I suggest a social experiment. Go to apple.com/trailers and browse through the various movie trailers that are availiable there. I am sure that this is a common practice, at least it is for me. Once a week, at least, I stop by the apple website to see the upcoming movies and maybe get a glimpse at some of my highly anticipated films. Most of the time I skip over the previews of films that I have neither heard about nor have any interst in. The last time I was there however, I made a point of clicking on some films that I would usually ignore. After about an hour, I ended up viewing most of all the trailers availiable, even the foreign film ones.
As I watched and went from preview to preview, I must say that it was some what of an emotional rollercoaster. Going back and forth between high budget hollywood action flicks, and independent low budget, german, film festival type trailers. I was moved from the adrenaline of epic fights and jaw breaking booms, to the quiet and subtle flow of contemplation through personal narratives of brokean marrages and relational drama. After that, I was lightened by the antics of Jack Black and Owen Wilson in flagrant comedy. I must say that it was a confetti of pathos that really minced up my own thoughts and imagination. Every different scene brought with it music and changning paces that did what they were designed to do, pull us long.
But then it hit me, something common lay behind every story, every set of images, and every work of art. Every trailer, and indeed every one of the films, was an expression of something human. Each film hinted or painted a picture of reality, either as it truly is, or as it should be.
What it means to be human, what it means to love, what it means be family, what it means to conquer the bad, or what it means to be good, they were all there in the images, in the stories. What it means to be a man, to be a hero, to vanquish evil, was there in the action and in the epic. What it meant to be a woman, to be a mother and wife, was there in drama. The reality of our world, the vast depths of society, and progress were expressed in the sci-fi story.The kinds that pit humanity against an unknown foe from space, as humanity unite in their diversity to battle for their collective survival. In the romance and the romanitc comedy, there were explorations of sexuality and love, and what it meant to have our searching fullfilled by relationship. All of it, all of it, was a giant, diverse, artistic, expression of questions and answers that have never changed or lost their relevancy. All of it was an artisitc congealment of the human heart, with all its desires, miseries, memories, and hopes.
It was all so very human, and in many cases so very sincere. There was a clarity in each expression that did not come from words, but from the common human expereince that thrust itself upon the human heart. It seemed so real and yet at the same time elusive, as if the mere attempt to shackle it down to sentences, propositions and letters, would just muddle it all up and cause it to vanish before your very eyes. The questions and expression themselves were not words. It seemed as though doctrine and dogma, philosophy and analysis could not be of any use for answers, because these things need words to be expressed. How can one answer a wordless question, with a page of answers? It was this reality that finally brought to the surface an answer that would do.
"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God......and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us."
Jesus Christ is the singularly unique and appropriate answer to these wordless expressions and questions. In His life and person, and ultimatly, in His death, He was the very word of God to humanity. The sovereign Lord of all peoples heard the wordless questions of the human heart, and responded with His son, the answer made flesh. In the life and death of Jesus, God answered all of our wordless questions about life, manhood, womanhood, humanity, family, relationship, good, evil, and love, not through dictates of a divine explanation, but through the life of the divine God-man. God stepped into our common humanity, so that through it, He could speak to the common heart of humanity.
You see, God did not offer the world explanations and decrees, instead of art and heart, and He did not offer imgagination and artistic expression instead of answers and absolute truth. God offered all answers, truth, and explanations, through the imagination of His own mind in the beauty and artistry of the image of Himself, in face of Jesus Christ. He offered neither dogmatic dictation nor emotional relativity; He offered Himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment