A Note from Hixon Frank
Hey Church,
I was wrapping-up my freshman year at Texas Tech in May of 1986 when the movie “Top Gun” was released! All of the hype surrounding the movie and its soundtrack drew us 19-year-olds to the theater like moths to a flame. Wearing white t-shirts and “aviators” if we had them, we headed to the theaters! The movie, for those of you old enough to remember it being on the big screen, was cheesy by today’s standards, and the visual effects, were lacking…but man it was a blast to see! The F-14 Tomcat fighter jet was an absolute beast … Maverick, Goose, Iceman, and Viper were heroic (if not conflicted) and every one of us left the theater dreaming about being one of those guys…the “best of the best” … a fighter pilot!
Following the enormous box office success of Top Gun, the US Navy saw their recruitment hit 94,878 after the original movie’s release. Top Gun marked the beginning of the armed forces using Hollywood as a recruiting tool. Other movies like “Black Hawk Down,” “We Were Soldiers,” “Iron Eagle,” and even “Saving Private Ryan” have been cited as directly contributing to increased enlistments across the military branches.
Even in the extreme, we have the very human tendency of placing ourselves at the center of the story as the hero or heroine.
Think about it…
- In every zombie movie we see, most of us (if not all) place ourselves in the role of the surviving hero and not one of the nameless rabble of infected monsters.
- In historical documentaries, we consider ourselves to be the bold truthtellers standing against a greater foe. To quote Dr. J. Peterson – “We always see ourselves as Schindler and never as Nazis.”
- When injustice or bigotry are woven into a narrative, we are the heroic victims who fight for the safety of others and not the perpetrators.
To be clear, it is certainly more fun to imagine slaying dragons, flying jets, saving the world, disarming the bomb, and ruling the kingdom…. It is, after all, just entertainment. And that is all expected when it is for entertainment! It’s inspiring.
However, reading the Bible in that manner can be misplaced, dangerous, and damaging to a right view of God. In the Bible there is just one HERO and a lot of very flawed characters…. We need to be very careful with which characters we chiefly identify!
- In the story of the “Prodigal Son” (Luke 15:11-32) we are not the father, we are the “prodigal” (and sometimes the older brother).
- In the story of the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 7:53-8:11) we are “the woman!”
- In the story of Peter’s Denial of Jesus (Matthew 26:33-35, et al.) We are “Peter!”
- We are the “Pharisees” (Matthew 23:1-4)
- We are the “tax collectors and sinners” (Luke 15:1)
- We are “Doubting Thomas” (John 20:27-31)
- We are the “rebellious Israelites” (pattern in the Old Testament)
- We are the “grumbling church members” (Philippians 2:14-18)
- We are “Judas” (Matthew 26)
Seems a little harsh, huh? But to read scripture like we watch a movie can drive arrogance and pride. I am not suggesting that we cannot learn from the father in the Prodigal Son story… or we cannot sometimes defend those caught in sin…or refuse to deny Jesus … or keep from grumbling. I am saying that apart from the redeeming work of Jesus Christ in our lives, our position is that of betrayer, grumbler, judge, and rebel.
So how do you read your Bible … try seeing only one hero in Scripture!
Words about the Hero….
5 Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus,
6 who, existing in the form of God,
did not consider equality with God
as something to be exploited.
7 Instead he emptied himself
by assuming the form of a servant,
taking on the likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man,
8 he humbled himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death—
even to death on a cross.
(Philippians 2:5-8)
You are loved and have been prayed for today!
Hixon