
This film was released a day after WarGames (which we talked about last week) and, if you remember, was also a film about no-win scenarios. In WarGames, it’s the game of nuclear war. In Trek II, it’s a simulation where a ship is stranded in no-man’s land and attempting a rescue means potentially triggering war while not making the attempt means capture and death for the vessel’s crew.
There’s an enjoyable section of the internet devoted to how Cadet Kirk reprogrammed this scenario in order to make it “winnable.” And while there’s no official answer, the theories I like are that he came up with some way around the supposed problem (something his character is known for). In other words, he doesn’t believe in a no-win scenario; because, there’s always a way, it just may not be the obvious one.
You know today’s verse. People who’ve never seen a Bible know it since it’s been held up at sporting events, concerts, and, as I write this, on a few electrical poles along my way home from work. It’s considered a summary, an encapsulation of the Gospel. It was also a creative solution around the problem.
Humanity, when you look at history, seems immune to attempts to bring about its redemption. The Garden is this in miniature: even given paradise, with only the slightest potential for self-destruction, humans will always reach for that fruit. Trying to save us from ourselves is a scenario without a winner.
So, God chooses to go around the problem, to reprogram the scenario if you will. Incarnate, Jesus provides the ultimate path to human self-destruction—superseding the Divine to become gods and…well, destroy everything.
But in so doing, there is now a way where there wasn’t one. There’s a path to victory where before there appeared to be none. The love of God transforms the scenario and shows that there is a way out of our destructive tendencies. There’s a way to save us from our darkest desires and destruction. A way that required a creative solution.
The difference between the Kobayashi Maru and our world is that there’s no one who can tell us if this solution worked, if this commendable approach accomplished the apparently impossible goal of our redemption and saving our world from us.
It also means that the test isn’t over. And there’s still a way, even where there doesn’t appear to be.
Jesus you are the one who leads us on the way when there appears to be no-way. Give us hope for our rescue, and dreams of all that can be.