"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished"

As I was growing up, The Wizard of Oz was a very big part of my life.  Every year when it would come on, we would head on over to my cousins house to watch it on their color TV.  The first part is always in black and white, and then when Dorothy lands in Oz the screen turns to the vivid colors that are alive in Munchkin Land.  I read the stories of L. Frank Baum, collected Wizard of Oz memorabilia, and when I became a Christian adopted the rainbow as my symbol all throughout college and beyond.  L. Frank Baum did not create the rainbow, but it became a bridge for me between my pagan past and my new life in Christ.  My first response upon learning about the rainbow as it had to do with Noah and the Ark, was, "wow, God has a rainbow too."  I never really thought much of the wicked witch, except to be scared of her.  She was the bad guy and Dorothy was the good guy, and of course the good always wins.  With that said..... 

I have for a while now been meditating on the the Broadway Play and novel; Wicked.  My friends and I were able to go to New York not too long ago to see it, and also to wander around any book stores we might come upon.  When I get something on my brain I mull it over and over until the symbolism becomes apparent, or until I have satisfied my qualms, questions, and querulous pondering.  While sitting at the play in NY with my friends, I was struck with the fact that I thought it was a very multi-layered story.  Applications that were immediate were about friendship and the development of character through difficult circumstances.  Sitting in the theatre I began crying and realizing how much God had blessed me with friends that pointed me to Him.  Then my mind jumped to the thought that the character of the Wizard was much like a god/figure. Discounting that theme I went on to meditate on the friendship part, and not just friendship, but all the  people that come into our lives.  God places sovereignly people in our paths so that we will be changed for good, and encourage others to be changed for the good.  I couldn't get it out of my head though that the major themes in this play were upside down to a Biblical worldview.  Of course, every writer or story teller borrows from the Christian worldview, so the themes of friendship were wonderful and something that my friends and I enjoyed immensely. 

The opening line of the play spoken by Galinda asks the question, "are we born wicked, or do we get that way later on."  My philosophical brain became alert at that point, and tried to pick apart just what the author was trying to say.  The main character, Elphaba the Wicked Witch of the West, spends her life against great odds being and doing good.  The play answers this question when towards the end Elphaba realizes that all that she has ever done for good backfires on the people she loves the most.  She tirelessly takes care of her wheelchair bound sister throughout her life, she turns on Elphaba and Dorothy's house drops on her from a plot by the Wizard and his assistant.  She selflessly tries to help the animals and at the end the lion turns on her, her professor Dr. Dillamond (the goat) is run out of town, and her parents have never accepted her for being born green.  She marches on trying desperately to hold on to her dignity and not compromising when the wizard offers her fame and fortune, which she has always wanted, by compromising her principles.  She turns him down and is then lied about, hunted to be killed,  and all the bad things in Oz are then blamed on her.  As she has resisted the dark side long and hard, she then breaks.  She decides that selflessness only brings you heartache, pain, and suffering.  She says in the line of the song, "no good deed goes unpunished."  

Elphaba:

No good deed goes unpunished

No act of charity goes unresented

No good deed goes unpunished

That's my new creed

My road of good intentions

Led where such roads always lead

No good deed

Goes unpunished!

One question haunts and hurts

Too much, too much to mention:

Was I really seeking good

Or just seeking attention?

Is that all good deeds are

When looked at with an ice-cold eye?

If that's all good deeds are

Maybe that's the reason why

No good deed goes unpunished

All helpful urges should be circumvented

No good deed goes unpunished

Sure, I meant well -

Well, look at what well-meant did:

All right, enough - so be it

So be it, then:

Let all Oz be agreed

I'm wicked through and through

Since I can not succeed

I promise no good deed

Will I attempt to do again

Ever again

No good deed

Will I do again!

Psalm 73

ESV

1Truly God is good to Israel,
   to those who are pure in heart.
2But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
   my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
   when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

This is where Elphaba finds herself, envying the wicked.  The Wizard has prospered from his evil, selfish  deeds.  What had her altruism ever done for her?  Except brought pain to her and to others.  The Wizard had also gotten away with murdering her sister, and come to find out he, the Wizard himself, was her real father.  This revelation didn't make any difference to him at all.

 4For they have no pangs until death;
   their bodies are fat and sleek.
5They are not in trouble as others are;
   they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6Therefore pride is their necklace;
   violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
   their hearts overflow with follies.
8They scoff and speak with malice;
   loftily they threaten oppression.
9They set their mouths against the heavens,
   and their tongue struts through the earth.
10Therefore his people turn back to them,
   and find no fault in them.
11And they say, "How can God know?
   Is there knowledge in the Most High?"
12Behold, these are the wicked;
   always at ease, they increase in riches.
13All in vain have I kept my heart clean
   and washed my hands in innocence.
14For all the day long I have be stricken
   and rebuked every morning.

Then Elphaba gets to this point, she knows that if she gives in she will betray all she holds dear.  Just like the following passage in this Psalm.  She then gives into despair, because she had done all she did only for herself.  Have you ever been tempted like this?  The Psalmist had.  The song that I posted not too long ago about doing good anyway, is also at the heart of this Psalm.  With the recent events of my life, I have been tempted this way as well.  Why should my family keep on doing good to the people of God?  They bruised us, they beat us, they lied about us.  I also caught myself singing this song, "no good deed goes unpunished."  I have gotten close to betraying the generation of His children.  Just as the Psalmist says. Thinking about God's people is a selfless act.  It means that the persecution was not necessarily going to end, the lies were not necessarily going to go away, or that God was going to make it all better right then and there.  

15If I had said, "I will speak thus,"
   I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Then I went into the sanctuary of God.  Not just a building, or a place to meet with Him, but a place of safety that only He could protect me.  Elphaba had only her own resources to count on.  I know that my resources are completely unreliable, unsteady, and useless.  Until I came under the shadow of His wings.  

 16But when I thought how to understand this,
   it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
   then I discerned their end.

 18Truly you set them in slippery places;
   you make them fall to ruin.
19How they are destroyed in a moment,
   swept away utterly by terrors!
20 Like a dream when one awakes,
   O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms.

I was a Brute beast able to identify with those that I thought had persecuted me, no difference.  The only thing that separates us if grace, grace alone.  You say in this next verse that I was a beast toward You, not people, You.  Nevertheless, You are with me, You hold me up, You guide me, and You will make sure that I receive Your glory!  You love me so much that You do not ever want to be without me.  Amazing.  

21When my soul was embittered,
   when I was pricked in heart,
22I was brutish and ignorant;
   I was like a beast toward you.

 23Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
   you hold my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
   and afterward you will receive me to glory.

25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
   And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
   but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

My flesh and my heart have failed, and God's strength has prevailed.  

 27For behold, those who are far from you shall perish;
   you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you.

28 But for me it is good to be near God;
   I have made the Lord GOD my refuge,
   that I may tell of all your works.

Do it Anyway!!  Only for the Glory of God!