Scary Movie Syndrome

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.”