At The Movies - Aladdin
We are so excited to bring you a series that we absolutely love being able to be apart of each year - the ‘At the Movies’ series seeks to bring out biblical truths through looking at Hollywood movies and seeing what great principles we can find! The movies always have a wide range of appeals - some are classic and some are very new to the big screen! Unfortunately, due to copyright concerns, we are not able to stream the service for this series; we encourage those who are comfortable to join us in-person for the Gathering - otherwise, we hope these blog posts will give you the life and truth that you desire!
Our second week of our At The Movies Series addressed the live-action version of the classic Disney hit - Aladdin! Pastor Robbie introduces the film saying, “One of the things I really love about this movie is that you notice right away that there is this common theme, this woven thread that is going to happen throughout the entire film, and it started off right at the beginning with that first clip that we watched. And it’s this common thread of self-worth and significance. You saw it right at the beginning with the kids, they are sitting on their ship and what are they doing? They are looking at another ship, a bigger ship, and they are thinking “Oh our life would be better, or our life would have more value, we’d have more worth if we had a bigger ship, a bigger ship means a better life.” And quickly, you see it in the film that there is this lie, that if we have more, or we are more, then life is more, right?
We see this more at the core of the plot of the film, “Aladdin is our main character; he is a common thief in the Arabian city of Agrabah. So one day, he is out in the market doing what he does, stealing bread and apples and other things, when he runs into the princess, but of course, he doesn’t know it’s her because she’s keeping that a secret so that she blends into the crowd. She’s doing this because she constantly has to stay in the palace because her father, the sultan, is a bit overprotective. But our hero Aladdin suns into her, and naturally like in real life, they fall in love in like 30 seconds, right? Unfortunately for Aladdin, she can only marry a prince, and there you have the big tension and struggle of the story. On the backside, a secondary plot involves a villain, his name is Jafar and he is the advisor to the sultan. But he has this unbelievable desire to be all-powerful and to rule, so basically he’s like every villain, but the only way he can do it is by getting this magical lamp that’s hidden in a cave. And the only way that he can get into the cave is that someone who is worthy, someone pure has to go in, in other words - NOT Jafar. And so he has to find the “diamond in the rough” to go in for him, and that happens to be Aladdin. So Jafar is going to use Aladdin to try to get what he wants.” We see a rogue (Aladdin) going after a disgruntled princess (Jasmine), who eventually falls in love, having to deal with a power-hungry sorcerer (Jafar) and show that even in the face of difficulties, things will work out how they are supposed to.
The dynamics between these characters and the initial motivations for their actions are what we will be focusing on here. An author named Robert McGee in his book The Search for Significance actually sets up an equation for us that illustrates what we’re talking about. He gives us this equation that self-worth = performance + others’ opinions. Now, this is a perceived truth, which we’ve talked about before. But this is a perceived truth here. Aladdin believes that to be a better person, he needs to be wealthy so that people won’t look down on him for his station; Jasmine believes her father, the Sultan, is holding her back from her potential and without that restraint, she would find the value and worth that she desires; and of course, you heard Jafar, he said being #2 is just not enough, I have to be #1, and he is driven by this idea—this notion that his self-worth will not be complete until he’s at the very top by any means necessary.
Coming from Ecclesiastes 3:9-12 we see that the author is giving us an amazing truth here. He’s telling us something that most if not all of you already know, and that is that there is something more to this life. There is something more than the 9-5, something more than the routine of life, something more than the monotonous and the mundane. He’s telling us that there’s something more today, I want you to hear that church because maybe you have forgotten it, but there is something more to this life. The author tells you why right here, because you have eternity in your heart! Eternity has no bounds—it has no limits; of course, we search for significance because we have eternity in us! We were created with a desire to search for the significant One, but along the way, we started trying to BE the significant one or marry the significant one or buy significance. These are things that just try to take the place of the significance we have in Christ, they call out to our basic human needs to be more than we perceive ourselves to be.
As the audience, we can quickly feel this tension, because Aladdin wants to be significant, he wants to be important, he wants to be somebody, so much so - that he’s willing to be used. We know it, we see where the story is going and we just want to shout at him “how do you not see it?!” But he has this drive because of performance or people’s opinions so much so, that he’s willing to compromise wisdom. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve been there. I’ve compromised wisdom. I have made selfish decisions based solely on money, or advancement, or just for kudos of others. Again, we are Aladdin.
Moving forward in the film we see a segment where Aladdin did everything right and then the monkey had to go and grab the ruby. But what’s crazy about this, is that it’s kinda like life right? We’re on a journey, we have some goals, we’re trying to reach a destination, and then what? Life happens, right? Life keeps getting in the way, maybe many of us feel that way about 2020, like we had some stuff to get done, some goals and then 2020 came out of nowhere and messed it all up.
You start off good, and then you make one decision, or someone else makes a decision, or Covid shows up, and you find yourself doing a loopty-loop, and a spiral, and a corkscrew, and you don’t know what’s going on, and you’re exhausted by the time you get to B. This is what life looks like. We’re on this journey through life, and our decisions are not going to happen in the proper progression, they are going to carry us off the path from time to time, maybe more often than not. But, here’s what I believe, I think that God gives us grace in life, and that grace can sometimes be found in some unexpected characters.
The Genie then comes on the scene; Aladdin does get his wishes. For his first wish, he asks to be a prince so he can have a shot with Princess Jasmine. But quickly we see him start to compromise some wisdom and really compromising who he is. We start to see Aladdin change. And what Aladdin is learning, and what maybe you have learned on your journey, is that our compromises become our consequences. When we consider the prodigal son in Luke 15, Things did not go as he planned, things didn’t go as he expected, he compromised and was living a certain way, and he learned something that many of us have learned or are learning, and that’s How we navigate the journey shapes our destination. He had to realize that I am where I am today because of my decisions. And here’s what I can tell you, to escape that, to not let the false beliefs drive us, to not let this fake search of self-worth dictate our futures, there is a remedy.
Sometimes, repentance or an A-Ha moment will have us turn away from the thing that we’re pursuing. And that’s what we think will happen, so that’s why we avoid repentance. But really it has us turn from something that is trying to manipulate our thoughts, our actions, our destination. I love that we get to see this moment in Aladdin.
Where are you looking for your significance? Where are you finding your self-worth? Have you had an A-Ha moment of repentance, or are you still traveling down a road of false beliefs? Your significance is not found by what you create in this life but is given by the One who created your life.
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
At The Movies - Aladdin: The version we went over was the Live-Action version - if you have seen the animated but not this one, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it just as much!
Main Scripture Passages: Ecclesiastes 3:9-12; Luke 15:11-32
Our Desire for Significance: I believe that this is true because we were all created: We are created with a sense of self-worth and significance from our creator; our desire for it is natural, but often self-seeking.
Our Compromises become our Consequences: Like the old adage ‘Be careful what you wish for.’ the ways in which we compromise in our lives often point to the consequences from them.
Our Self-Worth—our Significance comes only from being a child of the most-high God: “I hope that you know that God loves you and I hope that you step into this idea of eternal self-worth because your worth in Christ comes from the fact that you are a son or daughter of God. Nothing on earth can compare to that and fill that” - Pastor Robbie
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes. (Sermons will not be posted from 10/4-11/1)
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Join us next Sunday as we continue to meet at the Premiere Cinema 10 at 10 am!
We hope that you and your family are well—know that You Are Loved!