Wide, Wide Screen

One of my favorite movies of all time -- for any number of reasons, the action sequences, the humor, the romance, the soundtrack -- is The Mask of Zorro, starring Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, and Catherine Zeta-Jones. I am the proud owner of said movie, but it wasn't one I'd purchased myself.

Way back in my college days, a friend bought a special two-disk edition of the movie. One disk was wide-screen, the other, full-screen. He popped open the case one evening after I'd regaled him with a particularly enthusiastic account of my love for the movie, and he handed me one of the disks. "Here," he said. "I don't need two DVD's of the same movie."

So I got to keep my movie... in full-screen.

I didn't really realize at the time what the differences were between full-screen and wide-screen. Over the course of years, I've watched my movie again and again... and again. I have every part of the movie memorized. I can mouth along with the actors, I know every beat of music as soon as the visual cue appears on the screen. I'm one of those annoying people who loves to watch or read a story into the ground. That is, into the ground for everyone else. I still love it.

One day, I was at a friend's house, and she had never seen this amazing movie. I didn't have my old DVD with me, but there's this miracle thing you can do with movies now called "streaming." At my recommendation, she loaded up The Mask of Zorro.

And as we watched this movie, it was an entirely new experience for me. You know why? Because my friend's streaming device showed the movie in wide-screen.

I had missed out on key happenings and developments in the background and outside shots that I had never before seen, because I'd never seen the big picture.

Now you see where I'm going with this, right? ;) 

In Romans 15:1-13, Paul continues on with his teaching that he'd begun in Romans 14. He says: "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up." 

Paul is connecting with his previous point (encouragement stemming from faith), reminding us of what he's just taught us, which is the mark of every good teacher and writer. Now he's getting ready to make his next point, which is this: Unity.

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 15:5).

I'll use another movie to make a point. VeggieTales produced a cute little Christmas movie called The Toy That Saved Christmas a while back. In the movie, every kid wanted this one toy for Christmas called a Buzz-Saw Louie -- a little toy doll with a buzz-saw on his arm (just what every parent loves to see in the hands of their children, right?). Anyway, because the demand for this toy was so great, the stores stocked their shelves full of Buzz-Saw Louie's. 

So there's this one scene where you see a hundred or more Buzz-Saw Louie's standing in their clear-plastic boxes on their shelves, staring straight ahead, waiting to be purchased for Christmas, every single one identical...

Except for one. One Buzz-Saw Louie didn't like the message of materialism that the demand for the toy had produced. He realized something was wrong with it, so he decided to leave. And thus begins the story.

Here, when Paul's talking about a "spirit of unity," he's not talking about a shelf full of toys that look exactly the same and do exactly the same thing, like carbon copies of each other. We are each individually-loved children of God with individual gifts (1 Corinthians 12) and individual purposes (Ephesians 2:9). 

But we have one goal, and we are supposed to be unified in that goal. That goal is to worship and serve the Lord Jesus Christ. In the context of this passage, Paul is talking about the unity between Jews and Gentiles -- two groups separated for thousands of years by the very fact that the Jews are God's chosen people.

But in Romans 15:8, those two groups, so long separated, come together when Paul says: "For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, to confirm the promises made to the patriarchs (Genesis 12:1-3), so that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy."

So, for thousands of years, these two groups have seen the "full-screen version" of this plan. The Jews have considered the promises of God only from their perspective, the Gentiles, same deal (see John 4 where the Samaritan woman speaking with Jesus discusses the promises of Scripture from her perspective).

But because Jesus is just that amazing, He brings the two pictures together into a much larger, much more awesome picture where both groups -- all the people of the world -- are included in His ultimate plan for salvation from sin. 

That's amazing! He loves us all so, so much that He reaches down into the depths of where we are lost. He opens His hand and says, "Come, follow Me." And we have the option to take His hand. We have the option to turn away from our sins, to repent, to actively step into the new life He offers us.

You know what I think is so cool about this? This gives us autonomy. Jesus doesn't just scoop us all up and wrangle us into heaven. We have the choice to follow Him, and that decision we make -- to put our sins behind us and to stretch out our hands to grasp His -- makes His choosing of us so much more special.

One of the things about the Afghanistan situation that has turned my stomach in horror are the stories of the child-brides -- how the Taliban men get "rewarded" in their religion by the taking of girls 14 and under. Those poor girls have no choice in the matter. They have no autonomy over their thoughts, their bodies, anything. They are entirely in the hands of the taker. Their "wedding ceremonies" are farcical demonstrations of slavery. The beauty and radiance of a bride who chooses her husband and a husband who chooses his bride is nowhere to be found.

How thankful I am that not only is Jesus the perfect Bridegroom for the church, the perfect Caretaker, but He allows us to choose Him! How reciprocal that makes our relationship! How full-circle and fulfilling!

Paul says in Romans 15:13: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

I had a conversation with my husband last night about anxiety. Y'all have probably picked up on the fact that I struggle with this. What surprised me last night (though I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised after seventeen years of marriage) was that my husband also struggles with it, just in different ways. 

See, he very intentionally ignores the news, because it shows him too much of the world, too much of humanity, too many things that happen that are out of his control. He purposely keeps his screen small, so that the wider screen won't distress him too much.

Here's the deal, though: The wide, wide screen, the big, big picture, goes beyond the bad news all over the world and the alarming headlines and the depressing situations that are almost literally everywhere. The edges of that screen expand even further to show us that God... is the Giver of all joy and peace -- so much peace that you can overflow with it.

For a bit of perspective: Paul writes about this overflowing peace... to a church persecuted under Nero, fed to the lions in the arena, lit up as torches for the gladiator games. If we are distressed by our news headlines, how much more were the Christians of Paul's time distressed by their own current events? And how much more was the peace of God available to them!

Jesus tells his disciples (and by extension, us): "I have told you these things, so that in Me, you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33).

And that, y'all, is the wide, wide screen.