This Sunday we conclude this year's "Summer Blockbuster Sermon Series" with what is arguably the summer's biggest flop, Disney's The Lone Ranger, which was an attempt to reunite the team behind the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise -- producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski, and actor Johnny Depp. Unfortunately, this movie version of the popular radio and television series will probably lose more than $100 million.
Despite the movie's imperfections, it offers an intriguing portrait of Tonto, the Lone Ranger's Native American sidekick, as performed by Depp. In many ways, Depp's Tonto is an archetypal "clever man" who uses natural wisdom -- and a healthy dose of good fortune -- to survive and thrive in an unjust world. This is how the Biblical patriarch Jacob is presented -- at least in his life before he wrestled with God and gained the new name Israel -- as a clever man favored by God who comes out on top, even when the chips are stacked against him. This is particularly obvious in the story of how Jacob obtains the majority of his father-in-law's flock, found in Genesis 30 (and which features a natural ritual that would make Tonto envious).
What are we to make of Jacob, the clever man? Are we, as Christians, supposed to be similarly clever? Or is there a deeper lesson of justice and faith in the stories of Jacob and the Lone Ranger?
Here is a trailer for this summer's "Lone Ranger":
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