Matt Calderon – A BloG

I watched The Odyssey last night. As you may have heard it was an epic depiction of an old text. In my next few paragraphs I am going to share some things the Lord God spoke to me about the film. There will be spoilers so be aware beyond thing sentence.

I’ll start with proximity. Throughout the film Odysseus is scene walking with the goddess Athena. This is a Greek epic so the pantheon is prevalent throughout the film. Athena shows up to him several times as he goes through his adventure. I love this aspect of the film because no other man in the film is depicted this way. Having a close relationship with god. And many times Odysseus reaches or follows or even seeks god and she’s there. Talking to him. Leading him. This level of devoutness is the antithesis of the suitors in the temple. They didn’t know a god. To them a king was their god. To them they had no proximity to god. To them the throne was everything. To them meekness was weakness and a name was everything. More on this later.

Second item is steadfastness. Until we see Troy, which is the beginning of Odysseus journey but also the unraveling of his misfortune, we see a man become a solid rock of steadfastness as he descends into a plethora of trials to go home. What is it about a man that holds him tethered or anchored to home? Is it his family? Is it his convictions? What is the memento from his wife as a sign to come home? One could argue it was the lot cast to Sinon who died in Troy. I’m not here to argue reasons why. What I am here to argue is that Odysseus was steadfast through trials that his men were not. He wasn’t easily stirred. He wasn’t tossed to and fro. He was anchored. And in my interpretation he was walking with God. He was walking into destiny. A place where mortality couldn’t lead men. Odysseus walked.

The next item is forgiveness. This topic might make a long paragraph so bear with me. We see Odysseus carry the weight of his men. We see how important honor is to him throughout his journey. When he meets Circe he is lured in like his men to the women’s home. He finds his men transformed into pigs. Odysseus finds himself hungry but he hunted before his men took ascended the hill to find regular men as animals. What he then threatens at the table of the witch is a bird. A raven. He clearly discerns that it’s important to Circe. It’s a family member. She eludes that it’s her sister. An easier form to deal with. She explains to him that his men are the sea people. Know to pillage and plunder and abuse women. But Odysseus pleads that these men just want to go home. And she says they’ll never make it. After being transformed back into men, his soldiers suggest Odysseus kill her. But he says no. He realizes she’s been through enough. She realizes she needs forgiveness. She couldn’t even forgive her own family. Years of generational hurt turned her into the witch that she was. She hated men. Later in the film we see the journey lead to hell. Odysseus talkes to Hades and meets his dead men. The dead speak to him. His legacy was made on dead men. Good men. We see Odysseus run from death many times before but this time it was different. Death was ready to greet him with contempt. Where was forgiveness now? He was willing to face his greatest fears to walk through forgiveness of his actions. The dead wouldn’t forgive him. Then later on. After his men are about to die because they cannot starve anymore they eat the food of the sun god Apollo. He finds his men have given up after much traveled journey to nowhere. They have let go. The sea offers them escape from the island only to find Poseidons wrath in the ocean. When the boat tears in two we see Odysseus the obedient be separated from the sinners. His own men beg him to pray to god for forgiveness. It’s too late. Finally we see Odysseus on the island of Calypso. Tattered and in agony. The goddess brings Odysseus back to life. For years he lived on the island. His men accused him of never wanting to return home. They were right. The truth is he didn’t want to face himself. Odysseus couldn’t forgive himself for what had happened at Troy. He saw his men slaughter women and children at the cost of victory. A vane pursuit. A champion none the least. All to see them die one by one. But they were already dead. His destiny was meant to see them die brutally so that only one may rise to claim glory. He didn’t want to claim it. So he tried to forget. He drowned out his thoughts with the drug of the lotus to forget. He couldn’t. Even Calypso said his heart was elsewhere. Finally he gives in after years of unforgiving he relents. Odysseus sobers and as Calypso iconically states, “preside in our home, become immortal”, he embraces mortality and ventures into the sea towards a life where he must suffer punishment. A life surrendered.

Lastly let’s talk about love personified. Through the film we see Odysseus hold on to the pendant of Athena from his wife Penelope. How he longs for his beloved as he survives test after test on the long journey home. What we see back in Ithaca is his wife and his son Telemachus who is waiting upon his return. It’s here where we see love personified. What greater love is there than a son longing to be with his father? What about a wife who waits over a decade for her husband’s return only to hear rumors of his journeys? She heard all the gossip. It tore at her. It ate her from the inside out. Many times she wanted to give in to the lies. She thought about being easily seduced by the suitors. Many men lined up. But she realized it wasn’t for her. It was for her throne. Giving in would delete every existence of her family. Her legacy. His legacy. So she waited in agony. She forgave Odysseus rather than becoming bitter and stood steadfast longing to be reunited. In the end she said let a man string my husband’s bow to ascend the throne. She knew they couldn’t. She was ready to die. And yet Odysseus showed up. He kept his promise as did she. They were love personified.

That movie marked me. One was that in my own weakness I found myself being angry say true love like that no longer existed in this world. It could only be in a movie but never for me. It couldn’t be. But what my God spoke to me was that in heaven on the other side of eternity Jesus is waiting for us longing for our return like Penelope. And I wrestled with God to say where is love like that on this side of eternity. And God said it was through Christ himself. I said God I want to have a lover to personalize this relationship with Christ with. Jealously God humbled me by saying even if you don’t have them I brought you to this movie to let you feel love personified at the highest degree of emotion. That wrecked me. I cried. What is true is this. Is that as much as I’ve prayed for a wife I now have evidence of how it feels to be loved unconditionally by God and it took this movie to really feel it. It stirred my heart. It moved me. God moved me through a film.

My last remark is this. This movie was great for the surface level things but there’s one last gem hidden. The biggest take away is that this legend was real to real men. The Greeks had this odyssey text. Homer really wrote this poetic novel. It was about men of valor in a time where a pantheon was gods ready to smite mere mortals demanding offerings and worship and piety. Then comes Paul, a disciple of Christ from Rome, and he says there’s a living God who walks among men. And his name is Jesus. Could you imagine? These Greeks all their lives whether they lived piously or not lived under authoritarian governments where abandonment of such laws and religion was hopelessness. It meant death. And yet Paul said come away and let me introduce you to a God who speaks. Imagine a Greek convert willing to risk their life to see if Christ was really real, just to encounter His true presence for the first time. No words could describe what it would be like. And yet we have all the excuses in the world, and here we are confined to small minds.

We already know from this blog what it meant to live inside of proximity with god. To be steadfast in the midst of great trial. To seek and offer forgiveness. But what about love personified? As a single man it’s even harder for me to surrender to the idea of love personified. But on the opposite side of surrender is a life in isolation, a life being swayed to and fro, a life of unforgiveness to the point of oblivion and not immortality. To me there’s such a clear path to the road home and it starts with a life surrendered. If this message burns in your heart how it burns in mine then start with repentance, then accept Christ as your Lord and Savior. And then proclaim His return. Embrace home on this side of eternity live Penelope longed for Odysseus. Embrace home.