Movie Bible Study: Take Shelter

It's a little scene, perhaps quite inconsequential to many. Nevertheless, if we bring our bags into the screening, if we dare to read between the lines our own apocalyptic timepieces, then maybe, just maybe, the small, intimate scene illuminates the devastation that is to follow.

We have Curtis as our main protagonist. He is short on speech, certainly midwestern in his various customs, and perhaps a bit on edge, but we see the affection he has for his wife and child and take him for what he is; a decent human being. The question of 'how decent?' is one that he and us both will continue to dialogue about throughout the rest of the film. But for now, for tonight, for this scene unfolding, Curtis sits in his car dropping off his colleague and best friend, Dewart.

They arrive in front of Dewart's house. This is the congenial pause where life speculations and sharings occur; the last moment before departure.

Dewart looks consterned. He pauses briefly, shakes his head, and then mentions the strangest thing. He tells Curtis that he and his wife are considering having a threesome with some large-o heifer from Columbus. Curtis asks how large. Dewart responds through laughing teeth, something like 250 pounds. Large. The two share an awkward chuckle before Curtis answers humbly from his perspective that he can't imagine that he and his wife would ever get into that type of thing.

Nodding solemnly, Dewart becomes deeply introspective before offering a telling praise:

You've got a good life, Curtis. I think that's the best compliment you can give a man; take a look at his life and say, 'That's good'.

How telling indeed. Good men don't need threesomes -- that seems to be the jist of Dewart's words. Throw that back at Dewart and the only answer is that Dewart sees his own li e as something less than good. Less than good = threesome needed.

Once upon a time God formed man out of the dust of the earth and said that it was,  

Very good. 

 And then things changed. Things changed greatly. Very good became something less. 

The man who was called by God 'the Son of Man' was taken up by God in a vision to Jerusalem. God said to him then, 

Son of Man, do you see what they are doing?

And then God showed Ezekiel what this group of 'they' were doing. 

And he (God) brought me to the entrance of the court (of the temple), and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. Then he said to me, "Son of Man, dig in the wall." So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. And he said to me, "Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here." So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel... Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, 'The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.'"

After that night, nightmares of ever worsening effect haunt Curtis. These dreams tend to be about extreme weather and the madness of the people caught in it. It bothers Curtis greatly. 

Wanting to be wise, yearning to not alienate and abandon his family, Curtis looks into the possibility that he is beginning to suffer from psychoses. He doesn't trust himself. This, of course, over the span of weeks, only raises his paranoia. What do you do amidst torment when you can't even trust yourself? Who do you turn to?

Take Shelter offers no omniscient third person voice. We get only the occurrences as according to Curtis. Ezekiel the prophet, on the other hand, is burdened with God's perspective. Multiple times in the book God gives him a warning as to what will happen if he does not heed God's word. God commands him to pass on his oncoming judgment. He even commands our man Ezek to eat a scroll as a symbol of his responsibility, so that Ezekiel would know with all assurance that he carries God's words in him. From him must unspool the coming judgment. He may not stay silent.

Curtis is not one to speak. He resists, for as long as he can muster, to keep the recent visions in his mind from even his wife, only relenting when his dreams cannot remain hidden. He spasms and bleeds from his mouth while asleep. Such horrors he knows cannot be hidden eternal. But what of the people? The plague in his mind remains: 'what if I'm right?' More and more he suspects that he is. Curtis acts on it. He builds a bunker for his family. He will protect them. Of this he is certain. 

But what of the people? 

Who will save the people? Who will save the others?

Long ago the world was judged with a flood, but God salvaged Noah and his families. 

Long ago Sodom and Gomorrah were burned into annihilation for their deeds, but Lot and his family were set free from that tragedy.

Long ago a Spirit came to execute first born males, but God kept his chosen safe from that desolation.

And now a storm is coming. 

Who will be saved?

After being pushed and pushed, Curtis, at a Club banquet, finally lets his tongue be unleashed:

You think I'm crazy? Well, listen up, there's a storm coming like nothing you've ever seen, and not a one of you is prepared for it. 

The show Curtis puts on is intense beyond description. His words hang somewhere between hysteria and rage. 

True prophecy comes from a place of knowing.

