Like many I went off to see the movie Noah fully
expecting to witness a rich and much loved biblical narrative get massacred by
Hollywood... And I got what I expected! Artistic license was taken in many
places in an attempt to stretch a story that can be read in 5 minutes into a 2
hour blockbuster. The familiar Genesis account was padded out with fallen
angels destined to roam the earth as rock monsters, jealous and aggressive
descendant of Cain neighbours launching an attack to take the Ark, the absence
of wives for Noah ' sons and a hermit-like miracle working Methuselah.
But possibly the most worrying abuse of
the story was the portrayal of God as a generic "Creator" who was
seemingly cold, absent and indifferent to his creation, the people of the
earth, the fallen rock angels and even the tormented Noah himself. While the
biblical flood narrative vividly presents the judgment of God, the personal
relationship the God of the Bible has with Noah balances His just anger at the
sin of the world with the love, grace and mercy by which He saves Noah and His
family... Something the generic creator in the movie just didn't have.
However, while much damage was done to
the biblical narrative there was one shocking truth that jumped up and slapped
the audience in the face - a truth that is rarely depicted on the big screen. I
think the thing that will surprise the average movie goer the most about the
movie is Noah's psychological, emotional and spiritual deterioration throughout
the film. Far from the smiling bearded old dude with rosy cheeks on the pages
of your children's bible story book, Noah is a tormented soul who spends much
of the second half of the movie wrestling with the implications of the task God
had called him to complete. It is in this wrestle that the shocking truth is
revealed.
Noah cannot reconcile how he can truly
cleanse the world of sin. He has a disturbing vision of the sinfulness of
humanity in which he comes face to face with himself being just as much a part
of the problem as the evil descendants of Cain. This leaves him convinced that
the world cannot be cleansed completely if he and his family were to be a part
of it. And so Noah battles internally with what it means to be the savior of
the world. In his human mind he sees no way to cleanse the earth unless he lets
his family die without descendants so that the cause of sin would be stamped
out forever. Shockingly for Noah this means contemplating murdering his own
grandchildren - a far cry from Sunday School stories indeed.
I think it is fair to say that this runs
in direct contradiction to the overwhelming majority of stories told in our
culture. The stories we are used to have a problem which is external to the
hero and a solution that is within. We love to hear stories about heroes thrust
into a seemingly insurmountable situations until they search within themselves
to find the courage, skill or teamwork needed to overcome. We love these
stories because they tap into our ego and encourage us to think optimistically
about our capacity as women and men to free ourselves from whatever comes
against us. But in the Noah movie we see that the problem isn't external to
humanity but is actually deep within humanity. So ingrained within humanity is
this problem that even the one portrayed as the best of humanity, Noah,
acknowledged that he was part of the problem rather that the solution.
I don't think our optimistic humanistic
western civilisation needed the Noah movie's portray of a cold and distant
God... But I think perhaps we do need its portrayal of a weak, broken and
ultimately evil humanity. Even writing these words seems shocking to me, but we
cannot escape the truth. As Noah tells his family of the sinfulness of humanity
we see silhouette after silhouette of civilisation after civilisation full of
murderous intent with increasing ferocity. As the story of human failure
unfolded you could almost sense the discomfort of the audience as we were
confronted with a reality we are rarely faced with - we are part of the
problem, not part of the solution.
The dilemma that virtually drove Noah
insane was trying reconcile how he could cleanse the earth of sin and save his
family at the same time. He was placed in the unenviable position of knowing
that if he saved his family their sinfulness would again spread across the
earth, but if he acted to cleanse the earth he would lose his family. Noah
resolves to forsake his family in order to cleanse the world of sin. A decision
that tears his heart out as Mrs Noah declares the cost would be Noah
"dying alone hated by everyone he ever loved" (not exact quote but
close enough).
I guess the question that the movie
should leave audiences asking is: how can this world be cleansed without
cleansing it of its biggest problem... Us?
The answer to this culturally
inconvenient question lies not with a man like Noah but in One who came long
after him. One who when faced with the dilemma of justice versus mercy embraced the
cost of being the true Saviour of the world as He died alone and hated by
everyone He ever loved. Unlike the God portrayed in the movie, Jesus Christ
came as the loving and merciful answer to the hopeless cry of humanity. He
absorbed the sin of humanity onto Himself and suffered under its full weight so
that he mercy of God could be given to all who would believe. Jesus perfectly
resolved Noah's dilemma... He took the just punishment for humanity's sin and
yet poured out God's mercy in abundance to save humanity.
The movie Noah will teach you very
little about the true God but it will teach something about yourself. It
teaches us the shocking truth that we are far more a part of this world's
problems than we like to admit. Hopefully this will drive you towards the God
of the Bible who is the only One who provides a satisfying answer to this
problem - an answer that is not found within us but in the justice and mercy of
the cross.