DEADLY
LOVE…
(Warning: Spoiler
Alerts)
As a dad,
I am well versed with Disney stories. Two
of my favorites are Tangled (the loose story of Rapunzel and her long hair) and
Frozen (a story about a would-be queen with magical powers). Each movie is fun; both have good songs, both
have great character development, and both are love stories. While they have stories that do center around
main-character male/female love interests, these are not the love stories to
which I am referring. The love to which
I refer is the kind that causes death.
In
Tangled, the story revolves around a princess (we’ll call her Blondie and she
has special powers of healing in her hair) who is kidnapped and held captive
for a life of seclusion in a remote part of the forest. A thief named Flynn accidentally stumbles
across the tower in which Blondie is hidden as he escapes and hides from his own
pursuers. Through the course of the
movie Blondie and Flynn set out on a wonderful adventure and fall in love. Long story short, “Mother” (the woman who
kidnapped Blondie) discovers this budding relationship and shoves a knife in
the side of Flynn as she drags Blondie away for a life of servitude. As Blondie is being dragged away and Flynn is
bleeding-out Blondie agrees to go peacefully if she is just allowed to heal
him. Mother agrees and Blondie positions
herself to hold the dying Flynn in her lap in order to perform the magic that
will save him. Then in a flash Flynn
uses a shard of broken glass to cut off Blondie’s hair thus preventing her from
ever serving Mother again. But in doing
this he is no longer able to be saved and dies in her arms.
The love
to which I refer has nothing to do with Blondie and Flynn’s first kiss but with
Flynn’s decision to cut off Blondie’s hair in order to save her, despite his
own death.
In Frozen,
the story revolves around two sisters: Elsa (the elder) and Anna (the younger). Elsa has powers that she cannot control of
which Anna knows nothing about. As Elsa
is crowned queen she loses control of her powers and they are revealed casting
an eternal winter on the land. Elsa
takes off and hides away but Anna goes after her in order to help fix the eternal
winter. In Anna’s travel she meets up
with Christoph who guides her through the mountains to find Elsa and, you
guessed it, a love relationship forms.
Toward the end of the movie an evil prince sees an opportunity to kill
Elsa and claim the kingdom for himself.
As the evil prince raises his sword to strike Elsa down the younger
sister Anna moves in to shield the queen by taking the sword blow herself and
dying in the process.
The love
to which I refer, again, is not about Anna & Christoph but about Anna
positioning herself between her sister and the sword of the evil prince thus giving
her life to save her sister.
Biblical Greek
has three separate words for the English word love. Phileo
which is brotherly love, eros which
is romantic love between a man and woman, and agape which is sacrificial love like a person who jumps on a
grenade to save his squad, or a person who gives up their meal to feed a hungry
person. The love to which I am referring
in these two movies is the agape, sacrificial love.
While
these movies both portray a great message of sacrificial love there is still a
portrayal of love that exceeds even these.
How much stronger would the portrayal of love in these stories have been
if each hero had died to save their enemies?
Once you were
alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil
behavior. (Colossians 1:21)
[But] while we
were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son… (Romans 5:10a)
The story
of the Cross of Jesus is the story of a man who willing died in order to save
his enemies. You and I (mankind) were enemies
of God and yet Jesus still went to the cross to die the death that would save
us.
…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While
we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
The
Gospel (good news) message has been hijacked, I think, by a dominate narrative
of heaven and hell when the real Good News is that the Cross of Jesus was for
you – His enemy. A narrative of Heaven
and Hell are ultimately about me and what I get out of Jesus but a narrative of
the Cross is centered completely on Christ and what He has done. Granted, the narrative still benefits us but
the Cross focuses more on Jesus than myself I think.
---
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be complete, therefore, as your heavenly Father is complete. (Matthew 5:43-48)
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