Knowing can be a violent affair. 

Again and again Ezekiel vainly pleads with the nation to listen to the scroll coming from within him. 

 

They don't listen. 

More signs and wonders are necessary. In chapter 24, Ezekiel, the chosen prophet, is used by God yet again, to show the people; to show them what is coming. 

The world of the LORD came to me: "Son of Man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you..." So I spoke to the people in the morning, and at evening my wife died... And the people said to me, "Will you not tell us what these things mean for us...?" And I said to them, "Thus says the Lord God; "Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and your sons and daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword... and you shall rot away in your iniquities... thus shall Ezekiel be a sign to you."

God comforts Ezekiel only in saying, 

You will be a sign to them, and they will know that I am the Lord.

Does Curtis suffer as a prophet? As a one to bear foreknowledge as a sign to the people?

Perhaps.

Are we then, these Christian men and women, the prophets of our day? Are we the signs and wonders for those around us? Do we not believe in hell? Do we not perceive where the ends of our friends and family will be?

If we are the Noahs, the Lots, and the Ezekiels, do we not also carry the burden of proclamation? 

YES.

But, though there is pain in the sacrifice, though there are undoubtedly stories that absolutely end in tragedy, though there is blood --- there is always a Savior... a man in linen. And thankfully, he is not us.

Ezekiel was the prophet for Judah, indeed. But he was never assigned to be their savior. No, that role was for another. 

Hear the Word of the Lord Ezekiel 9:3-6:

Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested on the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing case at he waist. And the Lord said to him, "Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark."

Come and see -- your friends and community around you are practicing injustice. 

Look closely and you will see it -- they know they are something less than good.

 But fear not, we are neither judge nor jury.
We do not mark foreheads.

That role belongs to another.

And behold, the man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, "I have done as you commanded me." Ezekiel 9:11

Movie Bible Study: Amadeus

Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. Philippians 4:11

About a year ago, I was chatting about the idea of shooting a short horror film with my Slovenian neighbors. We came together to collectively brainstorm the question; what scares people? I posed the question in a more personal context, "What are Slovenians fearful of?" Without blinking, without hesitation, the response came. "Ljubosumje." Jealousy.

It is wise to be afraid of an infiltration of jealousy. It pollutes, and it does so horribly and immeasurably.

Galatians chapter 5 is known for containing what is commonly referred to as 'The Fruit of the Spirit', those qualities which the soul made alive by Christ executes. Right before that moment in Paul's letter to the churches of Galatia, he writes, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these of which I forewarn you... And here's the rub! ...just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:16-21

What does Paul mean? Do these specific sins overbear God's mercy? No. No they do not. But they are treacherous sins, for they lead to paths of misery. One is not simply jealous. One becomes consumed with jealousy. It seethes through the individual. One becomes indwelt with its abundance. Then, I ask you, where can the Spirit be, if your heart is already filled with this foreign filth? Jealousy fills us. To the brim. There is no room for God's Spirit where jealousy claims a home.

The letter written by James doesn't make jealousy sound cozy either: But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing. James 3:14-16

Remember the first murderer. Remember Cain. What drove him to kill his brother? Jealousy. Even before he committed the deed, God warned him, saying, Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it. Genesis 4:6-7 Jealousy is an old villain. Perhaps the oldest...

Was it not a sting of jealousy that led Satan to commit his will to opposition? He desired to be himself God. He thought himself more worthy than God himself. This is his great undoing.

Hate jealousy! You must. We cannot let it crouch in. We must overcome it. We must rule over that evil.

Remember also that it was through jealousy that Joseph's brothers sought to kill him.

Jealousy is not a dormant sin. It leads to action. Awful action. And the soul reaps its reward.

An explicitly pungent odor of jealousy is on display through the lens of Antonio Salieri, our dreadful protagonist of Amadeus. As he recalls his story through the movie, we are given a valuable insight into the destructive cause and pathway of jealousy.

*Note: Amadeus is much more complex and thrilling than being a mere symposium for discussions on jealousy. In using this film, I am simplifying the film's complex movements and narrative, so that I can better explore jealousy in action.


Let us proceed.

