My favorite movie genre would be disaster movies. I have the boxed set of Airport movies, 1970, 1975, 1979, etc. My favorite movie of all time is the original Poseidon Adventure. The recent two remakes just aren’t as good. I also enjoyed Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. And give me a movie with an avalanche, volcano, typhoon, hurricane, earthquake or asteroid, and I’m in. Even the possibility that all life may be ended if something isn’t changed will keep me glued to a movie. This includes movies about killer animals, anacondas, killer bees and tarantulas, anything that could end our lives, Aliens, Jurassic Park, and even war movies. I am fascinated by movies and television series about World War II, because again, war is a disaster and could end our lives. They are hard to watch, because my grandpa was a foot soldier in WWII and saw actual war and lived through it. Picturing him in those rotten situations is not fun. But I watch it because I get to see a re-enactment and I know what my freedom cost people I love dearly.
I realize a lot of these things will never happen, (some couldn’t), but the premise that we are all going to die if someone doesn’t rescue us never fails to draw me in. Take the Poseidon Adventure. One man heroically takes control and says we have to go to the bottom of the ship (UP) to get out. A handful of people follow him and are saved. In Armageddon a group of misfit oil drillers become astronauts (I also love space movies, The Right Stuff, Apollo 13) and one man gets to sacrifice his life to save everyone on planet earth. Recently the movie The Day After Tomorrow came out, it was about a weather disturbance that caused another ice age. Everyone who listened and did what they were told lived. The ones who did things their own way died. And those who never got the message also died, without getting the opportunity to make any decision. Every disaster movie has at least one hero, many times more than one. What makes me love these movies is that things are so dark and dire, civilization is coming to an end. And at the last moment, someone saves the day.
In my list of favorite disaster movies, I would have to include The Passion of the Christ. Up to this point in history, there was disaster looming in a big way. In the movie, we don’t it. We briefly see the snake Jesus steps on at the beginning of the movie and the creepy guy. But the snake and the creepy guy are the worst disaster the world has ever faced, ever will face. It’s not the tidal wave, the volcano, the hurricane, the asteroid, or the storm, it is the deadliest of all these. The disaster that might ruin our life on earth, might even end it is nothing compared to the disaster of spending eternity in Hell instead of Heaven. In the Passion of the Christ we get to see our hero and we get to see his triumphant resurrection from the grave. I’m sure Jesus was not seen as a hero to anyone on earth who knew him the day he died. It was nightmarish for those who loved him. But imagine when they saw him alive a few days later. Now that is a hero. And when I read Revelation I can’t wait for the ultimate “war movie” when Jesus leads his army on earth. I really don’t think he will need an army, I think it’s for effect. I think he is the one man that could do it by himself, forget Rambo, Terminator and Chuck Norris.
Just like the movie The Day After Tomorrow, we all have a choice, to choose the salvation from our sin that is available because of Jesus death on the cross, or to do things our way, think we can earn it and be good enough on our own and face our eternity without Jesus. And just like The Day After Tomorrow, there were those who never got the message. They never knew of the storm, no one warned them to stay inside. I was reminded of this last week when a friend was telling me about sharing Jesus with a co-worker. Are we doing all we can to save our friends from disaster?
No comments:
Post a Comment