Last night I watched Sweeney Todd.* Without going into detail, the title character is a man whose life experiences have left him spiritually and emotionally dead. Vengeance and hatred drive his every action. Each of the other characters also have their own woundings that lead to morally bankrupt decisions.
It was easy to dismiss these fictional characters as over the top and unrealistic. Yet as I lay in bed a passage from Reality: The Hope of Glory by Art Katz came to mind.
“There are people who are wearing pinstriped suits, whose voices are never raised above quiet monotones, who live perfectly ordered, ethical cultural lives, who are as much slaves to Satan as that woman. Don’t you see them? Their lives are not their own; they are marching to a beat that sounds out of the depths of hell, and do not even know it.”
“Mankind is groaning; do we have ears to hear? When we see that man in the pinstriped suit, and he seems to have everything in order, and is well-spoken, do we assume that all is well? If we are children of the spirit, we need also to see by the eye of the Spirit that we are surrounded by people whose souls are shrieking and crying with hellish torture, although they give every outward appearance of having everything in its place.”
Todd does us the courtesy of stripping its characters of the outward appearance of normalcy. We see them and are immediately aware of their depravity and need for salvation. Reality does not allow us this same courtesy. We cannot tell by looking looking at the surface what is lurking beneath it. The characters in Sweeney Todd are the same people we pass in the grocery store every week. Our neighbors and families carry the facade of wholeness but greed, deceit, adultery and murder lie unchecked in their souls. They too are dead on the inside.
How much do I miss? Do I hear the screaming of a world on its way to hell? I am done dancing in the masquerade Satan has created. God give me discernment to see past the exterior and into the hearts of those with whom I come into contact. Give me the grace to see as You see. Let me look upon reality by the power of Your Spirit.
You could have gone a whole different direction with this. Remember? Vengeful husband set to music? Perhaps I’ll do a post on it…
I had that in mind while writing this post. I didn’t go in that direction because the excitement was yours.
You should most certainly write a post on it. Though Mr Todd is in no way actually like Jesus, your description is apt. Especially the part where He strikes them to the beat of the drum and melody of the lyre. No really…it’s in there. Isaiah, I think.