The Beauty of a Daring Rescue

SPOILER ALERT: If you're a fan of the TV show "Castle" and haven't yet watched the episodes "Target" and "Hunt" (Season 5, Episodes 15 & 16), consider this your spoiler alert. If you don't care about knowing what happens before you see it, read on. Otherwise, get caught up first and then come back and read on.

Back in February, I joined millions of other "Castle" fans to watch the annual "two parter" episode with baited breath. Because I follow the show and some of its stars on Twitter, I knew that the episode would center around something happening to Alexis, but I didn't know how emotional I'd become while watching the story unfold.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, let me fill you in. Castle is a TV show about Richard Castle, a mystery novelist who shadows an NYPD detective (Kate Beckett) and her team in order to get inspiration for his books. Turns out he's actually a fairly good detective, and 5 seasons (and quite a bit of comedy and drama) later, he's still around and finally dating Beckett. Alexis is Castle's daughter (and only child), and in this season she's in her freshman year of college.

During this episode, Alexis and one of her college classmates get kidnapped. At first, Beckett & Castle think the classmate was the target (her father's an Egyptian businessman who has some enemies). But when the kidnappers release the friend and not Alexis, their thinking takes another turn. They eventually discover that she's being held in Paris, and Castle takes matters into his own hands by flying there himself to try and get her back. The guy he hires sells him out... but Castle is rescued by a mysterious man who turns about to be his father- a spy with dangerous enemies. Together they mount a rescue attempt and manage to free Alexis.

I've been watching this show from the beginning, so I'm pretty emotionally invested in the characters. But as I watched Castle and Alexis run through the streets of Paris to freedom (the US Embassy), I found myself tearing up for another reason. I couldn't help but see the similarities between this rescue and my own. Just like Alexis, I needed to be rescued- not from scary Russian spies, but from the clutches of sin and Satan. And just like Castle, Jesus rescued me- not with explosive walkie talkies, but His body and blood. But Jesus' rescue mission was meant to save more than just me. He came to rescue you, too.

As I've been thinking about it in the weeks since, I think there are three specific ways that these episodes mirror our own situation.

1. Who we are and whose we are matters: Alexis became a target because of who she was. Her classmate got taken because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But as far as Alexis was concerned, this was not a random act of violence. The kidnappers' ultimate goal was to get to Jackson Hunt (Castle's father), and they knew they could do that by threatening something that belonged to him. If Alexis had been anyone else, related to anyone else, she would have been fine. The same is true of us. As human beings, we're created to bear God's image in this world. Satan hates that. So in an attempt to wound God, Satan does his best to keep us from being what we were created to be. We may not be in a visible cage like Alexis, but we're still trapped by sin, addictions, fear, shame. Why is it important for us to know this? Because if we don't, we're looking for the wrong enemy in the wrong places. We'll chase down leads, but we'll never be any closer to rescue until we recognize our enemy for who he is.
2. Our Father will do anything to get us back: Castle vows to do whatever it takes to find Alexis. God is no different. For Castle this meant paying any price to those who could help him (no matter how unsavory those characters might be) or to the kidnappers. He takes matters into his own hands, knowing it's going to take action to get his daughter back. For God this meant giving up His Son as a sacrifice, paying the ultimate price to rescue us from sin and death. It was a plan that only He could think of and execute, and it was the only way to get His children back.
3. Rescue means going behind enemy lines: Castle and his father hatch a plan in which Castle will navigate the sewers of Paris (sounds a little like Les Miserables!) to shut off power to the building the kidnappers are in. To the viewers' dismay, the kidnappers find Castle and drag him back to their hideout. He surrenders his walkie talkie to Volkov (the ringleader) who begins to taunt Jackson; it would seem the plan has failed. As they talk, though, we begin to get hints that Castle's abduction was actually part of the plan. Eventually, the walkie talkie blows up, and in the chaos, Castle frees Alexis and they run to freedom. In the same way, Jesus comes to earth as a human being and allows Himself to be caught and even killed. In that moment, it would seem the rescue attempt has failed. Much like Volkov, Satan was probably confident in his victory... right up to the moment Jesus dealt him the final blow by rising from the dead. Our cage is open; our shackles are broken. Rescue has come, and we are free.

So that is why I sat with tears running down my face as the credits rolled at the end of this heart-wrenching episode. Happy tears for the well-being of some of my favorite characters. But most of all, grateful tears and tears of awe as I remembered my spiritual kidnapping and the God who loved me enough to do whatever it took to rescue me.

How does the truth of God's daring rescue impact your life? Leave your comments below.