Salieri was a pious man. He prayed prayers to God. He stayed clear of lusts of the flesh. He did what he could to steer towards his own goal. He wanted, above all else, to make glorious music that would in return cause his name to be heard forever. Even here, before there was a creature to envy, Salieri's intentions are slightly warped. To live for gain is foolishness. We must live for Christ alone. In this way we can overcome the attacks of sinful thoughts and ways.

But why! Why would God chose an obscene child to be his instrument? It was not to be believed. This piece had to be an accident; it had to be. It better be.

Mozart comes to town. When at first Salieri sees the man, he is dismayed. Mozart is a fiend of a man -- and yet, his music is divine. Salieri cannot believe it. Jealousy begins in him from this moment.

All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing, and then made me mute. Why? Tell me that. If He didn't want me to praise Him with music, why implant the desire? Like a lust in my body, and then deny me the talent!

Now comes the rationalizing. Salieri convinces himself that he is more worthy of good things than Mozart. What is meant as a gift from God (Mozart's ability to harvest marvelous melodies) is viewed as a form of injustice in the mind of Salieri.

At that moment I knew. He'd had her. The creature had had my darling girl. It was incomprehensible. What was God up to? Was it possible I was being tested? Was God expecting me to offer forgiveness in the face of every offense, no matter how painful? It's very possible. But why him? Why choose Mozart to teach me lessons in humility? My heart was filling up with such hatred for that little man. For the first time in my life I began to know really violent thoughts. Everyday, sometimes for hours I would pray, 'Lord, please, send him away. Back to Salzburg. For his sake, as well as mine.'

The storm in his mind is coming. The envy/jealousy has taken a stern root within Salieri's heart. It won't go silently. Already it is leading him to think pernicious and destructive thoughts. These thoughts will not stay as mere inventions of the mind. They will seek out action.

There is no God of mercy, Father, just a God of torture.

Why how can Salieri say this? How can he come to such a conclusion. Mozart's musical ability is profound, and yet he is a smutty little figure of a character. So what? What does that have to do with Salieri? We as human creatures are prone to compare. And so in comparing, Salieri damns God, because God chooses to give what He desires to Mozart. Remember Jesus' parable of the workers who got paid equal wages. Many workers worked all day, some worked part of the day, and a few worked only an hour, yet they all are paid the same. The workers become furious; When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, "These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day." But he answered and said to one of them, "Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?" Matthew 20:11-14

I prayed as I had never prayed before. 'Dear God, enter me now. Fill me with one piece of true music. One piece with Your breath in it, so I know that You love me. Show me one sign of Your favor, and I will show mine to Mozart. I will get him the royal position. Enter me, please. Please.

How can God enter Him? There is no room in Salieri's soul. Salieri makes the grave error of praying not for healing, not for the removal of his jealousy, not for grace --- rather, he prays for the destruction of one of God's good gifts to the world.

From now on, we are enemies, You and I. Because You choose for Your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy, and give me for reward only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block you. I swear it. I will hinder and harm Your creature on earth as far as I am able. 

Through the wretched game of comparison, Salieri has made a firmament for himself. He has made a pact, so that he can move forward without intentional hypocrisy. He wants his own way, and the only way to get that is by deciding that God is unjust. An unjust God does not deserve service, but rather, an adversary. Salieri's jealous thoughts have manifested into jealous conclusions. A pact built on envy. So be it. What follows is inevitable from here on out.

Go on. Mock me. Laugh! That was not Mozart laughing, Father, that was God. That was God laughing at me through that, though that obscene giggle. Go on senor, laugh, laugh. Show my mediocrity for all to see. One day I will laugh at you. Before I leave this earth, I will laugh at you.

Salieri, after coming forward against God and Mozart, keeps losing battles. At a party, Mozart mocks Salieri's music. It is true, Salieri is no Mozart. He is not a worthy adversary. He never had a chance. Neither did Satan. Yet, the inequality does not bring Salieri to a place of humility. Rather, his pride is bloated. He begins to connive to erect a plot to undermine Mozart's beauty. He must twist God's gift. Salieri will take something marvelous, and seduce it to something that honors only Salieri. 

I heard the music of true forgiveness filling the theater, conferring on all who sat there perfect absolution. God was singing through this little man. To all the world. Unstoppable. Making my defeat more bitter with every passing bar.

