By James Wilson
Hollywood is rising from the ashes of its long duration rush to escape portraying the authentically good, true and beautiful with a floodtide of God-honoring films. 2015 was good. When the Game Stands Tall, God’s Not Dead, Heaven is Real, Woodlawn, and Fury were well written, acted and constructed films telling truth – the whole truth – about what happens when the authentic Lord of this world impacts a community. But this year a veritable tsunami of grace makes landfall; we have barely entered Spring.
At this writing 2016 has birthed Caged No More, Risen, 90 Minutes in Heaven, and Spotlight. March sees release of Miracles from Heaven, Young Messiah, and God’s Not Dead 2. Later this Spring Do You Believe? and Chariots of Fire 2 will reach local screens. I focus now on two current events – Spotlight and Risen.
Spotlight features an amazing cast led by Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams. (Liev Schreiber gives a wonderfully understated performance as well.) It chronicles The Boston Globe exposure of the Roman Catholic Church hiding sexual abusers amongst its clergy. Spotlight won Academy Awards for best picture and original screenplay, and other awards for accuracy of its storytelling. To be fair, the National Catholic Reporter covered these scandals more than a decade before secular outlets noticed, and the Vatican offered high praise for the film. To be blunt – on the other hand – the real scandal went deeper than hundreds of priests molesting thousands of children. It was the institutionalized cover-ups by officials at many levels that brought such disrepute on the Catholic Church and the Body of Christ at large. The culture of institutions has not changed much since; any Church is just another institution when covering its backside becomes its act of worship.
Yet the movie shows the road to redemption. It is a study in progressive repentance even as the Spotlight team penetrates multiple layers of cover-up, temptation and manipulation, not to mention the team’s own denial of the scope of the moral monstrosity. At first they think there is no story; later they think it not their story; eventually they confront the reality that it has confronted them for decades. At that point their editor tells them what counts is not their past failures but their present courage and competence. He issues a right-on implied declaration that repentance is not so much sorrow for sin as re-focus on God Himself and re-dedication to His imitation.
Just as important is that most or all the heavy lifting of exposure – the only road to healing – is done by Catholics themselves. These (mostly lapsed) Catholics love but do not worship their Church; that is crucial, whatever the denomination or persuasion.
Risen is nothing like Spotlight, albeit dealing with the same core issues. A Roman centurion – Clavius – played by Joseph Fiennes is tasked by Pontius Pilate with recovering the body of Yeshua – Jesus – and consequently exposing the supposed fraud of Yeshua’s resurrection. This is primarily for peace-keeping purposes; the Romans fear rioting and rebellion more than even their own loss of face if the man they crucified refuses to remain dead. Yet Clavius journeys into progressive repentance just as surely as the Spotlight team.
He is the ruthless commander when he executes Barabbas less than a day after his release in the place of Yeshua. Only days later he stands before a faith-filled Mary Magdelene unable to carry out his threat to torture her for information in the face of the authentic love and peace she radiates. He continues to soften by stages as he encounters other disciples including Peter and – ultimately – the risen Yeshua Himself. When Yeshua asks Clavius what he fears he answers honestly that he fears being wrong, and entering eternity in his error. Faced with the remedy to his error at last, he commits to pursuing the truth of the paradox that a man clearly dead is as clearly alive for the rest of his life. His courage in the face of paradoxical reality is the key to his lifelong repentance, and all he needs to enter the abundant life of Yeshua called Christ.
I am convinced Clavius’ dilemma is the great idol of Pharisees of all kinds, including we in the Body of Christ. We tend to fear being wrong more than we crave the gift of righteousness – rightness if you will. When we face the fear we find Yeshua waiting to break the idol and lead us into the rising from our own death that is His invitation to all – and is so well depicted in these two films from very different appearing platforms.
James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships, The Holy Spirit and the End Times, and Kingdom in Pursuit – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at praynorthstate@charter.net
