The void
Emptiness. A feeling and state of being that we all have experienced. We try to avoid it. Deny its existence. Yet it is always there; a void. We fill this void by busyness. We fill our lives with the meaningless day to day and we ask ourselves, “What is the point?” How can I go on living the same way I have been living with this void in my life? It will consume me and is consuming me. Does anyone else understand or am I to live in this void alone? A film that has answers to such questions is Thunderbolts.
Thunderbolts is a film about a ragtag team of anti-heroes who are compelled to join forces in order to survive. The film highlights Yelena, an assassin who is grieving the loss of her sister and haunted by a traumatic childhood growing up as a child soldier and the terrible things she’s done. She is discontent with being a hitwoman for the military industrial complex.
Bob is a man living with multiple mental illnesses who grew up in an abusive home. Every time he tried to protect his mother, she just told him he makes everything worse. All his life, Bob has self-medicated with drugs and alcohol. He signed up for a program to overcome his mental illnesses which gives him god-like powers he is unable to control. He keeps making statements that the team should leave him behind because they are better off without him.
John Walker is a once-decorated war hero who was given the Captain America mantle but is now a disgraced super soldier whose wife left him and took their child.
Throughout the movie, the different team members trash one another and make self-deprecating statements. When Yelena attempts to give Bob a pep talk, she tells him that the best way to deal with void is to stuff it inside oneself and never let the pain come to service. When Bob starts to get out of control, the team gets their butts kicked rather badly. Yelena wants to give up, but her father figure tells her how he sees the situation and reminds her of her true identity. She still is the little girl whose light could brighten up the room, with the deep desire to support others. He also says that the thunderbolts have the potential and unique opportunity to belong together in a common cause that is bigger than themselves.
Bob is now fully consumed by the void and begins trapping the citizens of New York City in a manifestation of the void. He tried to bottle it up, but he only succeeded in building it up until it erupted like a volcano. Yelena, rooted in her identity as a light to others, enters the void willingly to calm down Bob. John Walker convinces the team to follow her in. The Void attempts to isolate Bob, reminding him of his mistakes and his powerlessness to protect people. Bob, with a desire to protect his friends, tries to beat the void with sheer will power, condemning it for his mental illness and self loathing, but it only feeds the voids. It is when Yelena and the rest of the team remind Bob that they are committed and that he doesn't have to be alone and give him a group hug that the void is defeated and the City of New York is released.
Thunderbolts is not the only story about a void in our lives, Scripture tells this story as well. We see the void in the story of the people of Israel. The people of Israel are formed out of a void, the void of human slavery. God calls Israel out of Egypt, out of that void. Israel escapes Egypt and is in a new void, the desert. The difference now is they are a free people; they don't have to live in slavery. God gives them a law they are to live out so that they do not go back to the void. The Law is supposed to help them love God and neighbor. This counteracts the void of slavery to sin and idolatry, the void of Egypt. Yet as Israel wanders the desert to the promised land, they go back to their sin and brokenness. They are constantly rebelling against God and harming their neighbors. Even when they enter the promised land, they forget who God is and repeat the same sins over and over again. They are trapped in the void of sin. The judges, prophets, priests, and kings try to lead Israel out of the void. The Psalms express the inner distress of the people of Israel, particularly in the Psalms of lament. Lamentations is an entire book dedicated to lamenting that Israel is now swallowed up by the void, God has seemingly allowed the void to consume Israel. Is that the end of the story? No! God acts in the person of Jesus Christ to heal the void. Israel and the whole world can be healed. Jesus by his life, death, and resurrection enters the void, our sin and brokenness, by dying on a cross. By taking on the sins of Israel, he embraces the void, saying, “My God My God why have you forsaken me?” Jesus defeats the void and now new life can be found in him.
The question might be raised: how do we fill that void we live with right now? The answer is actually found in Thunderbolts: Community. We need each other to see the potential in one another. Just as Yelena’s father sees her potential, so God sees our potential. Community is what we are designed for. It fills our emptiness. Even God wants community; that is why he created us. He spoke into void, and the universe was created. If we live in an authentic community as Jesus and his disciples did, if we bear each other's burdens, then we can fill our individual and collective voids together. So how do we fill the void? One another.
