Everybody wants a miracle, and almost everybody wants a teacher, a savior, a strong one, a magnificent one to lead the way, to change the world, to say that everything is under control and that whatever happens, it's meant to be that way. Everybody wants to have someone great to look up to and to be inspired and protected by... But not too many of us want to become that strong one because the burden is too great to bear.
These thoughts among some others went through my head as I was watching MESSIAH, now available on Netflix. Just to make it clear, I rarely watch series, and when I do choose to watch more than a couple of episodes of something, it's not for entertainment purposes only. Most of the time me watching something means that I am learning from it, exploring a new topic, or combine watching the show with other activities, like language learning or physical workouts.
This particular show (the second season of which has been cancelled apparently for borderline religious tension and political reasons) touched me because of the central controversy itself. Do we believe that this man is the messiah, the new coming of the world's savior, the manifestation of God in the human body? Or maybe he is a great illusionist and a charlatan, a clever psychopathic terrorist who wants to take over the world? Or maybe he himself is just a fanatic who believes what he says? Or maybe he is a supernatural being indeed, but not a "good" one... What if he is what they refer to as Al-Masih ad-Dajjal, the Antichrist, the false prophet in Islam?
I in my own life have faced the necessity to choose my beliefs and convictions and to decide where my loyalties lie in relation to the Source, the Man, and my own life path. I think that meeting someone like that is one of the greatest tests of life. The thing is, you can never know for sure until the very end of things - and the new beginning; and because of that, often times it all comes down to faith, loyalty, and personal choice, and our loyalties and choices are always heavily influenced by a multitude of manipulations, deceptions, tricks, and traps that exist in the outside world and in our own minds.
I do recommend to watch the show if you are interested in these things. It probably won't tell you anything new. To me, it did touch on several aspects of life I've been dealing with, from Sufism and general knowledge to personal choice, love, loyalty, and self-sacrifice.
All in all, it's interesting how most of us, from dedicated religious believers to spiritualists and witches to even atheists openly or secretly long for someone to come and change the world, or destroy the world, and then rebuild it and make it better... or maybe do our own inner work for us - put us right in front of our weaknesses and fears and make us DEAL with them once and for all. It's interesting how even grown men who have all this testosterone pumping and this desire to lead, and rule, and order can abandon their quest for social and political power when they are faced with something out of this world and it's amazing to which extent human beings want to just live, just let it go, let it all go and be real, but don't know HOW.
For those who watched the show or will watch it eventually, a question: What would you choose to do? Would you believe or be skeptical, would you analyze or mostly just rely on faith? Would you be hypnotized or remain "in control"? If you choose to follow - to which extent, how far, how scary?