X-Men Part 1: Dealing with Persecution

In the future people are rounded up and either forced to work as slaves or put to death. It is a grim place with no hope. People are miserable. The sky is dark. The land is barren. It is awful. That is the world that we see at the beginning of X-Men: Days of Future Past. It is a terrible future. Killer robots called Sentinels are in charge. They are running concentration camps and pursuing those not in the camps so that they can exterminate them.

This horrible future began back in 1973. The Sentinels were created by a man named Bolivar Trask. He did so because he thought it would be the way to protect the human race from mutants. Mutants are people who are born with a special mutation which give them a superpower. Many human beings are afraid of mutants. Therefore, these people persecute mutants.

The Sentinels were created to help people against the mutant threat. However, the Sentinels soon become self-aware. They outgrew their programming and begin to think for themselves. These machines concluded that all people are a threat. They began to persecute all human beings since mutants are really just people. The Sentinels deduced that even if a person isn’t a super-powered mutant, that person might have mutant offspring in the future.

The Sentinels eventually persecuted everyone – human and mutant. But where did that start? It started because people intended to persecute the mutants. Those people who hate mutants are working to destroy them. Bolivar Trask is just one example. Basically, the majority (humans) are persecuting the minority (mutants).

The Sentinels can’t really be blamed for their actions. They are simply machines. But their persecution of humans and mutants started with their original programming. A group of humans persecuted those who were different. Persecution has happened throughout human history. There are many examples. Think about how certain races have been enslaved in order to serve others. In the 20^th century, Nazi Germany rounded up many Jews into concentration camps. There is still persecution that goes on today. Human beings continue to struggle with this issue.

Do you ever wonder what it is about human nature that leads people to want to put down or destroy those who are different? Is it fear? Is it jealousy that they have something that we don’t have? In Days of Future Past, humans fear the powers of the mutants. Perhaps the humans are jealous that they don’t have those kinds of powers. I wonder where we as Christians fit into this conversation about persecution. Are we like those humans who persecute or are we like the mutants who are persecuted?

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Then there is the other truth that we don’t like to admit. We sometimes act like the humans who persecute the mutants. We might put down those who are different than us. Do we at times become the sin police? When we see others that have fallen into sin, we are quick to condemn them for their actions. We make them feel like outcasts for what they have done. We act like we are so much better than them because we did not commit that vile, despicable act that they committed. Why do we do this? Does it make us feel like we are more worthy of God’s love? Do we feel like we are more deserving of a room in heaven because we have not yielded to that temptation? This is how several humans dealt with the mutants. They wanted to get rid of those who were different.

What about matters that are not necessarily sinful? Do we ever persecute other Christians who do things differently than we do? Do we glare at the person who dared to walk into worship dressed in a way that we feel is inappropriate? Do we make them feel bad because we don’t think they have been respectful enough towards God’s house? Are we hypercritical of those who conduct the worship service in a way that is different than we like? Perhaps we question their Christian faith simply because they try to worship in a manner that isn’t the traditional way.

Rather than persecuting each other, it is good to think about the example of Jesus. I think about how he dealt with the woman caught in adultery from John chapter 8. She had clearly committed the sin of adultery. However, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees were persecuting her for her sin. They wanted to stone her to death. Jesus saved her life by saying, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus wanted them to see that they were all sinners. But he didn’t want the woman to think that the sin wasn’t a big deal. He showed her love. He showed her forgiveness. And then he encouraged her, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Did Jesus persecute her? Did Jesus gloss over her sin? The answer to both of those questions is no. Jesus did not persecute her and he spoke against those who did. And Jesus also took her sin seriously. He urged her to turn away from her sin. Also think about how Jesus reacted when he was persecuted. There were certainly times that he pointed out the foolishness of what others said about him. There were times that he escaped from harmful situations. But when it came to the biggest persecution he faced, he did not fight back. He didn’t even stop it. He let himself be tortured. He let himself be put to death. Rather than fighting back like the mutants, he did nothing. He let himself be persecuted so that we can have forgiveness for our sins of persecution. We have eternal life through Jesus.

X-Men Days of Future Past shows us different viewpoints about persecution. Magneto wants to lash out at those who persecute mutants. Professor Xavier wants to live in peace with those who are hostile toward mutants. Bolivar Trask persecutes the super-powered mutants. But none of those characters act like Jesus. Magneto, Xavier, and Trask are striving for their version of earthly peace. Jesus is all about eternal peace. He won that for us by not fighting when he was persecuted. Jesus won us forgiveness and life.

X-Men History

The X-Men started with their first issue back in 1963. Professor Xavier’s first class was Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Iceman, and Angel. They were put to the test in issue #1 against Magneto. Magneto and Xavier are exact opposites on how mutants should interact with humans. Magneto believes mutants to be superior to humans and therefore he thinks mutants should rule over humans. Xavier wants to live in peace with humans. Because of their different philosophies, it is very interesting to me that Magneto and Xavier consider themselves to be friends.

The X-Men have appeared in many movies. There have been a total of 7 movies so far: X-Men 1, 2, and 3; 2 Wolverine movies, First Class, and now Days of Future Past. There have also been several animated X-Men stories.