In this remarkable scene, Salieri is privileged to hear Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. He hears the immeasurable beauty of forgiveness, and tastes it as poison. That which is good is now rotten. The world over is ruined for Salieri. He can only take pleasure in dark things now.

And now; the madness began in me. The madness of a man splitting in half... I began to see a way, a terrible way, I could finally pry up over God. 

It never ends. There will be no happiness. There may be victory, but there will be no pleasure in it.

Imagine it. The Cathedral, all vienna sitting there. His coffin, Mozart's little coffin in the middle. And then, in that silence; music. A divine music bursts out over them all; a great mass of death, "Requiem Mass for Wolfgang Mozart, composed by his devouted friend Antonio Salieri. Oh, what sublimity! What Depth! What passion in the music! Salieri has been touched by God at last. And God forced to listen! Powerless to stop it! I for once, in the end, laughing at Him!

Remember: Friend, I am doing you no wrong...

Even after the grumbling and envy, the landowner still called the worker 'Friend'. Turn back Salieri. Why do you seek to crucify that which is good? Take what you have and go! Please.  

The jealous pact of Salieri's heart has now moved into action.

Mozart's last words. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart says to Antonio Salieri on his deathbed: Forgive me.

Remember: And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it. The text goes on, Cain told Abel his brother. And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Genesis 4:7-8 Cain talked to Abel before he killed him. I wonder, what exactly did he say? For Salieri and Mozart, our wicked protagonist takes a seducing role. He plays the part of best friend. As Mozart is dying, he accompanies the lad, pretending to care for his soul, even though it is Salieri who has in fact murdered Wolfgang. Mozart is played the fool. For Salieri, this final bout is another method of obtaining power and 'justice'. Sin perverts all things, and in this case, Salieri's jealous mind has contorted justice to mean something awful -- to mean the martyrdom of a great artist for the fury of a weaker mind. 

Your merciful God, He destroyed His own beloved rather than let a mediocrity share in the smallest part of His glory. He killed Mozart, and kept me alive to torture! Thirty-two years of torture! Thirty-two years of slowly watching myself become extinct. My music growing fainter; all the time fainter, until no one plays it at all. But his! 

Salieri won. He defeated Mozart. Mozart died broke, unappreciated, and buried in an mass grave. Even in victory, Salieri has found failure. There is no end to jealousy. It goes on and on.

I will speak for you, Father. I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint. Mediocrity is everywhere. I absolve you. I absolve you. I absolve. I absolve you. I absolve you all.

The heartcrushing end of the film brings us a man who now eagerly spreads the gospel of jealousy. Is it not sickening?

Remember: ...just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. In conclusion, let us allow Paul to finish his thought; But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Galatians 5:21-24

Movie Bible Study: Wise Blood

Then Jesus beholding him, loved him, and said unto him, "One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me." And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for he had great possessions.

            Matthew 10:21-22

No man with a good car needs to be justified!

            Wise Blood,  directed by John Huston

Is any man free from hypocrisy?  Those of us speaking from within the Christian tradition, I suppose never are.  We are all hypocrites. We forsake that which we claim to believe in daily with little ways of sin staining our clothes. Nevertheless, our mission is to call others to cleanliness via the same route we all have individually walked through. Hypocrisy is a disease that hasn’t quite been erased from among us. It is then with some measure of understanding that we can relate to Hazel Motes. He appears to be a man, in the words of Flannery O’Connor, “haunted by Christ” rather than led by him. Hazel sees the hypocrisy gushing out of a town that just isn’t nice to one another, yet claim eternal salvation for their own. Hazel alone stands redeemed in that dastardly town, for you see, he’s the only one not dirtied by hypocrisy.  He needs no redemption.

           

Hazel Motes is a seeker.  He seeks truth via his “Church of Christ without Christ” that he feels so darn compelled to launch. He longs to make disciples of the nation by way of righteous indignation. His tone is harsh, his car is busted, and he has no reason to be kind to the nomadic fools of the street. He worships the hallowed ground of sensible tell-it-like-it-is-ity. These characteristics mix in such a bizarre way that we too, the viewers, are inclined to follow this man, this one, Mr. Hazel Motes. Perhaps we even desire to see him succeed. What would that look like anyway?  If ever the Church Without Christ prospers, then perhaps we’d get to find out what a world without hypocrisy really looks like. 

