Eomer as an Icon of Faith

            The virtue of faith is essential to the Christian life and “without faith it is impossible to please [God]” (Hebrews 11:6).  But what is this virtue of faith?  Oftentimes, atheists will mock Christians for believing things without a reason, but solely by faith.  Is faith truly believing things without a reason?  Of course not.  Instead, most generally, faith is believing something based on the testimony of another; believing something because someone told it to you.  In this generic sense of natural faith, most of what we know we know by natural faith; most of our knowledge was attained on the testimony of others: teachers, news agencies, etc.  But theological faith, the Christian faith, is believing something based on the testimony of God, believing something because God revealed it to us.  Theological faith is, then, the most certain source of knowledge because God cannot lie or be incorrect; God is most trustworthy and knowledgeable. 

            By faith, we believe things because God told them to us, we believe them because we trust God.  Faith then changes how we live our lives.  Faith transforms us.  In order for our faith to be authentic, we must act according to the knowledge we have gained by it, or else we aren’t fully trusting God.  If we really believe what Christ says, then we will act on it.  Hence “faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17). 

            The trust that Christian faith requires of us is absolute.  This is seen especially by the fact that some of the knowledge that we receive by faith is supernatural knowledge.  God reveals two types of things to us.  First, truths that we could know by natural reason on our own, such as the commandment “thou shall not steal.”  But more importantly, God reveals truths to us that are supernatural.  This means that we could not discover these truths on our own and even once God reveals them to us, we cannot fully comprehend them.  These truths remain mysteries, such as the Trinity.  Thus, Christian faith requires us to dramatically alter our lives based on truths which, by definition, we cannot fully grasp or understand. 

            J.R.R. Tolkien gives us an image of this is the character of Eomer.  In The Lord of the Rings, Eomer makes a bold decision.  When he has become the king of the Rohirrim after the former king, Theoden, died in battle, he agrees to follow Aragorn in an assault on Mordor.  This whole plan is not a serious attempt to defeat Sauron, but a mere distraction to give Frodo, the ring-bearer, more time and opportunity to get to Mount Doom and destroy the ring.  It is a known suicide mission whose whole point is a distraction. 

            Eomer is not the smartest of fellows.  He fully admits that he does not understand what is going on with Frodo, the one ring, nor with their distraction attack.  Yet, he chooses to accompany Aragorn, and lead his army into a suicide battle, based solely on his friendship with Aragorn.  Eomer says:

“As for myself,” said Eomer, “I have little knowledge of these deep matters; but I need it not. This I know, and it is enough, that as my friend Aragorn succoured me and my people, so I will aid him when he calls. I will go” (Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, V.9).

Eomer’s trust in Aragorn, based on their relationship and the good things that Aragorn has done for Eomer, is so great that he is willing to die despite not fully understanding the situation. 

            Our faith in Christ should be this great.  While we cannot fully understand the mysteries of the faith nor God’s plan for us and our lives, we need to be ready to lose everything for Christ, because we trust Him.  In another way, we must be ready to change how we live, to follow Christ’s commandments, even if we do not fully understand them.  It should be enough for us that Christ forbids certain acts of lust.  It is desirable and a good thing for us to seek to understand why Christ forbids certain acts, but we can and should follow Christ’s commands even if we do not fully understand them.   That is a requirement of genuine faith.