“And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit therof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Genesis 3:6; KJV)
In the final installment of the screen adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, the climax comes when the young Hobbit, Frodo, reaches the precipice of Mt. Doom where he must do away with the Evil Ring by tossing it into the fires below.
This has been Frodo’s mission for most of three movies and close to nine hours of movie-watching time – to come to this place and somehow recue the world.
But then the unthinkable happens.
Young Frodo is captured by the very Evil he was commissioned to dispose of.
The message of this scene, at least in Tolkein’s book according to one writer, is “a simple and profound demonstration of pride’s deadly consequences.” (Doing Tolkien Justice by Jeffrey Overstreet; Christianity Today, January 2004)
What we are reminded about by this (especially as followers of Jesus Christ) is that evil and pride are a formidable force that would master each of us if but given the chance.
We must, therefore, not allow it even the slightest opportunity lest we come under its spell and the unthinkable happens.
Are you under something’s (or somebody’s) spell?
Snap out of it (snapping fingers sound).
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
(Mount Ngauruhoe, New Zealand, used as inspiration for Mount Doom in The Lord Of The Rings movies picture file above is under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license: click here. CC BY-SA 3.0)
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