Recently, my lovely future wife and I were watching the classic movie, Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, when we were both rather surprised at the amount of bad theology that seeped out through its plot. I realize that the movie is just that, a movie, and not exactly supposed to represent Truth in any way, but it still troubled me.Just as with the obsession over The DaVinci Code, The Shack, and other drivel, many people latch on to "Popcorn Theology" because of their desperate search for spiritual clarity, truth, meaning, and individual empowerment, but at the same time, something interesting or controversial. Not surprising, however, is the fact that George Lucas, a man who made billions by inventing a religion that captivated many ("The Force" in Star Wars), and Stephen Spielberg, whose movies continuously project a desperate search for transcendent meaning (often relying on aliens as his supernatural source of that meaning), helped to write this and all the other Indy movies.
In fact, Spielberg said this about the The Last Crusade, "the Grail is symbolic of finding the truth in one's life--the truth we are always looking for, consciously or unconsciously...Once I could look upon the Grail twofold as a physical antiquity from religious history and as a symbolic metaphor for self-illumination, then it became interesting to me." It is no wonder that this sort of New Age-y, self-empowerment attitude has seeped its way into the film, reeking havoc on theological orthodoxy along the way.
Even though the writers of the movie got a lot of things wrong about Jesus, they nearly made up for it at the end. If you squint, and make a few edits, you could make it a not-too-bad salvation message out of it.
Below are two of the most ludicrous gaffs made by characters in the movie, and the ending that almost saved them:
"Eternal Life" and "Living Water"
In the film, several characters confuse the scriptural mention of "eternal life" and "living water" as something physical. They even quote John 4:14, "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life,” and make this the basis for their grail mythology (see below). Taking this verse literally as a physical eternal life misses the entire point of the New Testament, specifically the Gospel of Jesus.
Grail Mythology
Like The DaVinci Code basically created detailed "history" out of thin air, so does Jones with the story of the Holy Grail. The movie makes the claim that the Grail is the cup that Christ drank from at the Last Supper and also caught his b lood as he was crucified. After Christ died, the cup was trusted to Joseph of Arimathea, was lost for one thousand years, then was uncovered by knights during the Crusades. After they found this Grail, which apparently has the ability to give immortality to those who drink from it, one knight stood guard over the cup for over 700 years while the others traveled to France and Italy for whatever reason, leaving behind clues to the Grail's resting place for those worthy and clever enough to figure them out.
The Grail legend is an interesting topic, one which I would love to delve further in. In my limited knowledge of Grail folklore history, it has had many roles in but in most versions of the legend "the hero must prove himself worthy to be in its presence" (thus the three tests that Jones must pass), and in later legend tellings, "the Grail is a symbol of God's grace, available to all but only fully realized by those who prepare themselves spiritually." Had the movie gone with this concept, as it skates ever so closely to doing, the result would have been less unsatisfying.
(Side note: What I found the most funny about this movie was the idea that one medieval knight had the ingenuity, tools, and manpower to create the three "tests" that one had to pass through to get the Grail...but that's neither here nor there.)
Close but no cigar...
At the end of the film, after Jones has successfully passed three tests, he meets our brilliant engineer/knight who explains the idea that, just as the real Grail gives you physical eternal life, so does the false Grail bring you physical demise. Here is where I have to give them some credit--they almost got it right. If you look at it in a metaphorical, spiritual sense, it is somewhat profound. Just as choosing Christ will bring you spiritual eternal life, so too will not choosing Christ, or choosing a false "Grail," will leave you spiritually deceased.
Furthermore, the film makes another weighty statement. The bad guy in the film bases his Grail choice on appearance. He chooses a big, shiny, golden, jewel-speckled cup to bring him eternal life. Of course, this is an unwise choice. Immediately after drinking from this Grail, he shrivels up and turns to dust. Indiana Jones, however, chooses a more humble Grail made of clay and chipped from use. This turns out to be the real cup of Christ. It is not difficult to glean from this idea the theological implications. Many times people rest their salvation on big, shiny things, instead of the on the true Christ. It is only through his humble love that we can achieve eternal life.
Had the writers really believed this, of course, I doubt they would have made such grave mistakes as they did.
