He’s not just tall, dark, and handsome … he is the archetype of American masculinity. So naturally, he’s a little swarthy, a little rugged, and all European. Because only white men can be charming and handsome. Natch.
In essence, he could be Dylan McDermott’s slightly older, slightly cooler brother.
Appropriately, his taste in the finer worldly things is impeccable and, well, other worldly.
He is always donned in his work uniform — a hand-crafted, hand-tailored Italian suit with matching soft leather loafers, and fitted Egyptian cotton shirts.
He drives luxury performance cars, not because he has any particular place to go quickly. Rather, he simply likes the way the cars feel.
His hair is always perfect, teeth always white, and he has a smile that creates temptation.
He is Lucifer, and apparently he’s so handsome and charming, he deserves his own television show on the most prime of primetime slots, on Fox, the hell of television programming, to be sure.
Yes, the prince of darkness has his own television show. The show is billed as a comedy drama, and it follows Lucifer, a high-end nightclub owner, who is bored and unhappy being the Lord of the underworld, and moves to Los Angeles where he helps the LAPD punish criminals.
Somewhere in this universe, Jesus of Nazareth is in his chest.
You see, this show is quite skillful at normalizing Lucifer and making him appealing and attractive.
It wouldn’t be far-fetched to call him a protagonist. He helps the police punish the bad guys. He’s persuasive. He’s charming. He’s likable.
Jesus has no such equivalent in the television or media world. I can’t think of a portrayal of Jesus in the media in which he he is portrayed in historically accurate blackness, and we see the fullness of his love, compassion, and desire to help those on the margins.
What we see is Jesus as a long-haired hippie who gets beaten a lot, says some radical things that when taken out of context — and they almost always are in popular portrayals — and is killed at the hands of the Roman empire.
He’s poor. He’s often dirty. And he’s always trying to freak out the establishment.
Clearly, Lucifer has better agents.
Yes it is true that Jesus was a poor righteous teacher, he also had a sizable following, and had to have some standing within the Jewish community and the temple in order to teach the way he did.
And Jesus was far more complex than the one-dimensional stick figure character who marches toward his death, that popular portrayals make him out to be. He had feelings and motivations and real-world issues to deal with and reconcile. He was deep.
Lucifer illustrates how a dedicated team of people can make even the devil look good. They are winning the PR war, so to speak.
But in the final analysis, the show is helpful in one other respect to Christians.
It reminds us, that the enemy Satan is not a pointy-eared, long-tailed, red monster who’s lurking around every corner, attempting to end all of our hopes and dreams.
The enemy comes in many forms. Sometimes he is disguised as someone who appears to mean well.
