Denzel Washington, a two-time Academy Award winner and licensed minister, was named the “greatest actor of the 21st century” by the New York Times. But don’t call him a “Hollywood” actor.
Washington and fellow actor Jake Gyllenhaal were interviewed by CBS News recently. The two are starring in a production of Shakespeare’s Othello, which has become the highest-grossing Broadway play ever. During the conversation, Washington said, “What’s the definition of a Hollywood actor? Myself, I’m from Mt. Vernon, so I’m a ‘Mt. Vernon actor.’ I don’t know what ‘Hollywood’ means. Someone who’s famous on film? A film actor, great success on film?”
He continued: “I’m a stage actor who does film; it’s not the other way around. I did stage first. I learned how to act on stage, not on film.”
Then he made a distinction I find significant: “Movies are a filmmaker’s medium. You shoot it, and then you’re gone and they cut together and add music and do all of that. Theater is an actor’s medium. The curtain goes up, nobody can help you.”
Employing his contrast, let’s ask ourselves: Are we in a play or in a movie today? Are we on our own on the stage, or are we part of a larger project being produced by an unseen filmmaker?
Our answer determines the direction and significance of our lives.
Why did Jesus wait so long?
Today let’s return to John 5 and the pool of Bethesda. As we noted yesterday, Jesus healed an invalid here because the man was willing to be healed and chose to partner with Jesus in this remarkable miracle (vv. 1–9).
This morning, let’s focus on a fact we bypassed yesterday: this man “had been an invalid for thirty-eight years” (v. 5).
Assuming he had been placed by the pool across these years hoping for healing and seeking alms from the religious people on their way to the temple, it is likely that Jesus had encountered him many times in the past. Every observant Jew was required to come to the Jerusalem temple at least three times a year. The pathway from the Sheep Gate past this ritual cleansing pool to the temple was frequently used by worshipers.
It would therefore seem that Jesus could have healed this man many years before he did. Why did he wait so long?
The text doesn’t say. But we do know that if Jesus had healed this man before our Lord launched his public ministry, this miracle would have begun that ministry before the timing was right. Or, if he had done so during the “anonymous” earlier years of his earthly life, the miracle would not have had the public and redemptive impact it possessed then and still today.
So we can conclude that God’s timing had to do with the kingdom significance of this event occurring—not just where and how it did, but when it did.
The providential producer of every scene in Scripture
Now let’s connect this story with Denzel Washington’s observation. Across the Bible, God is the director of every “movie” we encounter, the providential producer of every scene. At times he enters the scene personally, as when he parted the Red Sea to liberate the Jews and joined the human race through his incarnate Son at Christmas.
Consequently, the first question to ask of every text we find in Scripture is this: What does this say about God? At the pool of Bethesda, we learn:
- Jesus knows us and our challenges today.
- He wants to meet our needs.
- He honors our free will and thus invites us to partner with him in accomplishing his will.
- We can trust his timing and purposes. In fact, the less we understand him, the more we need to trust him.
- When we do what he calls us to do, he does what we cannot do.
Now, imagine that the invalid had insisted on being a self-reliant actor on the stage rather than playing his role as directed in the film. We can envision him rejecting Jesus’ compassion since it was not offered earlier on the man’s preferred timeline. We can see him refusing to “get up” until Jesus healed him rather than acting in faith that he would. And since “that day was the Sabbath” (v. 9), we can see him rejecting Jesus’ command to “take up your bed” since this violated the religious traditions of their day (v. 10).
Would he then have been healed? As Denzel Washington said, if you’re an actor on the stage, “nobody can help you.”
The lure and danger of “radical individualism”
In Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life, the famed American sociologist Dr. Robert Bellah writes that the biblical tradition “teaches concern for the intrinsic value of individuals because of their relationship to the transcendent.”
He adds that because this tradition “asserts the obligation to respect and acknowledge the dignity of all,” it has “played a crucial political role since the beginning of the republic.” This is because it “guided the nation’s founders . . . to insist that the American experiment is a project of common moral purpose, one which places upon citizens a responsibility for the welfare of their fellows and for the common good.”
By contrast, Dr. Bellah references “radical individualism” ten times in his book and notes that it “tends to elevate the self to a cosmic principle.” While it clearly defines our existentialist, postmodern, “post-truth” secularized culture, he notes that it is incapable of sustaining our society. In prosperity, we congratulate ourselves for our self-reliant success. In adversity, we tell individuals that they must look after their own interests.
At all times, when you’re an actor on the stage, “nobody can help you.”
“You lead. I follow.”
The story of the man healed beside the pool of Bethesda is in the Bible because it is as relevant to us as it was to him. We are all spiritual invalids. No sinner is capable of forgiving his own sins or saving his own soul. Like a swimmer drowning in an undertow, no amount of “radical individualism” can rescue us.
If we insist on being the lead actor in our own play, we forfeit what an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving Director can do for us and through us. Conversely, if we submit to the One who is directing the eternal movie of the cosmos, play our role, and trust him with the outcome, we experience his omnipotent best in our lives.
Said differently, we say to God every day and all through every day, “You lead. I follow.”
Who is directing your life right now?
Quote for the day:
“Use me, God. Show me how to take who I am, who I want to be, and what I can do, and use it for a purpose greater than myself.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Our latest website resources:
Denison Forum
DAILY DEVOTIONS, NEWS AND INFORMATION 