Guest author: Redefining worthiness

Have you seen the new Noah movie? I can't recommend it...and yet I can't stop thinking about it. My husband has been talking about it non-stop for days since we saw it. He loves the theme of redemption. I want to share this bit of writing he did about the issue of worth--who is worth saving? Who is worth redeeming? Who is beautiful, and who is ugly? Read on and enjoy. And please comment.

"The Creator takes him home"--John T.

I don’t watch a lot of movies.  Maybe once every two months.  I go to the theater even less, probably about once a year.  So naturally, my wife and I went to see Noah the weekend it came out.

A lot can be said about the movie, but I’m not a movie critic, so I’ll say only a little.  Having arrived late and finding ourselves 20 feet away from a giant screen, through much of the movie I was mostly preoccupied with not getting a stiff neck.  Or more to the point, I was preoccupied with my wife not getting a stiff neck:   “Turn your neck, don’t get stiff” (out of compassion, of course, and not concerned about future physical therapy bills…). 

After the movie, for once Wendy and I agreed on something: this was not a good movie.  I’m not big on labels, but in the 30 second walk to the car, we lobbed “corny,” “obvious,” “violent,” and other negative adjectives to describe the film.  But then I started thinking about it more, and found reasons to like it (Wendy sighs).    

For me, the dominant theme in Noah is the tension between lawlessness, justice, and redemption.  There is Noah, our mixed protagonist/antagonist, certain that humanity is hopelessly evil and beyond redemption.  And the wanton violence in the movie leaves you certain that he’s right.  The Creator is sending engulfing waters to wipe out humanity, save the animals (the “innocent”), and move on.  This is not a restart; it’s a shutdown. 

And then there are the fallen angels, encrusted in rock for disobeying God and coming to earth to help the wayward humans (you don’t remember the fallen angels from the Noah story?  Read Genesis 51…).  One scene in particular kept me thinking.  It had (surprisingly) started to rain very hard.  As they defend the Ark’s entrance from fallen humanity’s attempt to save itself, one fallen angel is “shot up” into the sky—his light breaking out of the rugged crust, leaving it to crumble.  A fallen angel next to him, also encrusted, is taken aback by the sight and, more importantly, by what it means:  “The Creator takes him home.” 

In his rough voice I couldn’t help but hear newfound hope.  There is hope even for us, the fallen encrusted angels, he thinks.  And with renewed vigor, he defends the Ark’s entrance. 

Noah reminds me that God sees hope where we don’t.  To the Creator, no one is beyond redemption - - no story, no person, no group.  To the Creator, no one is illegal, no one is ugly, no one is hopelessly evil, or forever fallen.  Do we like that about God?  Or do we see our own ugliness, and that of the world, and are certain that the Creator has nothing but justice and destruction on his mind?  Don’t get me wrong, we’re all fallen, and the Creator has true justice on his mind. But even the undocumented, the unlawful, the underachievers are never beyond the Creator’s reach.  The good news for the fallen angels, for criminals, for strangers, for us is that the Creator takes us to himself – that is home, that is redemption.