“These things have been written down so that you can believe Jesus is the Anointed One, the son of God. And through that belief you can have life in his name” (John 20.31).
On 19 June 1976, Viking 1 entered Mars orbit. The first of two spacecraft of the Viking missions sent to the Red Planet, it was the first successful landing on that world, sending back the first view of its surface and it’s alien horizon. I remember it’s photographs in my school science textbooks and the astronomy books I’d get from the library. And, while topped by the photos sent back by Mars Pathfinder twenty years later, they were amazing. We were seeing the view from another world. Unfortunately, this was not its best remembered images. Amongst the photos sent back from the Viking 1 orbiter, there was the Face.
On 25 July of that same year, from the Cydonia region, there appeared to be a face staring up at us from the surface. Half of it is covered in shadow, but what can be seen appears to be an eye, a nose, and a mouth peering up at us from the Martian dust.
Subsequent images from Viking 1 and later missions showed this “face” to be an illusion of light, shadow, and missing data. That didn’t stop years and years of books, belief, and, in the case of this week’s film, a screenplay that this mysterious “face” was evidence that there was once an advanced civilization on Mars.
Mission to Mars, was released in March 2000. Directed by Brian De Palma, it stars Gary Sinise, Tim Robbins, and Don Cheadle. The first crewed mission to Mars, Mars I, launches in the year 2020. After detecting what they believe is evidence of water on the surface, disaster strikes and all contact with the crew is lost. Mars II is rushed to launch in order to find out what happened.
After a mishap in orbit, the Mars II crew crash lands and finds the only surviving member of Mars I who takes them to see…you guessed it, a giant face staring up from the dust of the Red Planet. An alien face that is more than just a leftover artifact of an ancient civilization.
I watched this move on video sometime in the latter half of 2000. I remembered nothing about it other than I didn’t think it was very good. This second viewing confirmed that memory, and I’m not alone. The movie was widely panned. It’s director, Brian De Palma, was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for his work on this film, which was unfair; because, the faults with this movie stem from the writer’s room and not the director’s chair. The characters are two dimensional. The dialogue is clichéd. And the lone female character (Kim Delaney) is speaks in exposition.
But what is really wrong with this film’s script is the same thing that is lacking in the myth behind the “face” thought to have been seen in the Viking photographs. It never answers the question of Yes, And?
Ideas are the seeds behind a story. In Science Fiction you begin with the idea of what if. What if an asteroid were on a path to collide with our world? What if you fell asleep and woke up in the far future? What if a robot came back in time to kill you?
The trick is, after the idea you have to say yes, and? Yes, that’s what happens/happened? And? And what does it mean, for your characters or for your audience? Does it change their lives, give it new meaning, help them discover something about themselves? Does something meaningless in their past find a purpose here?
The conclusion (prior to the epilogue in chapter twenty-one) of the Gospel According to John is a response to the yes, and question. The book has, to this point, told the story of the ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus who its author claims is the Anointed One. It’s presented miracles and radical teachings in pursuit of this belief, this idea.
At its end, we are presented with this: the “and.” And what does that mean?
The author of this gospel tells us that all of this evidence, every part of this story was to prove its claim, to present an account of this truth. And? In order that those who’ve encountered this narrative, who’ve taken it in and let it become a part of them might have life. Life that is transformed, and valued not by the things of this world, but by the One.
Contrast this with what Mission to Mars gives us: a face and the revelation that there was once a civilization on the Red Planet that (spoiler alert) are our great-great-greatest-ancestors. Ok, and? Does this change daily life for anyone on the mission or on the planet they call home? In truth, we don’t know; because, the story ends without ever answering our yes, and.
Scripture presents to us a similar theme that this film pursues: there is a common seed for all of humanity. Rather than Martians, it presents the idea that each and every one of us is made in the image of Love. A Love who is so driven to help us understand the depths of itself that it took on this frail flesh and died at the hands of its beloved creation. And, rather than abandon this world with only a cryptic recorded message like the Martians did to the crew of Mars II, Love left us with the Divine Breath within us, striving to remind us of a life that is in our reach: one where even death has no power in this world.
Maybe it’s not as exciting as a mistaken perception of an alien visage, but it offers so much more than a concept alone.
Love Incarnate, you came among us as one of us eating, drinking, laughing, and dying to convince us of all we are capable of being. With every breath, remind us of the love that unites all of us in you, that love that can transform even the most broken parts of our world.