The Traitors and the Faithful One

Last weekend I spent some time with my wider family, and the one thing we all seemed to be watching was The Celebrity Traitors. That's not surprising, as an average of 15.41 million of us watched the first episode (for context, 22.1 million watched the World Cup semi-final and 7.1 million watched episode 1 of the Great British Bake Off). As an avid fan of the programme since midway through series one, and having listened to the Table Talk podcast with Jack from series 4, I thought I would use Dan Strange's four E's to try to connect The Traitors to the good news about Jesus.

So let's Enter, Explore, Expose and Evangelise!

ENTER

The Traitors is a reality game show that begins with just over 20 contestants staying in a Scottish castle. On the first evening, the host, Claudia Winkleman, chooses around three of the contestants to be 'Traitors'; the others are 'Faithful'. Just like the youth group game Mafia, the 'Traitors' know who the other traitors are, but the 'Faithful' are left in the dark.

During the day, the whole group takes part in a 'mission' to add money to the prize pot. At night, while the others sleep, the 'Traitors' gather to 'murder' one of the 'Faithful'. The murdered contestant immediately leaves the game.

At breakfast the following morning, it is revealed to the group which faithful has been 'murdered'. Each evening, the contestants gather at the 'Round Table' and debate who they think the traitors are before voting to banish one of the group. As they exit the game, the banished contestant reveals their identity: 'Faithful' or 'Traitor'. If a traitor is banished that night, the remaining traitors can try to recruit one of the remaining faithful contestants to become a traitor instead of murdering someone.

The game goes on like this day after day until five or so contestants remain. Then the game enters the 'End Game' phase. The contestants have the opportunity to end the game by unanimous vote or choose to continue banishing contestants. When a unanimous vote is reached (or only two contestants are left), the contestants reveal their true identities. If they are all 'Faithful', they split the prize pot, but if there is a 'Traitor', the traitor takes home the prize pot (or split it among themselves if there is more than one!). In the celebrity version of the game the prize pot is donated to charity. Ultimately, it is a game of betrayal, lies and trust.

The TV show is an import from the Netherlands. In an interview with GQ, Marc Pos, the show's creator, explained that he designed the game as a human behaviour experiment to explore how we react when we need each other but know we can't trust everyone. You can read the full interview here.

As viewers, we are semi-insiders. We know who the 'Traitors' are and are able to see the folly of the 'Faithful' as they assign other contestants the label '100% Faithful', accuse people of being a traitor because of their job, or expect them to be able to find the traitors because of their life outside the castle. It funny to watch these judgements being made with such certainty and be completely wrong.

As viewers, we also see through the lies of the traitors as they try to manipulate and dupe their fellow contestants. We are in the know because we see a wide range of conversations that the contestants don't. The producers are also very adept at ending an episode on a cliffhanger, hooking us in for more drama.

Yet we are not fully in the know, the producers are good at keeping surprises up their sleeves, meaning that we discover things at the same time as the contestants. No one series follows the exact same pattern. Added to this, the producers also, obviously, edit the conversations down. These unseen people are the true insiders.

This leaves us with a hierarchy of knowledge in the game. The 'Faithful' are at the bottom, then come the 'Traitors' who know their fellow contestants identities, and then as viewers we sit above them know who suspects them and who might vote to banish them. As viewers, we enjoy knowing more about what is going on in the castle than the contestants; we can see things coming round the corner more than they can. But above us are the off camera producers, whose presence is made known through the host. 

EXPLORE

 We could explore themes of trust, lies, the love of money driving desire to win, knowledge and the making light of death. I don't have endless amounts of time to explore all these themes, but I think it is worth exploring the theme of knowledge.

We love being in the know. In life, as well as in The Traitors, knowledge is power. As well as power, knowledge brings security and a sense of superiority. We long to be on the inside, to know what is going on.

One commentator on the Table Talk podcast suggested that one reason why we love The Traitors is that we, as viewers, are 'god-like'. We long to be in the know to give us an edge in the game of life, and ultimately we want to be like God.

