Among my favorite cinematic productions is The Lord of the Rings trilogy. While no film is a perfect translation of its respective novel, the LOTR movies come pretty close: so much epic grandeur and depth and sublimity. In the end, after the evil Sauron has been vanquished, the gritty Aragorn mantles himself in an air of stateliness as he accepts his crown. Eons have passed, but the kingship has finally been restored to Gondor, the shriveled white tree finally blooms again, and ivory-colored petals fill the air as at the grandest of celebrations. The king has returned!
One can’t help but notice that LOTR is dripping with Biblical parallels. After centuries without a king, Jesus appears as David’s heir, through sacrifice he conquers death, then later he is arrayed in splendor in His heavenly form as depicted in Revelation. I could go on and on with examples.
Which makes me wonder, why hasn’t anyone made a Jesus film with the same epic grandeur, depth, and sublimity that LOTR has? Many of the Jesus films out there just seem to me to be a bit on the folksy and lame side. The Passion of the Christ captures a lot of gravity and grittiness, but many Jesus films, while depicting Jesus’ humanity quite well, just don’t quite capture the essence of His divinity. I want to see Jesus the warrior-king riding forth upon His steed with his fiery eyes, crowned with many diadems, white robed, bronze-footed, His face like the sun shining in its strength.
I’ve been reading the Letter to the Hebrews recently. At the outset, the author says, “He [Jesus] is the radiance of His [God’s] glory and the exact representation of His [God’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.” So God-rays emanate from Jesus Himself. Wow! Then near the end of the Hebrews letter, the writer announces that “at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.” The “consummation,” or as some translate it, the “culmination” of the ages. The climax of climaxes. This is pretty epic!
So here is call-out for a Jesus film with the cinematics of The Lord of the Rings!
(A blockbuster King David film would be pretty rockin’ awesome too!)
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