            

There is a deep innocence to Hazel’s demeanor. When confronted with a man who wishes to brand Hazel’s car-standing prophet image an avenue to quick cash, Hazel idealistically refuses such ventures, pouting that the truth is not worth a dollar – but that it must always remain free. His hopeless romance with the truth, however, is confronted every time he hops in his car, and demands that it work today by sheer will power. He refuses to accept the very basic truth that his car is a piece of crap.

Hazel’s apple box sermons always focus on hating Jesus. We ask ourselves, 'Hazel, man, where's the love?' Flashbacks of his youth show us the tent revivals that he had to endure while onstage listening to the hellish brimstone of his grandfather. In one scene, the small Hazel is seen frozen to his seat whilst listening to the hellfire of his grandfather, a stream of urine running down his pant leg. So then we can fathom two reasons for Hazel Motes’ faith in unbelief: the hypocrisy of those who believe, and the overcoming fear of such a place as hell, inspired by the end of days yelps from his living ancestor. 

           

Because Hazel’s position is so ardently against Christ himself, because he moves into the same building as a blind preacher he met on the street, and because Hazel said he’s looking for a new Christ that doesn’t waste his blood – because of all these things, our tendency is to think that either Christ isn’t done with Hazel, or Hazel’s not yet done with Christ. He’s too obsessed with Jesus to suspect anything otherwise.

Through the course of a few short actions, Hazel’s reasons for his unbelief come tumbling down.  Hypocrisy of the people is clearly denoted nothing more than a mere ad hominem attack on God. It doesn’t hold any water. Perhaps this is symbolically played out as Hazel’s car’s radiator itself cannot hold any water. It’s literally wholly.

The hard truth: all men sin. Eventually, Hazel Motes, the presumed son of innocence itself, the straight-and-narrow seeker of truth, is found to be a hypocrite himself. All men fail. All men are hypocrites. Hazel forsakes reason in order to maintain his conviction that he purchased a decent car.

Then Hazel does the really bad deed. He kills a man. This sin will find him out. His sin forces Hazel to acquire a taste for the truth of Hell. Hell’s reality stands as a witness to the blackness of every man’s soul. With this, Hazel becomes a prophet of desperate repentance.

Hazel finds for himself a grotesque redemption. In thinking of this, let us remember that Hazel Motes is no learned man.  He is an innocent child, and acts accordingly. Like a newborn, he’s just encountered truth for the first time, and his response may not be completely mature. So although we may find his redemption as something uninspiring, what we may admire in Mr. Hazel Motes is that he never waivered in his desire to follow his beliefs whole-heartedly.  Do you not think our Father doesn’t bestow grace on such men? Surely, surely...

            

------------------------

Lord, lead us to action like the character Hazel Motes, that we would have a passion to seek out and eviscerate the hypocrisy in our lives. 

Lord, you know all things, take away my hypocrisy. Cause me to follow you with all my passion, with all my wit, and with all my will.

"I'm gonna do some things that I ain't never done before."

Hazel Motes, Wise Blood

Movie Bible Study: The Devils

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'  Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!
Matthew 7:21-23

Most religions believe that by crying, "Lord, Lord!" often enough, they can contrive to enter the kingdom of heaven. A flock of trained parrots could just as readily cry the same thing with just as little chance of success.

            The Devils 

...with as little chance of success.  Friends, let us take the words of Jesus Christ seriously.  There exist those among us who consider themselves of God's flock, but their names are not penned in the Book of Life.  They will die to find damnation.

Charge them with crime upon crime;

do not let them share in your salvation.

May they be blotted out of the book of life

and not be listed with the righteous.

I am in pain and distress;

may your salvation, O God, protect me.

