The other week I watched a French film called ‘La Petit Jerusalem’ about an Orthodox Jewish girl. It wasn’t brilliant – don’t rush out – but it was interesting because the main character, Laura, was seriously into philosophy, particularly Kant. She tried to live a life of thought to rise above passion and tradition. For example, she emulated Kant’s rigid regime of taking a walk at exactly the same time every day to beat her body and will into submission.

Anyway, the point to all this is it got me thinking about whether freedom comes by living within the rules or by breaking the rules. It’s a sad movie because Laura wasn’t really free, trying to escape through adhering to rigid man-made rules. Her brother-in-law breaks the rules of his Orthodox community by having an affair, but it doesn’t bring him freedom either. Maybe it’s all down to the rules – if they’re good rules and you keep them, you’re free. If they’re bad rules and you break them, you’re free…

Therefore, picking which are the good rules and which are the bad ones is the key. Arghhh! It all needs more thinking!

1. The wall mounted singing trout is the final word in comedic household decorations.
2. Cockroaches, like Hiluxes, are indestructible.
3. Firelight is the only genuine light.
4. Carving two initials and a love heart into any convenient object is not graffiti, it is entirely acceptable social expression.
5. There is no game greater than pong.
6. The fire extinguisher is the ultimate mode of transportation.
7. People love an unlikely hero.
8. We love to see the weak elevated, the broken repaired and the rejected valued.
9. We are to take care of the earth.
10. As much as we may dream of it, doing nothing is not fulfilling. We are made to work.
11. A true saviour must be self sacrificing.

It never ceases to amaze me how often popular film and television aligns with the teachings of the Bible. In the film Wall–E, all sorts of biblical principles are evident, and I have listed some above. Obviously not all of my observations from the film are specifically biblically endorsed (although I could have sworn I read something somewhere about the wall mounted trout).

The one Biblical principle that you very rarely see ratified in film or literature, however, is a very central one – the doctrine that humanity is created by, lives in willing or unwilling submission to, and is created for the worship and service of God. Humanity is almost always portrayed as the supreme being, with no power over it, with no limitation to its power, and with no purpose other than to live, enjoy life and rule responsibly over the world. The command to love your neighbour is extolled in a great deal of popular art, but the command to love your God is conspicuously absent.

I would be interested to hear any thoughts you have on the convergence and divergence of the Bible and popular art, and of any films or literature that affirms a Biblical principle very strongly. I would be particularly interested to hear of any films that assert that it is proper and fitting that humanity should live in submission to anything at all in any way.

Almost a hundred years later, Alejandro González Iñárritu referred to the experiment in the title of his film 21 Grams. A man and his two daughters are run down and killed crossing the street, and the film follows the repercussions of the deaths for those left behind. The man driving the car is crazed with guilt and attempts suicide. The distraught widow finds solace in cocaine and revenge. A third character, who receives a heart from the dead father, finds the widow, and together they plan to kill the driver. The film ends in a mess of blood and broken relationships. “How much does a life weigh?” asks a narrator at the end of the film. A great deal, we conclude, when we imagine the pain and destruction a death causes to those around it.

But what about the old man without a family, who dies in his home and isn’t discovered until the neighbours smell something strange? Does his life weigh less? 21 Grams would say so. In some respects the film is right – the old man’s life will leave little pain behind it. But the Bible gives us a different picture. God doesn’t value a life by its relationships to other people, but by its relationship to himself.

God values a life more than anything else, because God created the life and owns the life. Life is afforded the honour and dignity due to God, because it bears the image of the one who created it. We see God’s value of life most clearly when we consider what he did through Christ: God gave up his Son to death so that we could have life.

How much does a life weigh? Iñárritu was on the right track when he said it was hefty, but he drastically underestimated. Death is tragic because it breaks relationships and causes pain. But more than that, death desecrates God’s image, robs him of his most valued possession and destroys everything good. To God, life is the heaviest thing there is.

Photo by glowingstar via Flickr

A few days ago I got the chance to watch Wall•E, the most recent movie from Pixar. It’s all about a little robot named Wall•E, whose job it is to clean up all the garbage on an abandoned planet earth. His life is rolling along in some degree of loneliness, but finding satisfaction in his work and hobbies, when something unexpected occurs: he meets an advanced robotic probe, EVE, and falls in love with her.

Though the robots never really speak, Pixar excels at making them alive. Wall•E is made into a fantastic caricature of humans; he is alive and emotional. He gets nervous, excited, afraid and happy. Most strange for a robot, though, is that he is affectionate.

The movie has many great scenes, but one of the most emotional is the montage when EVE has succeeded in her mission and goes into a standby mode, and doesn’t respond to Wall•E at all. Wall•E refuses to stop loving her. He takes her on walks, tries to entertain and protect her and love her in whatever way he knows how. He does all this while there is no response whatsoever from EVE.

The scene got me thinking about whether or not I would be able to love like that—so self sacrificially and with no love in return. I think I would find it very difficult. It’s a defining moment for Wall•E in the movie, and the apostle Paul suggests that similar sufferings can be defining moments for us:

“… We also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:3–6

We can have the perseverance and strength of character that Wall•E shows, because we have been loved like that by God.

I just need a welding laser between my eyes and I’ll be set. (Go see the movie )