When I was a junior at University I was asked by some friends to go see Saw III with them. I should state up front that I hate all scary movies: thrillers, terror, whatever you want to call them, I don't like them. I have a valid reason for this but it's a different story for a different day! My initial disposition then was to say no, but since I was completely bored in the dorms, I decided to go. Oh how I hated that movie! I knew that I would, but I'll blame this one on peer pressure!
While I happen to hate those movies I know that lots of people love
them and I have a theory as to why. I think that in part people love scary
movies because they want the rush of adrenaline and fear of being in that
situation without actually having to ever be in any danger.
Not long after that experience I was reading in the book of
Ezekiel 33:30-32.
“As for you, son of man [referring
to Ezekiel here], your people who talk together about you by the walls and at
the doors of the houses, say to one another, each to his brother, ‘Come, and
hear what the word is that comes from the LORD.’ And they come to you as people
come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear what you say but they
will not do it; for with lustful talk in their mouths they act; their heart is
set on their gain. And behold, you are to them like one who sings lustful songs
with a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument, for they hear what you
say, but they will not do it.”
The prophecies that the LORD has given to Ezekiel have been walking a tight rope between exile and redemption. One of the main phrases
throughout Ezekiel is “then they will know that I am the LORD” these prophecies
that Ezekiel has been given are to reveal the LORD both through his unleashing
of judgment (in exiling the people) and through his rescue of his people (in
his promised redemption). Like most of the prophets, he was given many things
to say that were hard to hear! I mean, who wants to hear a message that your favorite places will be destroyed and you will be removed as a nation from
your homeland. Ezekiel was also given some messages that would have pulled on
the hearts of his hearers, things that they eagerly desired and longed for (take
for example the LORD’s promise to give them new hearts and to put a new spirit
within them Ez. 36:26, 27).
In the passage quoted above, however, the LORD is letting Ezekiel in on one of the
things that will happen throughout his ministry: people will come to you,
excited to hear the word from the LORD, and they will sit before you and they
will hear what you say, but they will not do it.
This happens very often in churches and ministries all
over the world. People come to hear from God’s Word, eagerly, yet they walk
away unchanged without any intention of applying the things that the Lord was
telling them. This is especially tragic because the message that Ezekiel was
giving (and that messengers of the gospel today give as well) was intended to
lead the people to a right response to God in a way that allows God to
deliver them. But God promises/foretells to Ezekiel that people will walk away
at this point wholly unchanged, but having enjoyed what he was saying as if he
was singing “lustful songs with a beautiful voice” and good accompanying
instruments. That is, they will walk away as if they had just been to a
fantastic concert or musical!
I refer to this as scary movie syndrome. At its
heart it is a desire to come as close as you can to walking with God, in many attempts
to get some sort of influx of emotion/passion, without ever having to actually
do anything! You come, you hear God’s Word, have a little shutter…ooooohhh…and
then go on like it was just a dream or a meaningless concert. While it’s
perfectly okay to do this at the movies, it is a whole other deal to do this
with the Scriptures.
There is another type of scary movie syndrome that is talked
about in the Scriptures and that I see just as regularly. Believe it or not, I have occasionally interacted with
students who have drawn the conclusions about their understanding of life from scary movies. Later that same year at university I sat for an hour
and a half asking questions and listening to a young student proclaim to me his
viewpoint of the world and the only things he cited as sources to prove his
points, were scary movies (Saw III being one of them)!
Paul speaks of this same thing in his second letter to
Timothy chapter 4: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound
teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers
to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and
wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-5).
Paul isn’t referring to scary movies (clearly!) here and for most
people the things that they are using as their guides for life other than the
Bible aren’t scary movies either but it’s the same thing no matter what you are looking to apart from Scripture. Taking something that was never intended
to define or explain your life or the world around you and giving it that place
in your life!
This passage and the Ezekiel passage have some amazing
similarities. In Ezekiel he says that the motivation for the people coming and
walking away excited, but with no intention of responding at all is that “their
heart is set on their gain.” Here Paul says they will find “teachers to suit
their own passions”. How true! At the bottom of it all is the heart
that is determining your words, actions, and here, where you look for
understanding and life. We live in a day and age where with relative ease (yay
Google!) you can find someone who will tell you what you want to hear. Paul
says that then you will make that person or that message the foundation blocks
of your life so that you can go on wholly unchanged and unflinchingly convinced
that you are right!
Moving to a new culture has made these realities stand out even
more starkly in our minds and hearts. New Zealand is a beautiful place and many
people are doing well for themselves here and insist that there is no objective
truth or reality that structures the world around us or ourselves. Many people
here, just as in the rest of the world, are living the scary-movie syndrome.
It is our prayer that
we ourselves won’t live a scary-movie life, but will hear what God has said in His Word and will wholeheartedly, as He pours out
His grace, follow Him. It is also our prayer that God will so work in the
hearts and lives of people here to do the same.
I read a fantastic plea yesterday from John Flavel urging people who are living a scary-movie life to turn and behold the beauty of
Christ:
“O beware, lest the dust of the earth, getting into your
eyes, so blind you, that you never see the beauty or necessity of Christ.” –
John Flavel “The Fountain of Life Opened Up”, p. 12
What a beautiful picture, beware lest the dust of the earth
blinds you so that you can’t see the beauty or necessity of Christ! The
antithesis of which is in one of my favorite hymns: “Fix your eyes upon Jesus;
look full in his wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow
strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”
