Three Ohio women who had been missing for ten years escaped and were returned to their families in the past few days. You can read the story here, among other places:
What is it about possessing another human being? There is a pathological attraction to this possibility. The three men arrested in Cleveland are extreme examples of this pathology, but nearly all of us are driven to some small extent by this desire. We may be possessive in relationships or in parenting, at work or at school. Think about all of the love songs that use the imagery of possessing another--"You are MINE!" And there is the equal and opposite fantasy about being possessed by someone.
What is this about?
In The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis depicts the essence of the Demonic as the desire to consume another being. He describes Hell as the realm of "eat or be eaten." I'm not sure he has the imagery quite right. You eat another, and then it's over. You are then on to the next victim. But possession, enslavement, absolute dominance--these are the gifts that keeps on giving. The sick and twisted men who kept these poor three women for years were engaged in a cycle of possession and dominance that feeds a deep and sinful desire.
I believe this reflects our pathological desire to displace God and to become gods ourselves--at least in relation to some other human being. In the Large Catechism, Martin Luther describes what it means to have a "god." To have a god is to depend on that One for all things in life and in death. It is the relationship of utter dependence rooted in complete trust.
If that is an adequate behavioral description of what it means to have a god, then the converse might be an adequate behavioral description of what it means to be a god. To be or to feel like a god would be to exercise dominance and control over another human being. Abduction and enslavement are not voluntary conditions of dependence and trust. These are vile imitations of the real relationship. But then, we are not made to be gods. So our attempts to be divinely dominant can only end in disaster.
No human being deserves our utter dependence and complete trust. Those gifts, when given, will always be used against us to enslave us. This is the essence, for example, of the abuser/abused relationship. We humans only rarely love one another purely for the benefit of the other. So we must always seek to regulate our desires to own, control, dominate and ultimately abuse the other. Only the one who can truly be called God could deserve such utter dependence and complete trust.
We who follow Jesus declare that we have seen and come to know the One who is deserving of our dependence and trust. Jesus says that he came not to be served but rather to serve and to give his life so that all might live. Only the God of utter self-giving can be trusted to have us and to hold us in love and hope.
Gracious God, create in us the trust in you that shields us from seeking to be or to worship little gods. Amen.
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