[This post may contain spoilers for the entire series of Game of Thrones]

What does Jesus look like?

I’m not trying to start a debate about whether Jesus is white or some such nonsense. [He’s not. He was born in the Middle East. Why is this still a thing people talk about??] I mean, what does Jesus look like in your mind? What do you see when you picture Jesus? Do you even picture Jesus, or is he abstract to you?

This is something I’ve been thinking about lately as my mind has been processing the series wrap of Game of Thrones.

*record scratch*
Hold up.

Why would Game of Thrones make me think about Jesus? — you, my imaginary reader, may ask.

Most people would probably say Jesus and Game of Thrones have zero overlap in a Venn diagram – Game of Thrones being one of the most gratuitously sin-flaunting shows in television history, and Jesus being, well…

But I had an experience at church several years ago that added a new facet to the way I picture Jesus, and it has everything to do with Game of Thrones.

I Will Fight For You

After practicing Christianity for, essentially, 35 years, some of its symbols and catchphrases can start to lose their meaning for me. It’s like when you say or write the same word over and over until it’s just a random jumble of letters and utterly meaningless. Praise songs are an especially egregious example of this for me. I mean, yes, I theologically agree with what you’re saying here (like 85% of the time), but what does this really mean? Is this supposed to be speaking to my soul? Because a lot of the time it just seems like a robot vomited some Jesus-y words into a boring, simple melody, and I’m forced to sing it 16 times in a row or look like a bad Christian. [Was that too far? Am I going to hell now?] It was during some such trite praise song which spoke of God fighting for us, that a perfect image of Jesus popped into my head.

via GIPHY

This is Oberyn Martell, one of my favorite Game of Thrones characters, in one of my favorite scenes of the entire series.

Some background on this scene for those who aren’t familiar with Game of Thrones… One of the show’s central protagonists, Tyrion Lannister, has been wrongfully accused of killing the king, and knowing he won’t get a fair trial, he demands a trial-by-combat. Because he is a dwarf and unskilled in combat, he needs a champion to fight on his behalf. Friends who could save Tyrion abandon him in his hour of need, and he is left without anyone to fight for him. Tyrion starts this scene at one of his lowest points in the entire series. He is alone, friendless, and facing certain death. But then Oberyn, a prince from a neighboring kingdom, visits Tyrion in his jail cell and announces that he will fight for him. Tyrion’s face crumples in relief & gratitude & hope, and I get all the feels.*

With this Game of Thrones moment in mind, the fairly abstract concept of “Jesus fighting for me” became specifically significant. I guess it’s a nice idea that Jesus will fight for me, but when have I really needed someone to fight for me? Like actually, physically fight to save my life? I can’t think of a time. But have I ever felt like Tyrion Lannister felt in that moment – anxious, trapped, alone, unloved, unfairly treated, terrified, and utterly hopeless? Sure have! And to identify with those forlorn emotions makes the hope provided by Oberyn (Jesus) in this instance so much more meaningful than a vanilla, abstract praise song sentiment.

I Forgive You

The parable of the Prodigal Son is a beautiful story and one of Jesus’ most popular teachings. But this tale of amazing grace can sometimes, too, be made rather benign in processed McChurch settings.

Tell me if you’ve heard this one… a young man runs away from home and enjoys a little rumspringa of wild living (as my Nazarene college friends tell it, he drinks a few beers and goes to a nightclub) before running out of money and heading home to ask his dad to take him back.

The father’s grace in that glossed-over story feels a little… cheap, no?

What about this instead? A young man (let’s call him Theon) is raised as a sort of foster son in a kind & caring family. Theon betrays that family & turns against them in war. He seizes their home, taking his 2 young foster brothers as hostages, murdering faithful friends of the family, and igniting events that will lead to the gruesome death of the eldest son & heir, his former best friend. Eventually Theon loses everything he acted so evilly to obtain. He is brought terribly low, enduring mutilation and years of torture, brainwashing, and brokenness. Finally Theon decides to risk his life attempting to escape with his foster sister rather than continue in such a pitiful existence. Theon eventually ends up face-to-face with his foster brother Jon, now king of the region. Theon can’t even meet Jon’s eyes, awash with shame; he confesses his grief over everything he’s done to Jon’s family. Jon responds: “It’s not my place to forgive you for all of it. But what I can forgive, I do.” And then he accepts Theon back into their family.**

As you may guess, I didn’t make that story up – it also hails from Game of Thrones. The scene of forgiveness and acceptance between Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy is another of my series favorites. Jesus is so evident to me there. The grace offered by Jon (Jesus) is anything but cheap at the end of a journey like Theon’s.

I don’t picture Jesus like this anymore.

I look forward to seeing his actual (not-white) face some day, but in the meantime I picture Jesus in a lot of ways.

Sometimes he’s a charismatic prince who offers me hope when everything seems lost. When I literally cannot do what needs to be done, he shows up with a torch in my darkness and says, “You know what, I’ll do it for you.”

Sometimes he’s a faithful and loving companion who holds the door shut against the forces of darkness trying to overrun me. (I couldn’t bring myself to write a whole section about how Hodor = Jesus because NONE OF US COULD HANDLE THAT. Still too soon, guys.)

Sometimes he’s a gentle brother, looking me in my eyes full of shame, knowing every unspeakably horrible act I have committed, and saying “I forgive you. Not only do I accept you back into my family, but the truth is you never left it. You are part of us no matter what you do.”

[And sometimes he’s Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones’ Diary who “likes me just the way I am.” But that’s a different story for a different time.]

This is why I love to find Jesus in stories. It gives us so many different lenses through which to view his grace, so many different pictures of what Jesus can look like. And sometimes when the stories are truly grim, like Game of Thrones, the moments of hope and redemption shine the brightest. We don’t live in a G-rated world; this place is dark & brutal & remarkably awful sometimes. It’s beautiful that Jesus’ hope & forgiveness is found in those places too.

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*Full disclosure: this story of Oberyn & Tyrion does not have a happy ending. But that doesn’t stop this specific scene from resonating spiritually with me!

**The end of Theon’s story is only slightly less tragic than Oberyn’s. But the bright spot is that Theon achieves redemption before dying at the hands of a menacing ice zombie. Game of Thrones was a troubling show.