"Really? It's possible that believers blew a warning out of proportion? How strange! I've never known that to have happened before!"
Actually, I did walk in with a little anxiety. I wondered how obvious the scenes would be. I was curious about what Claire would actually notice. The moments were briefer than brief. And, Claire did notice one thing... the criticism. When we walked out of the movie, Claire looked at me and questioned, "My friend said the Beast was gay and she wasn't going to see it. But, how does she know?"
OK, I can't help it,
"Really? It's possible that believers' exaggerations of sin flaunting in this movie were even misinterpreted and misrepresented? Weird! I've never known that to happen before!" (Please forgive me! I tell Scotty I have the spiritual gift of sarcasm.)
So, I was warned about the flaunting of the sin of homosexuality in the movie. I chose to buy a ticket and go anyway. For the entirety of the movie, though, I kept noticing sin that I wasn't warned about.
There was lying and deceit. Pride and arrogance were flaunted regularly. There were obvious and lengthy scenes of attempted murder. Human lives were belittled and mocked repeatedly and to the tunes of catchy little songs. Simply put, sin was rampant. Brokenness was everywhere. But, no blog writer warned me about that.
Why? It's an honest question. I'm not eager to minimize sin. Sin is sin is sin, and it breaks the heart of God while injuring us, His children. But, truly, I'm wondering why we say all sin is the same but live and respond like we believe quite the opposite.
Here's the thing.... Humanity's sin problem is the result of us, God's loved and perfectly cared for children, fearing that He can't or won't take care of us properly. We worry that He's holding out on us. In our brokenness, we look for answers to our pain outside the realm of what He says is good and helpful for us. We respond to others in the consequence of our sinful choices. The mess becomes bigger, and it sometimes feels like our time to right the wrongs is running out. Sadly, our emotions force us to focus on the Beast when Beauty came to restore.
The answer to our sin problem (all sin) has come, and He has paid sin's required price. It is finished! No sin is bigger than Christ's sacrifice. But, all of us have to choose forgiveness and enter into a relationship with our Savior. Everyone has to lay down pride and admit that we need His transformation daily. Even though our lives are rescued for eternity at the moment of salvation, the transformation of hearts to seek Jesus above our sin is an ongoing process.
Tale as old as time
Tune as old as song
Bitter sweet and strange
Finding you can change
Learning you were wrong
And, there it is! The answer to our sin problem is Jesus. But, to fully embrace Him, we must receive the bitter sweet pill that we've been wrong. We must cooperate with Him and invite change. See, I don't think Jesus' death was necessary only for the "big" sins. I'm positive we'd be missing something if we weren't willing to confess that each of us, every single day, need to repent of harmful sin.
Choosing to focus all of my major effort on sins I don't struggle with could cause me to miss the piece of sanctification God wants to do in me. I want to forever view the sin that so easily entangles me, lay it before the Lord, and invite Him to change me. Again and again!
Humanity's brokenness is literally a tale as old as time. But, where sin runs deep, His grace runs deeper. Light overcame the darkness, so Christ is our Beauty. He's transforming His Bride as we move closer and closer to the day we seem Him face to face. I don't want to miss any part of my own personal transformation!
Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4: 16-18
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