Sherlock: The Battlefield

When I first watched the Sherlock series, I wasn't looking hard for allegories. I didn't find any, either. However, a couple of re-watchings have made me discover the depth of the first episode, "A Study In Pink."

Dr. John Watson is home from the war. He's trying to recuperate and assimilate back into civilian life. It's hard. He reads writing upside down and doesn't belong in this slow-paced world of small talk and lackadaisical days. His therapist tells him to write a blog. As his left hand shakes with what she says is PTSD, he tells her that he has nothing to write about.


Then John meets Sherlock Holmes, the world's only consulting detective...not to mention its most cynical, arrogant, and brilliant man. Within a day, they're sharing a flat, er, apartment. And Sherlock promptly opens up the can of worms that is John Watson:

Sherlock: Seen a lot of injuries then? Violent deaths?
John: Well, yes.
Sherlock: Bit of trouble too, I bet.
John: Of course, yes. Enough for a lifetime. Far too much.

"Enough for a lifetime."

John is saying what everyone expects him to say. Because Sherlock's next question reveals his heart:

Sherlock: Want to see some more?
John: Oh, God, yes.

It's simply funny the first time, but I've come to realize that we are not so different from John. We are a people made for war, for victory, for close calls and narrow escapes and RISK. We are made to attempt hard things. We are made for more than this provincial life {Disney shout-out!}.

And yet we, as Christians, are told to assimilate. We are told to sit down, be quiet, don't stand out, don't stand up. Be tolerant, go with the flow. We don't do risk. We're told we shouldn't want to.

There are reasons why Christians get disgruntled with the Christian
life. They were given promises of abundant life--

"I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." -- John 10:10

--and they're rewarded with meetings and pie socials and Sunday school and small group and the occasional trek out to visit the homeless. That's the Christian life. That's the abundant Christian life we're used to in America.

No wonder we're frustrated.

"I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." -- Matthew 10:16

Somebody named Jesus told us we were going on an adventure. And then somebody from the pulpit told some funny stories and sent everyone home with a nice feeling in their heart just in time for football to come on.

As the episode progresses, John grows more and more wary of Sherlock. He's told that he can't be trusted (well, that's another blog post, right there). And he's had firsthand experience of Sherlock's callous nature. That's when he's dramatically kidnapped by Mycroft, Sherlock's estranged brother. And it's Mycroft who points out that Sherlock may be just what John needs.

"You see the battlefield."

"When you walk with Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield...you're not haunted by the war, Dr. Watson. You miss it." -- Mycroft Holmes

John was made for more than pie socials. He was made for the battlefield.

As were you.

"He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater than these shall he do." -- John 14:12

John's symptoms can't be solved by a therapist. Nor does he have anything to gain by trying to give the socially acceptable answer to Sherlock's bit-of-trouble question.

"And here you are."

Stop trying to blend in. You are longing for an adventure. It's okay to take it. You were meant to, no matter what anyone else thinks.

John: (accusatory) She said...You get off on this (chasing down serial killers). You enjoy it.
Sherlock: And I said "dangerous," and here you are.