Film Friday Wake Up Dead Man
In the first moments of this film young Father Jud lets his temper get the better of him, and so he is called before a board of three other priests to explain himself. However, he is extremely repentant, and apologises for his mistake. The board tell him that the better way is to fight against the world, the world they say is like a wolf, and the priest is the shepherd. But Father Jud refuses to believe that, he won’t see the world as a terrible place, he believes that Jesus came to serve the world, and he will too. Later in the film, the brilliant detective Benoit Blanc, pours out a highly rational critique of all things wrong with the church, and Father Jud lets him talk, receiving what he is saying. The irony is, that though he is no saint, Father Jud actually embodies so much that is good about the church and the way of Jesus.
We are all of us so flawed, and our heavenly father knows this, in Psalm 103 we find the line – ‘God knows that we are dust.’ We are all dusty people, getting it right, and getting it wrong. But that’s the wonder of Jesus and Christmas. The child in the animal stall has come to bring the light into our lives, to make a new way for us. Not because we are perfect, but because he is. He came as a servant, gave up the beauty of heaven, and began his life as he meant to go on, amongst the mud and the mess and the reality of life. Jesus is humble and powerful, gentle and supreme. A king like no other. And the wonderful thing about him is that he is there with us in our triumphs and our disasters. And though we are dusty and cracked clay pots, as it says in 2 Corinthians 4, it’s his goodness and light that shines from us to the world around. May you glimpse him again this Christmas.
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