Jesus in the Movies
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By Rev. George F. Borghardt III
astor, you just need to realize that this is just fiction. It’s just a movie. It’s just fiction. If you think about it that way, you can enjoy the movie.” Evidently, my body language in the theater betrayed what I was thinking.
“Thank you. I’ll try to remember that.” Being a pastor is fun; you always get to give the nice answer. I straightened up, was more mindful of what my body was communicating, and tried to watch the movie. It wasn’t that the movie was particularly bad. It was that I was having problems suspending disbelief. It wasn’t just fiction; it was anti-historical. I mean, really. Jesus never married Mary Magdalene. He has a bride already: the Church. Now, the movie had the part about Jesus being a man right, but He is also true God. If He’s not God, then I’m lost, because it takes God dying to save me from all my horrific sins. Come to think of it, Jesus seemed to be everywhere this summer. He was on the big screen in movies like The DaVinci Code and The Omen.Then there’s TV. He was on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, and people were talking about Him on morning shows. Jesus was everywhere. But which Jesus did we see? Was He the Jesus who is true God and true man, begotten of His Father before all worlds? Was He the Jesus who is God of God and Light of Light, very God of very God? Was He the Jesus who loved His bride and gave up His life for her that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water and the Word? Or was
He the Jesus portrayed in The DaVinci Code and scrutinized by the History Channel, who was only human, married to a woman, had kids, died, and stayed dead? Does evil get defeated by force as in movies like The Omen? Or does Jesus defeat the devil by dying on a tree? And the big question of the summer: Is the Jesus you saw in the movies and on television the One who rose again from the dead on the third day? That’s the problem with learning about Jesus from movies and the television.You never know who you are going get. Are you going to get the One who was crucified for you or some other Jesus? It can be hard to separate the fact from the fiction, especially when it’s made so entertaining. Nothing generates revenue like a controversy about Jesus. But there is real danger for Christians because fiction isn’t just fiction if it leads you into false belief or despair. Now, you don’t go to the doctor and ask him to fix your car. No, that’s what the mechanic does.You don’t go to the mechanic to get your teeth cleaned; that’s what a dentist does. Each one—mechanic, dentist, and doctor—are all gifts from God. Each job requires specific skills, and those skills have been given to help us. It’s true |that the dentist may be able to tell you about your car and the mechanic may tell you about your teeth. But if you want the straight stuff, you go to the most qualified person who has been provided for you by God for that specific task. The place that the Lord has given for us to learn and hear about the real Jesus is the Church. In the Church, you get the true Jesus through His gifts—the Word preached, read, and delivered in its truth and purity as well as the Sacraments given out rightly (Augsburg Confession, Article VIII). In the Church, the bride of Christ, we receive Jesus
preached into our ears, and we have our sins washed away in Baptism. He even feeds us His body and blood under the bread and wine. Popcorn may taste good, but the body and blood of Christ gives eternal life. The lady who gave me advice as I watched the movie was right. We can look at these things as fiction. But we must also handle this fiction with care and guard our eyes and ears so that we put our trust only in the true and good stuff of Jesus Christ crucified for us. The Word is the test, isn’t it? Does what you hear agree with what was preached to you? Does it agree with what you were taught in the catechism and read in the Scriptures? Are you hearing about the Jesus who died and rose for you, or are you hearing about another Jesus? I realized I was thinking too much and not watching the movie. I had missed a few minutes.The fiction on the screen was now Tom Hanks’ character talking about the Council of Nicaea with actor Ian McKellen who played Gandalf and Magneto. Then the wonderful Christian lady next to me leaned over and commented,“I didn’t know that was how we got the Scriptures.” I whispered back,“Umm, it’s not.This is all fiction.” And because I couldn’t resist, I said with a giant smile,“You just need to realize that this movie is just a movie. It’s just fiction. If you think about it like that, you can enjoy the movie.” She gave me a loving whack on the arm, but we both learned a lesson.That’s the great thing about being a pastor: you get to deliver Jesus all the time, even during a bad movie. Rev. George F. Borghardt III is the assistant/youth pastor at St. Mark Lutheran Church in Conroe,Texas. He is the Internet Services Executive and the southeastern chairman of the For You Higher Things 2007 conference. Check out his blog at http://blog.higherthings.org/borghardt/ or e-mail him at revborghardt@higherthings.org.
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