Christ plays everywhere within his creation, and the stories that resonate with us are indeed echoes of a greater Story. I cannot help seeing Jesus when I go to the movies. Here are some observations on my recent viewing of "Beauty and the Beast" with Nicole. I make the assumption in general that you have seen the movie.
1. At the very beginning of the movie the Prince is turned into a hideous beast to match his hideous heart because he cruelly rejected a visitor who had the appearance of an old hag. But she turned out to be a powerful enchantress! The prince's heart was revealed by how he responded to the lowest and the least. He did not respond well.
Into this situation the words of Jesus should haunt us and convict us: When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left...
He will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it unto one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
It would appear that Jesus cares very much how we treat the hungry, the poor, the down-and-outs. Indeed, at the final judgment it appears that whether we go to hell or heaven can be determined from how we treated people, sometimes people who showed up at our door. And do we see the face of Jesus in their faces? As we treat them - those whose faces may look hideous - we treat Him, one who is incomparably powerful and holds our fates in his hands.
2. In the early part of the movie Belle's father stumbles upon the castle and is imprisoned by the Beast. Belle goes looking for him and finds him in the castle, but the Beast catches her. She begs for her father's freedom, and gives her life for his. Her father is allowed to go free, as long as she gives up her own freedom to stay as the Beast's prisoner. In a very direct way Belle's actions here mirror the substitution of Christ for us, giving up his own life to secure our freedom. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
3. Beauty and the Beast at its heart is a love story. It is about the transforming power of love. But so is real life. Jesus, the Author of reality, reveals the heart of our reality when he lays down the two most important commandments: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. You've probably got a lot else going on in your life, but in the end your life is at its deepest level meant to be a grand love story between you and your Redeemer, the joy of which is meant to spill over into the lives of others.
The nature of the love story in Beauty and the Beast also mirrors the wonderful grace we receive in the Gospel. The Gospel begins with how despicable, rebellious, dirty, and evil we are. It truly begins with how unlovable we are. The Beast was not transformed in order win Belle's love; on the contrary! the Beast was transformed because of Belle's love while he was yet unlovely. Praise be to Jesus for his love that preceded my obedience! Praise be to Jesus for the grace that transforms me, the grace on which I stand, the grace that came to me while I was still a rebel and a beast!
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die - but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We love God because he first loved us.
4. I think there is an interesting connection within the story of Beauty and the Beast to the idea of covenant. In the Bible the covenants that God makes have a covenantal head, a representative. Adam represents mankind, and we are in Adam by virtue of birth; we inherit his curse. But now we are in Christ if we place our faith in him. Christ is the new covenant head, the greater Adam who resisted temptation and reversed the Fall by his covenant faithfulness and his loving sacrifice. His righteousness as the covenant head is now imputed to me by grace through faith. His victory becomes my victory simply because I am found in him, not because I played any part in the securing of that victory. My life is not about securing the victory but about living in the truth of what has already been won.
All those people in the castle with the Prince were represented by the Prince. They were under him. They were found in him, and when he Fell, his curse was imputed to them. They got turned into candlesticks and clocks. They were not the ones to originally sin against the enchantress-turned-hag. Not fair! you may cry. Nevertheless, they found themselves under a curse that had to be lifted by the actions and the sacrifice of another. They couldn't do it themselves. They needed to found in someone who could keep the covenant that would undo their curse. The specifics of the curse in the movie is that it can only be lifted when the Beast falls in love with a girl and she also falls in love with him. Through his sacrificial death (I think he dies...), the Beast also mirrors Christ, and in so doing he finally secures Belle's declaration of "I love you", and the curse is broken.
As the curse is broken, the Beast is the first to be transformed as he becomes a Prince again. And this follows for all those who are under him in the curse. The Beast is resurrected, given a resurrection body, and he is the firstfruits for those who were in his care and kingdom, those who were found in him. The whole gloomy atmosphere, the people, and even the architecture of the castle gets a sunny makeover in a foreshadowing of new creation. The old and diseased parts that groaned under the weight of the curse have been made new.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned - for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come... Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
5. The story ends with joy and all of the characters surrounding the lovers as they dance. This is indeed happily ever after. Though there is a place for gritty realism about this fallen world, and it is indeed true that no marriages in this world always feel like happily ever after, there is still a part of us that is drawn to that happy ending. Yes, let us not become so bitter and cynical that we forget that there will indeed be a happy ending. Every happy ending in literature is not simply wishful thinking, but rather an echo and a yearn for something that is indeed coming. The resurrection of Christ secures this hope for us - hope for our own future resurrection and dwelling with God.
The hosts of heaven indeed will surround and take joy in the King and His Bride on that day. There will be a magnificent feast. What a wedding day! In the movie, the happily ever after is predicated upon grace. It is all grace! The once-Beast now transformed and forgiven is sanctified by that grace. Jesus tells a parable of a servant who was forgiven an enormous debt and then went out and rung the neck of a man who owed him just a bit. This servant character in the parable is supposed to look ridiculous to us, and indeed the trajectory of the Beast's happily ever after is built on not being this stupid servant, but rather one who has indeed been changed to live worthy of this grace. Daily he must remember the Beast he was and how much he has been forgiven.
What indeed will that final wedding be like, Christ to his Bride, cleansed by his blood?! Praise be to Jesus who chose to love his Bride while she was still a Beast. Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
