Movie Moments

            While I spent the last four months writing about books I still managed to watch some movies. And since there’s no way to catch up on pop culture because there’s always something new out the next day, week or month, I thought I’d share with you a kind of overview of movie moments—scenes or sentences I encountered in movies over the last several months that stuck out as moments of God speaking Christian truth through the world.

The Important Memory

            I’m not much for romantic comedies, but every so often I indulge. The scene that struck me from A Good Year involves the Russell Crowe character choosing to impress his love interest at her overcrowded restaurant by donning an apron and helping out as a waiter. What mattered was a memory it brought back, a precious memory I might have otherwise lost: on a Sunday after church while visiting my wife’s family and friends in Southeast Texas, we all went to the local pizza place. There were about twenty of us. Only one employee was working—everyone else had called in sick—and it was his job to stock the buffet and serve everyone in the restaurant. Our group was the first to arrive in what was sure to be a post-church lunch rush. Once she realized there was a problem, my wonderful wife took over: she got us all drinks, went back to wrap silverware in napkins and place them at our tables, and then told the lone pizza guy we were going to help out. Within minutes most of us had been recruited to set out silverware for the entire restaurant, seat patrons as they came walking in for lunch, and serve drinks. We even helped bus tables and do dishes. Because one person decided to act out of love rather than complain, others followed and patrons and personnel alike witnessed the love of Christ. When movies remind us of something good that’s happened in our lives, they do a godly thing. I remembered to be proud of my wife for her leadership and love.

The Christ Figure

            If you saw Bridge to Terabithia you may have been disappointed by the misleading trailers. It was more than a fantasy movie and far from something small children would delight in. But it was a very good movie with strong messages about the importance of courage, imagination, and faith. My 14 year old daughter and I took a group of college students to see the movie and discuss it at dinner afterwards. Before we ever got to dinner, though, my Alli expressed her dislike for the movie.

            “What do you mean?” I asked. “What didn’t you like about it?”

            She was upset, even angry at the fact that the main character, the one truly good person in the entire movie, died. That sort of thing isn’t supposed to happen. What a wonderful opportunity I suddenly had thanks to this movie.

            I explained, “She’s a Christ figure, Al, a wonderful person who dies to save
others. The reason you’re so upset is because she was so very good and innocent and yet died. But that’s exactly what Christ did for us. You’re feeling the exact kind of outrage you ought to be feeling.”

            And then she understood why it happened in the story the way it did. And she was pleased, deciding the movie’s message was worth the pain it caused. In a single moment, my daughter learned a gospel lesson and improved her ability to think about movies more deeply. That was a good experience.

The Great Commission

            The last moment on my list comes from a film called Déjà vu. A man travels into the past to change the present and save human lives. The key line that’s about to follow will not have the power for you that it did for me if you haven’t seen the movie, but let me try to paint the picture: you are desperate to save a person’s life. You have come back in time to do so. But that person doesn’t know who you are and furthermore thinks you might be the person who has kidnapped and beaten her. If she doesn’t listen to you and do what you say, she’ll die, but you can only explain the truth to her by including the fact that you’ve traveled back in time to save her. And so you say to her something like, “If you had to tell someone the most important thing they could ever hear but were sure they wouldn’t believe you, what would you do?” And she answers, “I’d still try.” And then I was overwhelmed by the importance of the Gospel of Christ in a whole new way. You and I believe nothing less than this: that we have a story to tell to the world that is the most important thing they could ever hear, but often we are afraid to tell it because we are sure they won’t believe us. The message of the movie is nothing less than the message of the Great Commission: we’ve still got to try. If we tell them and they don’t believe us, they’ll die—we’ve got to do whatever we can to save them. But if we don’t even bother to tell them, they’ll never have a chance. None at all.

            God speaks to us in strange ways and unusual places. Have you been listening?