1. The Young Messiah Violates the Second Commandment
If you read my review of Risen, you know that I had this same problem with that film as well. The second commandment commands that we must not make a graven image and bow down to it or worship it (Exodus 20:4-5). Obviously, this passage is commanding us not to create an idol and worship it. However, this command encompasses more than just this sin. Notice that verse 5 also makes mention of the fact that God is a jealous God. God wants our worship to be solely focused on Him. Therefore, it is not just idols that we must not worship, but we must also not worship any image that is not God.
What does that have to do with movies like The Young Messiah? Movies like The Young Messiah that depict Christ are presenting us with an actor portraying Christ. These movies present us with an image of Christ. But it is not actually Christ in the film. It is an actor. "Yeah, so?" you might ask. Well, in order to answer that question, I have to tell you a little story about myself (don't worry, it's short). I don't remember how old I was exactly, but I'm pretty sure I was about ten years old when I won a copy of The Visual Bible: Matthew. Basically, this was (literally) a word-for-word adaptation of the NIV translation of the book of Matthew. Of course, since this was an adaptation of Matthew, there was an actor portraying Jesus in it. I watched this film over and over again until I had most of it practically memorized. The problem with this was that I was imprinting an image of Christ in my brain, and to this day my brain defaults to the image of that actor playing Jesus almost every time I hear Jesus' name. The unfortunate thing about this is that because this happens, I end up subconsciously worshiping that image of Christ rather than the actual Christ. This happens because when I am supposed to be thinking about Christ and focusing on Him, I am actually thinking about that actor and putting my focus on him.
My point is that if this can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. Especially with film, it is incredibly easy to associate the image of an actor portraying someone with that person's name. Let me give you an example. I'll bet that if I say Aragorn, those of you who have seen Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy will immediately think of Viggo Mortensen with bad hair and whiskers. The same is true with Jesus. The problem with this is that Jesus is the Son of God, and we are to worship Him. At the very least, the image of the actor portraying Jesus that we associate with Jesus' name will be distracting when we try to focus our minds on Him so we can worship Him. But if that actor is what you think of when you worship Jesus, the person you are worship is no longer Jesus. Rather, you are worshiping someone pretending to be Jesus. This is a danger every time you go to see a movie that depicts the Savior. Granted, it is less of a concern in a movie like The Young Messiah or The Nativity Story which does not depict Christ as an adult, since most of the time when we talk about Jesus we are referring to Jesus as an adult. It is still, however, a danger that will rear its ugly head every time we contemplate Christ as a child.
2. The Young Messiah Delves into the Secret Things
Deuteronomy 29:29 says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." In His sovereignty, God chose not to reveal certain things to His people. We don't know why He did this because that is also a secret thing. But the reason why is not important. What is important is that the Scripture says that the secret things belong to the Lord. This means that if God does not tell us something, it is not our place to know it. We can speculate, but ultimately we cannot know for sure. Even speculation can be dangerous, as it is speculation about the secret things that sometimes leads to heresy. As a general rule, when the Scripture is silent on a subject, we should also be silent on that subject.
One such subject which the Scriptures are silent on is the childhood of Christ. Other than the events surrounding His birth and that time when Mary and Joseph could not find Jesus and ultimately found Him in the temple, the Scriptures don't say anything about Christ's childhood. Yet, the producers of The Young Messiah have created a theatrical film based on this largely unknown portion of Christ's earthly life.
Now, normally I do not have a problem with biopics that speculate over the childhood of a famous person. I wouldn't even mind if such a biopic was about someone like King David. However, I am concerned that out of all the biblical figures the producers could have chosen, they chose the Son of God. The reason for this concern (other than the objection I raised in point one) is that since Jesus is the Son of God, any speculation about His childhood falls under the branch of systematic theology called Christology, or the doctrine of Christ. The producers are teaching things about the Son of God that may or may not be true, and this has the power to impact the Christology of the audience, especially that of younger viewers. Not only that, but by choosing Christ as the film's subject matter, the producers have chosen to walk on some very thin ice. One misstep, and there film would end up presenting views of Christ that are heretical.
Indeed, I fear that the chances of this film being heretical are very good. Check out this paragraph from the plot description from the film's website: "When the mystery of Jesus’ divinity begins to unfold in His early years, He turns to His parents for answers. But Mary and Joseph, in an effort to protect their child, are afraid to reveal all they know. How do you explain the ways of the world to its Creator? How do you teach the Teacher? How do you help the Savior who came to save you?" From the sound of this, Jesus did not always know about His divinity according to this film. I'm not an expert on how the divine and the human natures of Christ relate, but I'm pretty sure that saying that the human nature was oblivious to the presence of the divine nature for years is heretical. This is exactly my point. The doctrine of Christ's human and divine natures is a very easy doctrine to get wrong, and the producers are taking it on themselves to explain it in this film. The chances of heresy being present in this film - especially given that plot description - are very high.
It is because The Young Messiah breaks the second commandment and deals with the secret things in a manner that appears to be headed down a heretical path that you will not find a review of The Young Messiah on this blog. Instead, all you will find is this plea to completely disregard the existence of this film and stay at home. If you are looking for a movie to watch with your family this weekend, there are lots of better options out there than The Young Messiah.
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