Psalm 69:27-29

Ken Russell's The Devils, as a film is almost entirely concerned with sexual liberation.  Almost.  The controlled madness of the events that take place assure us that as long as we love openly and honestly, we will not suffer the consequences of our unrequited lusts.  For this reason, we are not given even one nun in the film that is not overwhelmed by frenetic tyranny.  The exorcists and politicians masquerading as Fathers, Priests and Cardinals, do not offer anything but pervasive perversion.  This theme of sexuality, as filtered through the lens of 1971 almost overcomes immensely impacting thoughts hiding behind the outrageously ignoble acts of devilry and fornication.  Almost. 

Russell gifts the audience with one lone hero.  This lonely knight in shining armor is a priest who has a penchant for at first sex, and by grace, begins to know love.  His name is Father Urbain Grandier.  He is our flawed hero.  His life will express just how sinful we men can be and still be regarded as righteous by our Heavenly Father.  Grandier's character arc is one in which the Lord bestows upon him much grace in such a way that his eyes become illuminated to the wretchedness that pervades the city he is supposed to be mentoring.  

Despite its content, The Devils survives to be a film containing many blasphemies without itself being blasphemous.  Such a feat is not easily accomplished for a flick that includes masturbating nuns, excessive scenes of torture, legions of decaying dead, and maniacally crowds crowing clammering only for ever greater madness.  As an audience, we have our daring knight, Father Grandier to lead lead us through the narrow road to salvation.

We too, in this life, have the Holy Spirit of promise to lead us.  We must be careful to listen.  We must not be deceived by the surrounding crowds.

Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, 

unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.  

But encourage one another day after day, 

as long as it is still called, "Today," 

so that none of you will be hardened 

by the deceitfulness of sin. 

Hebrews 3:12-14

             

Whether Ken Russell's intent was present in the primal question of the film’s story is unimportant, as the central question exists regardless of intent: Do we dwell in a world in which God has been destroyed, or is His presence enduring?  With a title like The Devils and a third act that emboldens the enemies of our protagonist, it would appear that the answer is that God is dead, never existed, or has been overcome by the devils of the world.  Appearances are deceptive.

Our leader, Urbain Grandier, by story's end, chooses to take a stand against the abominations he has witnessed in his own town.  It is too late.  The worldly rulers burn him for his (barely) steadfast conviction.  

            

And so burn, he does.  It is no accident that Grandier alludes to Matthew 7 whilst he dies strapped to the stake.  His eyes glare at the town’s cackling – they know not the meaning of the Lord’s voice when they hear it.  Surely in that moment, beyond the physical pain there is a degree of emotional torment as well.  He was the religious leader of this town, and he taught them nothing of the Lord’s character.  And so they act like hyenas, rejoicing in his devastation.  This completes Grandier’s arc, as his burning perhaps pays penance in this life not for his promiscuity, but for the lives he never cared to bring humbly to God in prayer.   

Therefore, let us fear if, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you may seem to come short of it.  For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

Hebrews 4:1-2

God is not dead.  He is not a creation of man, yet, you will not find him in the town of Loudun.  The devils have banned Him, and in their lustful bliss, make communion with the twisting of virtue.  Grandier, a man who goes to visit his Lord by film’s end, is a tragically flawed hero.  At his trial an accusation that he is Satan’s servant, he replies, Call me vain and proud, the greatest sinner ever to walk God's earth, but Satan's boy I could never be. I haven't the humility.  Sadly, it was this vanity and pride that kept the town's only true priest from calling back the town's soul to righteousness when there was still the murmur of hope for salvation.

Our salvation is sealed not by our acts of goodness, but by the shed blood of Jesus Christ, our pure and holy sacrifice for our sins.  We need only to accept this gift of grace to enter into His rest.  All we do is accept.  And yet, with that acceptance, we become disciples of the Living God.  We act therefore in obedience, and commit our lives to His glory.  There is no half-assing Christianity.  You're in the Book, or you ain't.

The Devils cannot help but become a cautionary tale.  Be humble always, and be obedient, understanding that the true consequences of following the Lord may be great.  Do this, lest you call His name at judgment day only to find that He abhors the sight of your filth, for He never knew you.

  

He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.  

Revelation 3:5

Movie Bible Study: The Sacrifice

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. 
John 1:1

In the beginning was the Word… why is that, Papa?

