Our Brother, Our Captain, Our King

According to the 2001 film, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir's last words were (to Aragorn), "I would have followed you my brother, my captain, my king." When I watched that a while back, I could think of only one person in the universe that matches all three of those descriptions: Jesus Christ.

Aragorn wasn't technically Boromir's brother, but they were sort of fraternal brothers, as they were on the same team and had fought side-by-side against many dangers.

Jesus is our Brother literally, as we have the same Heavenly Father, and fraternally, since we're both on the same side and frequently fight side-by-side against many dangers. At least, that's the way it is when we're trying to resist temptation.

Aragorn was inarguably Boromir's captain, starting right after Gandalf fought the Balrog and got separated from the Fellowship. Gandalf had been their leader up to that point, but in his absence, Aragorn took charge, using his wisdom and leadership skills to keep the Fellowship moving forward, despite having suffered a staggering loss.

Placing Jesus in the role of our captain requires a little more imagination. Fortunately, I have plenty of that, and casting Jesus into that role works perfectly with the concept of being a paladin clad in the Armor of God. We are in a spiritual war against the forces of evil, and not only is Jesus fighting by our side as our Brother, He also gives us commands as our Captain. He knows this war about as well as anyone, and He knows our enemy a lot better than we do. He knows what we need to do to win. He gives us commandments, and when we obey them, we are victorious.

Aragorn was not yet crowned king at the time of Boromir's death, but he was the heir to the throne of Gondor, and no one else was sitting in it. He could have officially been king by that point, if he had wanted to be, but he had chosen to live as a ranger instead. He was crowned king later in the story, long after Boromir's death, but whether he was presently wearing the crown or not, royalty was in his blood and in the way he carried himself and led his team.

Jesus, on the other hand, has always clearly been, and always will be, our King. Actually, that might not be true. Yes, He was clearly a leader and the well-favored first-born Son of the Father, our Heavenly King, so He might have been considered royalty then, and He certainly is now and will be forever and ever. But had it always been obvious that He was our King? When Christ was born in a stable in Bethlehem, only a handful of people knew who He really was. This condition of relative anonymity, of seeming normal, persisted for much of His mortal life. He was later to be once again crowned and king of heaven and earth, but in the meantime, He seemed very much like everyone else.

In writing this blog post, I learned that Jesus and Aragorn have more in common than I thought. Maybe that was intentional (Tolkien was Christian, if I'm not mistaken), or maybe it wasn't. It doesn't really matter to me, since the analogy works either way.

What I want to take most out of this is that Jesus is our captain, our commander, in addition to His other roles. He knows how to win this war, and He tells us what to do. The whole idea of commands and commandments can seem stiff sometimes, but there's always order and structure in a good military organization. Our Commander knows what He's doing, and we can't afford to doubt Him. The stakes are too high and the risks are too great. The only way to win is to follow Him. That's why I'll try to think of Jesus as my Captain as well as my Savior, as I go through the remainder of this war.