So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of my mouth. – Rev 3:16
Jesus Revolution is getting a lot of traction these days. While showing alongside other movies such as Avatar: The Way of Water, Ant‑Man and the Wasp, and Creed III, it has held it’s own bringing in $39,453,451 at domestic box offices, expected to hit worldwide soon. (MovieGuide 3.14.23)
This unexpected film has everything that makes for a hit movie. Suspense, drama, humor… oh, and of course drugs and rock & roll, along with everything that comes with it. “A Jesus movie with drug use?,” the comfy conservative christian might be thinking. Perhaps this comfy Christian would also be like the one portrayed in this well-done, but in a sense half-baked cinematic representation. To wonder about drug use in a Christian movie, any movie at that, is not a bad thought. However this movie might have you believe that it is a bad thought. That even questioning it is, well, wrong.
The Movie
Among the backdrop of the hippie movement, the story of the life of Greg Laurie parallels many youth’s lives during that time, especially those in the pursuit of “truth.” He experiences an attractive wooing while searching for something outside of the status quo. He meets it along with a group of friends including most primarily his object of desire… Cathe, a girl that would turn out to be his future wife.
At the same time the movie also follows the life of a pastor (Chuck Smith) who was looking to expand his uptight and concentrated congregation.
But before getting too much into the actual movie, the previews need to be taken into consideration. The new Little Mermaid, Dungeons & Dragons, and a coming of age story via Judy Blume are somewhat delicately, yet unapologetically plastered across the screen so, as it would seem, to open up our minds… that is, to the ‘reality’ of the movie we’re about to see. This reality being the raw portrayal of revolutionized lives, based on true stories and events during the hippie movement.
In essence, the hippie movement was just like one of these trailers unapologetically plastered on our personal timeline, our internal thoughts, highlighting everything tempting about the hippie generation, compelling the viewer to go to, in this instance, experience it, make it part of their reality, even part of their light hearted truth.
With the movie title centering around Jesus, especially in the times we’re living in today, it’s not difficult to jump to conclusions. We could easily say that all of the things that this flick revealed was due to Jesus. Almost like the way we do at Christmas. “Jesus is the reason for the season!” Although the sentiment is authentic, the truth is less natural than that. What we see in reality, even in this generation, is that Jesus is not always the ‘reason for the season,’ and in this movie, He’s not always the reason for this revolution. We can see the alternative effects of it today, both in and outside of the church.
One of the opening lines in the first few minutes of the movie promoted this occurrence during the hippie movement as “a true revolution”. The very indication and use of this word is seemingly attempting to force something that is almost, but not quite there. At least not in the systematic sense. On a broad spectrum nothing was overthrown and nothing was brought down. Things got started, things were added to, and something did happen.
The practical conclusion is that this movie is one about the hippie movement, and another attempt at the church appropriating itself to match the culture, but doing it following the coattails of the hippie train. In this, the Jesus Revolution movie is lukewarm at best for the true disciples and a half baked reality for those not yet in the Way. It is a sort of second truth. And in the words of Walter Hagen, “No one remembers who came second.”
