The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

The Transformation Jesus Brings, Part Two

 

       ‘…baptizing them...’ (28:19)

 

       I enjoy the Bourne Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum movie trilogy.  The overall story deals with the issue of identity.  Fittingly, the story begins and ends with baptism scenes.  I don’t think Robert Ludlum, the author of the original books, was a Christian, nor do I think the director of the movies is.  From what I can tell, it’s a pure coincidence that this parallel exists.  But I’m going to use the storyline of Jason Bourne to illustrate something about the Christian life.

       We get to know Jason Bourne at his first ‘baptism.’  He is unconscious, adrift in the ocean off the coast of Marseilles, France, with two gunshot wounds in his back.  Rescued by a fishing boat, he struggles to recover his memory from the fog of amnesia that cuts off memories of his life prior to being pulled out of the water.  By tracing small clues, he learns that he was a highly trained CIA assassin with the name Jason Bourne.  He decides that he will start a new life and leave his old life behind.  Bourne had been tasked with killing an African dictator, but had given up on his mission because of the man’s children.  When he aborted his mission, he was shot twice and fell overboard into the ocean.  Jason Bourne’s attempt at starting a new life ended with a ‘death’ of sorts.

       But the CIA won’t let Bourne go so easily.  They pursue him, eventually pushing him to expose the whole façade of lies and intrigue that hides the assassin program from the public.  In the middle of the third movie, Bourne explains why he is so reluctant to kill others:  He wants to undo all the wrongs he had done before.  By the end of the third movie, Bourne acquires classified files, discovers that his past name was David Webb, gets the files into the right hands to expose the CIA, and escapes by jumping off a building into the Hudson River.  For a moment, we’re uncertain if CIA villain Noah Vosen succeeded in shooting him.  But then we see Bourne swimming away.  It’s another ‘baptism’ scene that reminds us that we first met this man when he was almost dead in the ocean.  This time, his attempt at starting his new life has finally succeeded.  He knows who he really is – and it is David Webb, the man he was before he became the lethal assassin Jason Bourne, the man he now knows he should have always remained.

       These ‘baptism’ scenes illustrate a man’s central struggle:  to shake himself free of the corrupt identity that he had willingly chosen, and to return to the man he was.  Curiously enough, they are a decent analogy for each human being’s central struggle:  to shake free of the corrupt, false identity that each of us willingly chose, and to return to the person God always meant for us to be.  That is why Jesus wanted to mark us with a baptism.  Baptism represents the change in our identity.  If we have joined ourselves to Jesus by faith in him, we have become and are becoming the person God always meant for us to be.