Knowledge is a good thing. We are made to know things. As Carl Trueman explores in The Desecration of Man, our knowledge is more exceptional than the instinctive knowledge of an animal. Our knowledge is at a different level, allowing us to act as free, intentional beings. It is entirely understandable that the contestants thirst for knowledge.

Yet the good thing, knowledge, has become a god-thing. We think that more knowledge will lead to greater control, security and prosperity.

Like all idols, drinking more and more knowledge doesn't quench our thirst. We are ultimately left disappointed as we don't know as much as we want to know. Like the contestants, we hate it when people lie to us and celebrate when we discover the truth. We misrepresent things because we have misunderstood the facts, and we misread other people because we simply don't know enough. There can also be a burden in knowing too much. At times, we see a burden being lifted when a 'Traitor' can speak openly about who they are, and the freedom of being a mere 'Faithful' contestant.

EXPOSE

I find that, as a viewer, there is a certain irony at work. I look down on the poor Faithful contestants and judge them for their foolish judgements and the way they let themselves be manipulated, because I know something that they don't. But I myself am being manipulated too! I only know what I know because the producers have decided to show it to me. There is an interesting anecdote about this in the Table Talk podcast with Jack Butler, a contestant from series 4 (listen from around 8:30).

This can translate into real life too. We are not as much in the know as we think. We are just as clueless and open to manipulation as the contestants are. We like to live our lives as though we are in the know. Yet, in all honesty, we are clueless. In real life, we misrepresent the truth, believe lies, think we know more than we do, make false promises and make poor judgements of character. Sometimes, rather than admitting our ignorance, we pretend to know. We can even manipulate the truth to protect ourselves or gain an advantage. We are both vulnerable to deception and capable of deceiving others. All in all, that leaves us feeling vulnerable and helpless.

Knowledge cannot give us the security we crave. The 'Faithful' spend the entire game trying to work out who they can trust. Yet even when they have more information, they can still get it wrong. They can be manipulated, deceived and betrayed.

And that's life. We cannot know everything about other people. We cannot see into their hearts. We cannot predict everything that will happen to us. We cannot eliminate the possibility of being betrayed. The pursuit of exhaustive knowledge is ultimately futile.

EVANGELISE

We don't know everything, but God does. He is the one who knows the beginning from the end, the number of hairs on our heads and the motives of our hearts. Being fully God, Jesus is all-knowing. Although, in his human nature, Jesus experienced genuine human limitations, the extent of his divine knowledge was concealed. In the Gospels, glimpses of his supernatural knowledge break through. Jesus' knowledge amazed the people he met – think of Nathanael in John 1. He perceived what people were thinking in their hearts (Mark 2). He knew what was about to happen to him over the Easter weekend (John 13). Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him from the beginning (John 6). It's safe to say that Jesus' knowledge is even a level above that of the producers of The Traitors.

Rather than using his knowledge and power to become the ultimate Traitor, manipulating others and coercively controlling them to serve himself, Jesus uses his knowledge and power to be the ultimate Faithful One. He didn't come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Jesus used his knowledge to love us and die for us, knowing that death itself could not hold him and that he would rise again. He used his knowledge and power for his glory and our good.

Unlike the Traitors, who often betray others (even their fellow traitors) to save themselves, Jesus was betrayed so that he might save us. Unlike the Faithful, whose faithfulness to each other is often fickle and fragile, Jesus will never let us down.

Humbling ourselves and trusting Jesus as the Faithful One means that we don't have to spend our lives striving after more and more knowledge, second-guessing everyone around us or pretending that we have it all together. We can step into the light and be honest about our ignorance, our failures and even our betrayals. Jesus already knows us completely, and yet loves us to the uttermost. He knows my treacherous heart, and yet he has loved me and given himself for me. I can trust him with my life, my future and my deepest secrets, because he is my 'Hundy', the 100% faithful all the time.

To find out more about Jesus, check out this online course: https://321.speaklife.org.uk/course/321