Gatsby Was Fooled, He Never Was Great.

          We just saw the movie, “The Great Gatsby”. As we reflected on this story of dishonest wealth and sexual wildness it struck us how timely it is. The movie is about the 1920s era of insane money of organized crime enriched by prohibition and corruption of public officials. The rich were getting extremely wealthy with an inflated stock market boom. Morals were considered out of date and old fashioned. All that mattered was getting glamorous clothes, cars and houses. Immediate gratification was the rage with no thought of consequences of lying, cheating, and stealing in order to have it all now. The movie shows the fleeting, false, and empty thrills of the Gatsby lifestyle.

         Human nature has not changed. In the time of Jesus earthly ministry the Gatsby crowd pursued fine clothes, big money, wild parties, and splendid mansions. They were called the Herodians because of their allegiance to King Herod. He agreed with the Romans to be their puppet king in exchange for the Gatsby kind of rewards. The Herodians cooperated with Herod in every way to keep the good times rolling in luxury, pomp, pleasure and sexual wildness. Instant gratification was the offer Herod made to his loyal followers.

The message of Jesus and his way of life was in stark contrast to Herod.

       The wisdom of Jesus is to pursue integrity, generosity, moral faithfulness, to do good to other and to practice self-control. Jesus warned about greed and selfish gain where we can lose our eternal soul. Greater than immediate gain Jesus promises a spiritual kind of wealth that will never lose its value.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust consumes and were thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6: 19-21.

        I wonder when Gatsby was about to die if he experienced some “terminal lucidity”? There comes near death a moment of clarity when in a flash we clearly see if we lived for what was lasting or wasted our energies on what is false and rusting away. With the help of the Spirit of Truth may we all be lucid now about what is worth living for.