            The Sacrifice

A young son’s words at the end of Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice are hard to decipher, but reflect a well-choreographed ballad between Father and Son and essence and material.  Tarkovsky’s world bears much resemblance to our own.  People exist, things exist, art exist, and so does evil.  Evil bears with it calamity of all sorts, including all the many plebian inconveniences and accidents of life.  

This world, 

as depicted
           by Andrei Tarkovsky, 

           is visually splendid, 

                     as it reflects the omnipotent artistry 

                                                                      of its Creator, 

                     but narratively murky, 

                                as it’s characters have imbibed themselves 

                                                   with sinful reasoning.

Jesus is the Word, and the Word is God.  Before the foundations of the world, this was so.  The Sacrifice paints a lens in which the created material world is made to give way to, to bow down before,  that immense awe-full presence of the Divine Origin. 

The narrative set-up is this: a man, upon hearing the news that the end of the world is coming by means of a global war, prays to God that God would save the man's family, specifically his son.  As a form of payment for this mercy, our protagonist promises that he’ll give up his family.  He'll release them from himself.  What does this mean?  We, the audience, are kept in the dark until the final scene as to how this man will practically fulfill his promise.  

The morning after the solemn prayer, sure enough, mercy has been bestowed.  The global war has been eradicated.  The family is saved.  Most importantly, the son is saved.  Now we must watch this man rid himself of his family.  What follows is an observation of a process of extraction.   

By journey's end we've been made witness to a means of salvation.  We are shown a deep allegory of the sacrifice that our Lord made for us.  We feel the cost of God's grace.  Jesus paid a wretched price for us.

I and the Father are One.

John 10:30

The Sacrifice can certainly be viewed as a form of horror film.   

A monstrous thing occurs in the form of apocalyptic war.  We watch solemnly the response of people to this dreadful news.  If you were told the world was ending today, how would you respond?  

Tarkovsky's people are instantly drawn to the very precipice of insanity. Fear and regret march prominently in their spirits as the trumpet sounds.  They all speak of regrets; they are not living the lives they should have lived.  Now they mourn death for ridding them of the ability to change it all.  With no future left, all that remains is the past; the regretful past. The sacrifice, in the end, frees everyone not so much from the physical act of death, but rather, delivers them from a mental and emotional hell.   

Those saved have become free to re-craft their lives the way they now desire.  

Besides the obvious salvific allegory that Tarkovsky animates, he is also casting a scornful eye on our reliance on the stuff of life.  Often did Jesus talk about the possessions of this life being a stumbling block to salvation.  Tarkovsky insinuates in his film that everything, from material possessions to inter-relationships, all of it; it all separates us from the great Unmoved One.  Read John chapter one.  It is timeless.  God is the Word.  God is Light.  And God is Jesus Christ.  The whole history of life is chiseled down to this simple story.  Our eyes should stay ever focused on the Divine.

Tarkovsky leads us to the conviction that just by being in the world we are training our souls to focus on the materials of this world, rather than the stuff of God.  Has he a point?  Is the rhythm of our lives slowly seeping us into perilous customs of sin?  Is the mystery of God’s transcendence hidden somewhere deep between the mildew of the matter of this earth?  Dwell on this: what creates a wedge between you and perfect faith?

Let us remain diligent to seek God in silence and space.  Have you not yet found sufficient proof that all things can be addicted?  All things can be perverted.  This is our disease; we twist goodness into silly blather.  We take in the beauty of the world and shit it out, a bastard deconstruction of God made it.  The world was made good, so we should not simply become Luddites and Ascetics.  Rather, let us be diligent to seek the Word above all else, and let all us come then to the table of the world, seeing it only as a refraction of that good Light.

God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’"

Exodus 3:14

Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."

John 8:58

How glorious it is that our God is the Word.  He is Truth, and we are made in His image.  He is the Word, yet no words can describe Him justly.  Perhaps John introduced the Son in His gospel by calling Him the Word because by doing so, John illustrates how indefinable God is.  As soon as one tries, you use Words to do so.  So you’ve already undone your progress by trying to define Him by using Himself.  
          

How great is Our God that He bears us in His likeness, yet we cannot begin to fathom His being.  How great is He that He is in the breath of all that begins to describe Him.  Praise God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit today for being as big as He is, and yet still He chooses to dwell with us.  My Emmanuel, thank you.