This week's Theme: Children of Light
Day 1: Find out what pleases the Lord
“The commonest and most obvious things hide the greatest truths,” the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges states in its commentary on the parables of Jesus. This same thought is distilled in the definition of a parable as “an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.”
Jesus, through whom all things were created (Colossians 1:16) understood the intricacies of learning and association, memory and retention. The deeper, “hidden truths” of His parables would be obvious only to those whose understanding has not been veiled by unbelief (Matthew 13:10-4), but everyone could understand weeds and soil, mustard seeds and yeast, hidden treasures and pearls, prodigals and Good Samaritans.
I was thinking of parables the other day as I watched the 1950 classic film noir Woman on the Run. While the movie can hardly be considered a parable, it did suggest to me quite a few spiritual parallels for our day and time.
The movie is somewhat misnamed, as it really about a man, not a woman, on the run. Frank Johnson, an artist, witnesses a gangland murder. The killer, spotting Frank in the half light, shoots at his shadow, narrowly missing the eyewitness.
Alerted by a neighbor, the police arrive, and learning that Frank could identify the murderer, detain him with plans to place him in protective custody. Frank, fearing for his life, bolts and goes on the run.
The police eventually zero in on Frank’s wife Eleanor as their only link to the fugitive witness, but Eleanor meets their questions with bitter cynicism. She and Frank have had a troubled marriage over the last several years.
Meanwhile, the killer, in an unsuspected role, worms his way into Eleanor’s trust and confidence. Ingratiating himself into her life, he becomes superbly positioned to learn Frank’s whereabouts when the fugitive husband inevitably reaches out to his wife. In the interim, Eleanor’s cynical attitude towards her husband slowly softens as she learns previously unknown information and as she recognizes the extent of his danger.
After many plot twists and turns, the movie comes to a dramatic and suspenseful conclusion, as Eleanor unsuspectingly leads the killer directly to a coded rendezvous Frank had set up with her at an amusement park. Too late she realizes her mistake.
The sights and sounds of the amusement park—the screams, shouts, roars, rumbles, and general noise—juxtaposed against the unfolding dramatic plot, add masterfully to the tension. In particular the maniacal laughter from Laffing Sal—the grotesque animatronic figure towering over the park entrance—adds a jarring, unnerving note to the closing scenes of the movie.
I think soberly of some of the dramatic scenes unfolding in our own world, at every level of life. Wars, unrest, breakdowns in foundations, in structures, in integrity… But they seem all but lost in the sights and sounds of ponderous insouciance—in the screams and shouts, the rumbles and roars—the thrill of oblivion.
Meanwhile at the most dangerous levels imaginable, agents of mayhem and destruction worm their way into the confidence of the naïve and unsuspecting, ingratiating themselves with clever lies and duplicity. And yet Scripture gives us clear warning and direction:
Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you” (Ephesians 5:8-14).
For Eleanor, awakening came on the second ride. She had been convinced to take the first, believing that she shared the agenda of her killer “friend”. It wasn’t until she found herself on the “Second Ride-Half Fare!” that she was jolted to awareness and regret.
We need not be drawn that far into manipulation and deceit—Scripture offers us wisdom and protection: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1John 4:1).
The apostle Paul's instruction to Timothy—Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15 - NKJV)—can help us guard against the snares of complacency, unawareness and naïveté.
In the diligence of study we can still the noises of distraction—the roaring and the rumbling, the madness and the mayhem. And the constant cackling of maniacal laughter.
