Traitors Welcomed as Crew

Have you ever been tricked or deceived by somebody? To me it’s typically only happened as a joke, there was the time Billy put my favorite coffee mug in Jello this summer, it was only on Monday that my older brother called me. His wife is pregnant and they had their first ultrasound appointment Monday morning. He called to tell me there were two heart beats…I fell for it like an idiot, getting excited for the prospect of twins and he simply laughed and said, just kidding, only one. He then proceeded to call my mom to try the same line on her.

Being deceived is no fun, even when it’s a joke. Yes it can be funny, but for the most part, it leaves us as the deceived feeling gullible, silly and just plain stupid. What happens when the stakes are higher?

The story of Judas betraying Jesus is well known to many of us. Judas, for 30 pieces of silver, hands Jesus over to be arrested, put on trial, beaten and eventually die via crucifixion. Judas however, did not see such things. He hanged himself when he realized what he’d done.

Hopefully in our lives, we won’t be faced with life or death situations of betrayal.

A brief explanation of the clip you're about to see. Firefly is a show that follows around the crew of Serenity, a spaceship of the Firefly class. They are a group of smugglers, thieves and other interesting professions. Two of the more interesting characters are Simon and River Tamm, a brother and sister. Simon is, well was a doctor, and a very good one. River was held captive by the government because of her amazing brain powers. Simon’s job throughout the entirety of the series is to try and cure River and keep her safe. They are fugitives with quite a hefty reward for their capture. Tempted by the reward money, Jayne Cobb, the ship’s muscle man, attempts to betray Simon and River for the payoff.

Jayne’s attempt doesn’t quite work. All three of them are captured Jayne has to help Simon and River escape and the ship’s captain, Malcolm Reynolds helps to save them as well. Through all of this, nobody knows Jayne’s act of betrayal. He thinks he’s gotten away with it scot-free, but well, you’ll see what happens.

Clip...(It would help to watch the entire Firefly episode of Ariel.)

Jayne betrays Simon and River and isn’t honest about it, but we as the viewer (if we’d seen the whole episode) know what he did, even if none of the other crew members do. Simon in fact thinks Jayne was the hero of the day, and tells everyone so.

Mal, however realizes what happened and turns the screws on Jayne. This scene is one of the most defining for Mal. We know from previous episodes that he takes care of his crew no matter what, but we see perhaps a glimpse of why in this scene. As the conversation goes:

Jayne: “What are you taking this so personal for? It ain't like I ratted you out to the feds.”
Mal: “But you did. You turn on any of my crew, you turn on me. But since that’s a concept you can’t seem to wrap your head around, you got no place here. You did it to me Jayne and that’s a fact.”

It’s very similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31-46, especially verses 44 and 45.

Jesus takes all of us in as his crew, even the least of us. We are valuable to him, valuable enough to die for. We don’t know why he loves us so, but we know that he does. This love is reflected in Mal for his crew. No it is not a perfect love. It is not Godly love. But we see how he takes ownership of his crew and when they feel pain, he feels pain. When they rejoice, he rejoices. When they are betrayed, he is betrayed.

Thanks be to God that Christ has taken ownership of us.

We don’t choose our own crew. We may not even like our crew, but they are our crew and so we watch their back and we love them. Our crew is the Body of Christ.

It is unclear to me if Mal was planning on actually letting Jayne die.

Or if Jayne’s repentance may have moved Mal to let him live.

Or I suppose it is possible that Mal knew the repentance was coming and was just waiting for it…

In this scene, Mal once again lives out his own words from an earlier episode Shindig “Mercy is the mark of a great man.” Jayne deserved to be treated like a traitor, but Mal treats him like crew.

It is the same with us and Jesus. We deserve to be treated like traitors, like sinners. We have done nothing to deserve God’s love. We’ve only done things to deserve his wrath, hatred and punishment. But God treats us like his crew, like his children, like his friends because of Jesus death and resurrection.

Jesus takes that punishment we deserve and is treated like a sinner, like a betrayer, so that we God’s creation might be treated like Sons and Daughters of the Heavenly Father.

That is indeed how we are treated, being gifted with eternal life in death and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This clip reveals a certain beautiful balance of Law and Gospel. Mal lets Jayne know the truth: that Jayne’s actions are unacceptable and are worthy of death. That is the Law at its best. But it doesn’t end with Law. It ends with Life, with a second chance, with forgiveness, with precious Gospel.