Samson and Spock

I’ve been watching a lot of Star Trek: The Original Series with my oldest here lately. One of the classic episodes of the original Star Trek is called “Mirror, Mirror.” It tells the story of Captain Kirk and a few others being transported to another universe. This universe is a lot like their own, but twisted. Everything is flipped on its head. 

The Enterprise no longer explores the galaxy - it violently enforces the will of the empire. 

Any mistake by crewmembers is brutally punished. 

Assassination attempts on the captain by power-hungry officers are common. 

Strange new worlds that won’t comply with the starship’s demands are utterly destroyed. 

Mr. Spock has a goatee. (I guess those were ominous in 1967?)

A few weeks back, I pointed out how Samson’s dying prayer for vengeance (Judges 16:28) is the complete reverse of Stephen’s dying prayer for mercy on his killers (Acts 7:60). Stephen looked like Jesus (see Luke 23:34), but Samson is, you could say, the “Mirror, Mirror” version of Christ and Stephen. He lives by a twisted version of Jesus's teachings and example. Samson is Spock with a goatee. 

You also see this in Judges chapter 15. After Samson abandoned his Philistine bride in chapter 14, her father gave her to be married to someone else. When he learns this, the judge falls into a fit of rage, lights a few hundred foxes on fire (I kid you not), and lets them loose in the Philistines’ crops. “He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.” (15:5)

As retribution, the Philistines burned the woman and her father to death.

In response, Samson “attacked the Philistines with great fury and killed many of them.” (15:8)

The Philistines, seeking revenge, sent an army to the land of Judah, where Samson was living. The people of Judah, terrified, sent a delegation to Samson.

They said to Samson, “Don’t you realize the Philistines rule over us? What are you doing to us?”

But Samson replied, “I only did to them what they did to me.” (15:11)

“I only did to them what they did to me.”

I can’t hear those words without thinking of Jesus’s teaching, “in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” (Matt 7:12) Samson’s behavior is the “Mirror, Mirror” version of the Golden Rule. He doesn’t treat others the way he would want to be treated. He treats others the way they treated him. He makes sure they get what’s coming to them.

And, as it unfolds, Samson’s story reveals how destructive that kind of behavior is. His life is a perfect illustration of what Martin Luther King, Jr. warned about in his book Where Do We Go from Here?: “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.” Samson rages, the Philistines retaliate, and violence multiplies.

Samson’s feelings and reactions are extreme, but they’re also natural and understandable. Who doesn’t want to get even when we’re wronged? Who doesn’t have a hard time offering forgiveness and making peace?

But Jesus, by his teachings and his example, showed us another universe, where everything is flipped on its head. It’s the complete reverse of Samson’s “Mirror, Mirror” story.

In Jesus’s Kingdom, people turn the other cheek and love their enemies.

In Jesus’s Kingdom, you treat others the way you want to be treated, not the way you were mistreated.

In Jesus’s Kingdom, Spock doesn’t have a goatee.

In Jesus’s Kingdom, light drives out darkness.

And Christ invites us, in everything, each day, to seek that Kingdom, to make that Kingdom come, on Earth as it is in heaven.

Listen to this week's devotional here: