The Bible as a Movie

I recently finished the book of Matthew. I never realized the life-changing power that the Bible has until I read it and actually tried to comprehend what I was reading. Ya know, as opposed to that reading-but-not-hearing-what-your-reading method; a pretty common method (especially when it comes to God's word). Why is that? Why is it that the single most important book that anyone will ever read is so easily drowned out by other things around us? It seems that if God really wanted his people to write a book that was divinely influential, as the Bible is supposed to be, he would have made it entertaining. Maybe throw a few battle scenes in, have a clear antagonist and protagonist, and obviously the protagonist would have to win. Another essential to any good story is you have to fall in love with the protagonist and hate the antagonist (unless it's some bizarre psychological experiment). So what was God thinking? Doesn't it feel like we don't find any of these things in the Bible?

Actually, the reality is that we find every one of these in the Bible, the old testament in Judges and other books is filled with battle scenes; in Job, we see the battle between God and Satan and the sovereignty of God. There is even a very clear antagonist--satan--and protagonist--God. Here is the best part though, the protagonist even wins. It seems the Bible does contain all the essentials for a great story.

Ya know that part in every superhero movie where it seems the protagonist is going to lose and than he draws on his last bit of strength to end up conquering the day? Like when spider-man gets the crud beat out of him but ends up winning against unlikely odds? Or when Batman has a dilemma to solve and he ends up finding a loophole? Well, in the Bible we find the same thing once again. When Jesus was on the cross, he died!! How much more distress and lack of hope could you possibly have for a dead protagonist? Talk about a depressing ending to a film. The sad part is it isn't a film, it's reality.

Ya see, the key is to make people lose all their hope in the protagonist and they, against all odds it seems, make a come-back. It enhances the viewers faith and hope in the protagonist. I don't know how you could have anything make you lose more hope than death. That seems pretty final to me, but Jesus rises from the dead after three days. He had even predicted this to the disciples, but they had doubted it. Could you imagine the anticipation? He dies, you run because your next, and those next three days are probably the slowest of your life. The disciples were probably counting down the seconds to that third day wondering whether Jesus was the real Christ (savior). And then, against seemingly unspeakable odds, Jesus rises from the dead exactly when he said he would! He is victorious after all. Not only that, but he has conquered the most persistent enemy known to man: death. If you can overcome death, I don't think your gonna be having much trouble with anything else. Agreed?

It is a beautiful story, and if you think about it, one that man simply could not think up. The complexity, yet simplicity of the story is genuine, unimaginable, and not comprehendable. I don't know about you, but the last thing I would do if I was making up a religion that was fake would be to make it so complex, yet that is what we find. We find simplicity and complexity inside one concept. The complexity of pure theology and the simplicity of "Jesus died for you". Beautiful.