Warning – spoilers.
We are big Dr Who fans in our family. Not the Whovians some are perhaps, but still, there’s quite a large fandom here. Last night we watched the show together like we normally do on a Sunday night. It was the beginning of the two part episode where The Master remakes an appearance as The Mistress and we left it at the point where the cybermen are on their way to take over London again and Clara is locked in a basement with her own personal cyberman (which I’m sure, btw, will turn out to be Danny but we shall see next week).
I have been already thinking about how the Doctor is very godlike in his being and how he is becoming more godlike as the seasons go on. How he saves the world (time after time after time). How he has amazing depths of knowledge that others don’t and could never hope to have. How he does it all for love (or something very like love). Last night confirmed my thoughts about this Messiah-like nature of the Doctor.
Last night Clara betrayed the Doctor. She betrayed his trust, his friendship, everything he has ever stood for. She let him down. She thinks that it is all over – that her last hope in the universe will (with good reason) reject her.
And he doesn’t. He chooses to help her despite the pain that she has just put him through.
She asks, ‘Why are you helping me?’ and he replies, ‘Why? Do you think I care for you so little that betraying me would make a difference?’
I think this is what we all want. What we all need.
A person who is all knowing, all powerful, the ruler over all the bad, who loves us even when we reject him. Who is willing to help us even when we have done all we can to hurt him and betray his trust.
And this is what I see in Jesus. He is someone who I can trust to do the right thing, even if it doesn’t look like the right thing to me. He is someone whose timing may not be all that I want it to be but it is the right timing – it always turns out to be the right timing. He is someone whom I have hurt, betrayed, let down, but he still cares for me so much that he will help me anyway.
And he is more than the Doctor. He is much more. Because he knows more, cares more, loves more. Oh, and he is real (yes, the Doctor is fictional, we must remember this).
This is the Jesus that I believe in. Someone who I have betrayed, someone who I have let down, but he cares for me so much that he will put his life on the line for me. He loves me so much that he has put his life on the line for me. He has and will keep on helping me with life’s monsters and with life’s problems. He is there when I call and has never let me down. This is my Doctor, my Jesus.