Jesus is a Time Lord

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

In March of 2010 I had surgery. My brother had arrived back in the states from his life in South Korea a week prior the surgery, and he was gracious to take care of me during my recovery. He was a hero for me in my time of need. It was during my recovery that I could not see straight enough to read, but bless God, I could see straight enough to watch TV. I remember asking my brother to hand me a book and as I looked upon the pages the words moved from side to side with a little haze thrown in for good measure. I tried to read a few lines and eventually I got the picture that this was not going to work.

Now, I’m not a big television watcher, but my brother had Net Flix on his X Box 360, and we watched moves, television shows, and comedies (though it was super difficult for me to laugh. I ended up just tightly hugging my body together to keep from hurting as I wanted oh so badly to laugh hysterically). It was awesome!

It was during my recovery that I was reconnected with a child hood television show my brother and I would watch with my father. The show is entitled “Dr. Who,” it is a British television show the British Broadcasting Corporation produces, and the series holds the Guiness Book of World Records for longest running television series. It ran practically non-stop for approximately 30 years. The series stopped around 1990 and there was an attempt to revamp it in 1996.

The hero is part of an alien race known as Time Lords who looks like ordinary human beings. This particular alien has a special name that no one but he alone knows, but to everyone around him he is known as The Doctor. This alien race known as Time Lords have a special ability in that they have developed technology to travel through space and time in a space ship called a TARDIS. The Doctor’s TARDIS looks like an old school, blue, 1960s British telephone booth, and he uses his TARDIS to travel space and time to change peoples’ lives and save the day. One last aspect of Time Lords that I need to share with you for our purposes is that when Time Lords are mortally wounded and about to die, their bodies can undergo a radical, physical change called “regeneration” in which their facial features, body type, and personality morph into a new person. The only thing that remains intact are parts of their personality and more importantly, their memories. Through this process of regeneration, the Doctor has been alive for 900 years.

By now, you may think I’m pretty weird to watch a TV show which entails the description I’ve just provided. It’s okay. You’ll come around.

In 2005, the show was successfully started again with a new “Doctor,” actor Christopher Eccleston. The Doctor travels to his favorite planet, Earth, for which he has the utmost affinity. It is here he meets Rose. Rose is a young teenage girl who is looking for an adventure in life and feels lost in many ways. The Doctor takes an interest in her and asks her to travel the whole of time and space with him, seeing alien races and worlds unspeakable. Needless to say, Rose jumps on the offer.

Toward the end of the 2005 season, the Doctor and Rose end up in a tight spot. They are trapped in the 50th century on a space station orbiting earth. The reason they are trapped is because the Daleks have surrounded them and are going to destroy earth.

Daleks are the mortal enemies of the Time Lords. They are an alien race that has been genetically altered so that they do not feel pain, but in not feeling pain, they don’t feel anything else…except bitterness and rage. They encase themselves in these robotic bodies that seem practically impenetrable. And one last, important note: Dalek’s absolutely hate the Doctor. The Daleks are sworn enemies of the Time Lords and have made it their purpose in existence to eradicate the Time Lords and take over the universe.

So, as I was saying earlier, the Doctor and Rose are trapped on the space station, the Dalek’s are coming, and there seems to be no hope. The Dalek’s capture Rose and take her to their space ship. The Doctor is enraged. How could they take Rose? She is under his supervision and care. The Daleks open up a communication channel with the Doctor, and he replies something that forever burns in my mind: “I am coming to get you Rose. I am going to save you.”



The Doctor gets into his blue, British telephone box that travels space and time and flies from the space station to the Dalek ship. He is dodging space missiles and explosions while en route to the Dalek attack ships. He lands in the ship, grabs Rose, and goes back to the space station.

But when he get’s back, he does something unexpected. He locks Rose in the TARDIS and sends her back to her own time period of 2005. He leaves a video message for her explaining that he has sent her back because he is about to die and he does not want her to die. He tells her, “If you want to honor my memory…live a great life!” The Doctor has also left a program in the TARDIS’ computer that will not allow her to travel back to him…unless she opens the casing that houses the “time vortex” and looks directly at the time vortex.

And that is exactly what she does.

However, a human being should never, ever look directly at the time vortex. By looking at the vortex, it releases energy into a person’s body that makes that person super powerful beyond comprehension. It is too much and eventually a human will die from the energy trapped in the body.
Rose arrives back at the space station and saves the Doctor. The Doctor realizes she has looked at the time vortex, so he absorbs all the energy out of her body into his, and then releases it back into the TARDIS so that other people will not gaze upon it.

But by doing this, the Doctor has doomed himself. He cannot handle all the energy that was in his body, and he is about to die. The only way he can escape death is to “regenerate.” He tells Rose that he is going away and that he will miss her. She is very confused as eruptions of color, flash, and explosion ravage the Doctor’s body. And when the tumult is over…there is a new looking Doctor standing in front of her.




My brother and I were mesmerized by the episodes we watched during my recovery from surgery.

I was even more mesmerized when my brother said, “You know, the Doctor is just like Jesus.” When he said that, there was some awe and wonder that filled my mind. Maybe that is why I enjoyed the show so much.

I replied, “Yeah, he’s a messiah. He always saves the day.”

You see, Jesus is a Time Lord. He left an alien world called “Heaven/Eternity” and he came to us looking like us (Phil. 2:7) (John 1:14). He takes us on this amazing journey called life that has bumps, bruises, and sometimes scars that are visible and invisible in our lives (John 16:33) (Romans 8:35-36). When he finds us, we are consumed with this dark energy called “sin,” and he knows that we are going to die because there is no way for us to get it out of our bodies (Romans 3:23). So what does Jesus do? He calls out to us just like the Doctor calls out to Rose, “I am coming to get you. I will save you” (I Tim. 1:15). Jesus absorbs all the dark energy in us called “sin” (II Cor. 5:21) and once absorbed, he saves the day and dies (John 19:28).

Now, I personally believe that the world is looking for a messiah to save the day. We all want to be saved and rescued from this marred world. And in some ways, I think the Doctor is modeled after Jesus. Maybe that is why I dig the show so much, because the Doctor points me to and draws me closer to Christ.

Oh, I almost forgot! Jesus “regenerates” (John 20:9). He is alive and still with us, just to let you know, in case you were not aware.

Jesus is speaking to us in John 16:33, and he is communicating that life is not easy. In fact, it can get rather messy as the winds and waves and turbulence of life inundate us. But in the midst of the pain and disappointment we suffer, we can have peace. Jesus is that peace and he does us a favor by telling us that tough times will come. Why does he do this? I think he tells us that tough times will come to (1) give us a heads up, and (2) in a way remind us that he is our peace despite life’s storms. Echoing the Doctor’s appeal to Rose to “…have a great life,” Jesus is echoing something to us as well.

But Christ’s echo is different.

You see, it’s not how great your life is.

It’s how great Christ is in your life.

Your life and circumstances can be crashing in all around you, but if you are striving to bring Christ to the center of your life, I believe things can be different. Jesus does want us to have life abundantly, but the abundance can only come through a focus and determination in him. And I would assert that “life abundantly” is a life abundant of a relationship with Christ, not necessarily just things. Things have never brought peace. And if you search for peace, you will never find it, but if you search for Jesus, you’ll find peace.

Let these words from the Aaron Brown Translation of John 16:33 echo: Be at peace by focusing on me. When rough times come don’t worry, and remember that I told you they would come. Relax, I’ve overcome all your problems before they have even happened to you.