Of Nightcrawler and Forgiveness

Many of us who are my age or greater probably remember the classic X-Men cartoon that aired on Fox in 1992 (and is now being reaired on ABC). The cartoon, which ran 76 episodes, told the story of a world with humans and "mutants", the latter trying to survive in the midst of hatred on every side--some reacting very violently and negatively, but a few trying to make the world a safe place for humans and mutants to live together in peace (those are the X-Men). In one of the episodes, titled Nightcrawler, two of the X-Men, Wolverine and Rogue, go to a town where the residents are scared to death of a resident demon. Upon visiting a nearby monestary, they meet said "demon", a mutant monk named Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler), whom Rogue affectionately calls "Preacher" and who is portrayed as a very typical monk, lecturing Logan about faith on more than one occasion, and wanting to help those around him (but largely unable to do so by the fact that he's blue and fuzzy and that has a tendency to freak people out).

Nightcrawler is featured in a second episode (Bloodlines), where he comes to Xavier's institute on Halloween night because someone is threatening his birth mother, who abandoned him long ago. Wolverine, Rogue, and Jubilee go to the specified location, which ends up being an anti-mutant organization's headquarters, to rescue Nightcrawler's mother, who turns out to be one of the group's enemies, a shapeshifter named Mystique. A fight between the humans and mutants ensues, and they escape. While the three X-Men are in a firefight, Nightcrawler teleports to catch up with his fleeing mother, because he wants to know why she abandoned him. In a heart-wrenching conversation between the two, Mystique reveals that she disposed of her son for one reason--because he was inconveinent. "There's your truth, son, I didn't want you. Still sad for me?", she tells her son in the face, and then is shocked when Nightcrawler looks at her and says, "I will beg God to bestow His grace on me, so I will learn to forgive you. Then I will ask Him to bestow His grace on you, so you might forgive yourself."

I would forward that Nightcrawler is presented here as the classic image of how a Christian should show forgiveness. He is confronted with the horrid truth of the sin that his mother committed against him, but realizes both the depth of his own sin and his need for healing, but also realizes that others around him, including those who have sinned the most grievously against him, also carry that same need for healing, and they don't deserve it any less than he does. What an excellent example of how a Christian should view sin and forgiveness (especially coming from the secular media known as Marvel Comics). Let us also remember (as Nightcrawler also stated in the cartoon) that God will forgive us and desires our healing from our sin.

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, ESV)

Luke