Last week, Samantha and I had the privilege of heading to King of Prussia, Pennsylvania for the KLOVE event showing "The Young Messiah."
The film is based on the fictional childhood account of Jesus, "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt," written by Anne Rice. If you follow the blog here, you may know that two of the books that I read in 2015 for my reading goal were Rice's "Out of Egypt" and "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana," so I was excited to see that a movie was being made out of a book that I enjoyed.
I preface everything that I am about to write today with the statement that I am 100% fully aware that the book and the film are fictional accounts written and directed about a period in the life of Christ that we do not have any record of. Both books are written about periods that the Bible does not give us any information at all about.
With that said, I did enjoy the film immensely and one of the reasons why is that it got my mind thinking about what it would have been like for Jesus as a child. I have to admit, prior to reading the book and seeing this film, my thoughts of Jesus as a child were limited and maybe relegated to the story of Jesus as a boy in the temple, found in Luke 2. This is probably the case for many of us, especially because the scriptures do not have any other outside information about any other real point in his upbringing / childhood.
I appreciate Anne Rice's study and research for the book (which eventually led to the film). She dug deep into history and allowed a lot of what we do know to be applied and give us a glimpse of what Jesus' life could really have been like. I found myself thinking about not only what I was reading on the page or watching on the screen, but also thinking about the emotions that I felt as a child and young man. It brought a lens of reality to a period of life that obviously happened, but really wasn't something that I have focused in on or really studied.
Another reason why I think that I really enjoyed the film was the actors that they chose to fill the different roles. There was only one actor that I recognized in the film (Sean Bean - The Lord of the Rings), so each character that I saw before me was new to me. I wasn't looking at so and so playing Mary. I saw Mary on the screen; I saw Joseph on the screen; I saw Jesus on the screen.
Many Christians may not be able to get past the fact that the work is fictional. They focus in on the fact that this is not scripture and as a result may simply write it off. My encouragement is to check out the film and then have the conversation as a family, asking questions such as "What do you think Jesus was like as a child?" "How do you think Jesus responded to situations with bullies?" "Do you think that Jesus went through every emotion like you do?"
Is it perfect? No movie is. But it is a breath of fresh air in a society that insists on filling our minds with junk and trash.
I would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to comment here on the blog or drop me a line on Twitter: @solidschultz.
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