“You Wanna Get Nuts?” – Jeremiah, Batman, and Hope in a Hopeless World

There’s a famous scene in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989). The Joker bursts into Bruce Wayne’s home, threatens his guests, and Bruce suddenly loses his calm exterior. He grabs a poker, smashes a vase, and shouts: “You wanna get nuts? Come on — let’s get nuts!” It’s wild, irrational, out of character — but it’s his way of standing up in the face of chaos.

Ever feel like that when you look at the news? Like the only sane reaction to the madness is to go a bit mad yourself?

That’s where we find Jeremiah in chapter 32. The prophet is locked up, Jerusalem is under siege, Babylon’s armies are at the gate, and destruction is guaranteed. It’s the darkest moment of his career. Nobody ever accused Jeremiah of sugar-coating the truth — his whole ministry was one long warning siren.

And what does he do? He buys a field. Not a cheap plot in the suburbs, not a holiday home by the sea, but land in a warzone. It’s like buying a prime penthouse flat in the middle of the Blitz. Utterly nuts.

But that’s the point. It isn’t a savvy investment strategy; it’s a prophetic act. Jeremiah is saying: “Yes, things are terrible. Yes, the city will fall. But God is not done with his people. Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land” (Jeremiah 32:15). In other words: there is hope beyond the rubble.

Now, it’s easy to confuse this kind of hope with a political rally or mass protest. Only a couple of weeks ago, we saw the Unite the Kingdom march in London, with around 110,000 people filling the streets, some waving Christian banners. It looked impressive, but it left me uneasy. Because hope in the Bible isn’t about swelling crowds or flexing political muscle. That kind of spectacle can easily co-opt the language of faith while missing its heart.

Jeremiah’s act wasn’t about popularity. It wasn’t about a crowd. It was one man, locked in a prison cell, putting his money where his mouth was because he trusted God’s promise of restoration.

And that’s where Batman’s line circles back. Sometimes, the most “nuts” thing you can do in a broken world is not despair, not rage, not throw your lot in with the loudest mob — but to trust God’s future, and live like it’s already on its way.

That’s what the cross and resurrection show us. On Good Friday, hope looked dead and buried. But Easter morning blew open the grave. What looked like foolishness was the wisdom of God.

So maybe the question is this: when the world is falling apart, what’s our “nuts” move? For Jeremiah, it was buying a field. For us, maybe it’s worshipping, praying, and celebrating God’s hope in a way that makes no sense if you only look around at the headlines.

Because in Christ, the future is already breaking in — and that is the hope worth going nuts for.