Like everyone else, I enjoyed the story of Robin Hood. I watched several movies about him, including the famous Errol Flynn version. This version was the classic tale of the swash buckling bowman merrily living in the forest robbing rich noble men as they passed through. I watched as he justified his thievery by giving money to the poor and thwarting the evil Prince John and his man the Sheriff of Nottingham. It all sounds so romantic! In the end, Prince John is deposed and Robin Hood gets the Sheriff of Nottingham’s “wife to be” who, of course, does not want to marry the Sheriff.
The story has a problem. The bible says in Exodus 20:15: “You shall not steal.”
I have always thought that the 10 commandments are Gods way of defining sins that are not conditional. In the rest of the law, sin is conditional. For example in Exodus 20:
12“He who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death. 13“But if he did not lie in wait for him, but God let him fall into his hand, then I will appoint you a place to which he may flee.
Interestingly, no such conditions exist in the case of theft. It is ALWAYS wrong. In the case of striking a man, it may not be wrong if the man did not “lie in wait”. So in the case of striking a man, it is NOT always wrong.
So what is wrong with the story of Robin Hood? Robin Hood is a thief. He is breaking a commandment that is ALWAYS wrong! So, why does it sound like Robin Hood is a good guy? The short answer is, the story was written that way.
According to the story, Robin Hood justified stealing from the Prince John’s noblemen because they were overtaxing the peasants and keeping the money for themselves. They justified the tax by claiming to be saving up for King Richard’s ransom. But, instead of paying the ransom, they kept the money.
The problem is that few people really act like the characters in this story. Maybe Prince John really was saving up for King Richard’s ransom, but was taking his time and skimming a little off the top. Robin Hood may not have really enjoyed living in the forest penniless, so he assumed that Prince John wasn’t really saving up for the ransom and used this assumption as justification to rob his nobles, and was skimming off the top for a few luxuries to make their forest home more comfortable. Maybe Maid Marian really did want to marry the Sheriff, but when she saw the handsome Robin Hood, she was willing to break her engagement to get the more exciting man. This is how REAL people act, but really isn’t quite as exciting as the original story.
The problem? People like the story because it justifies sin. From John 3:19:
“This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil”
The story of Robin Hood is loved because it allows us to hide in the darkness committing sins, thinking no one sees us. But, GOD sees all and no one will escape judgment. It is perhaps the first of many stories designed to justify all the sins described in the 10 commandments. Next time you go see a movie, notice when the story justifies sin. You will be surprised to discover that almost all movies do this.
