At first glance, the movie, The Wizard of Oz seems like a simple, silly children’s story complete with song and dance: a Kansas girl gets tornadoed away to a strange land, meets super unusual companions, defeats a wicked witch with mere water, and eventually finds her way home…where she actually never left.
But beneath the flying monkeys, little people singing away and ruby slippers is a surprisingly rich faith-filled story.
Dorothy: The longing for home, Judy Garland
Dorothy (Judy Garland) begins with a profound human desire: “There’s no place like home.”
Home represents more than Kansas. It represents belonging, security, identity, and love. Dorothy believes she must go somewhere else to discover what she is looking for. Yet after all her adventures, she discovers that what she most deeply desired was already connected to where she began.
That sounds remarkably Christian.
We spend much of our lives searching:
- Where do I belong?
- What will make me happy?
- What will make my life meaningful?
- Where is God?
And Christianity keeps telling us that we don’t have to travel to some distant Emerald City to find God.God is already present. Sometimes the spiritual journey isn’t about discovering something completely new. It is about recognizing what has been present all along.
The Yellow Brick Road: The journey of faith
Dorothy follows the Yellow Brick Road because she has been told that it will lead her to the Wizard. That sounds a lot like the life of faith. We rarely receive a complete map. We receive enough light for the next step. The road has distractions, dangers, wrong turns, frightening creatures, and unexpected companions. Dorothy doesn’t know exactly where the road will take her. Neither do we. Faith does not mean knowing everything in advance. Faith means continuing to walk. (And if you’re Robert Frost, how about exploring “the road not taken?”)
There is something very religious about that. We make our pilgrimage through life trusting that God is somehow accompanying us even when the road becomes swerving and crooked and makes no sense.
The Scarecrow: “If I only had a brain”, Ray Bolger
The Scarecrow is convinced he lacks intelligence.
Yet throughout the journey, he repeatedly demonstrates good judgment, creativity, and common sense. He already possesses what he thinks he needs. How often do we do the same thing?
We tell ourselves:
“If only I were smarter…”
“If only I were more successful…”
“If only I had a new husband…”
“If only I were younger…”
“If only I had more money…”
“If only I found a different retirement home…”
“If only I were more talented…”
And God may be looking at us and saying, “You already have more than you realize.” The Christian understanding of grace is important here. Grace doesn’t necessarily give us something entirely foreign to ourselves. Grace awakens what God has already planted within us. (Repeat)
The Tin Man: The desire for a heart, Jack Haley
The Tin Man believes he needs a heart before he can love. But notice what he does along the journey. He cares. He worries about Dorothy. He shows compassion. He risks himself for his friends. In other words, he already has a heart. Again, the irony is beautiful. We sometimes think we need to become worthy of love before we can love others. Christianity reverses that logic. God loves us first. And because we are loved, we can learn to love. The Tin Man also reminds us that having a heart means becoming vulnerable. Love always makes us vulnerable because we can be hurt. But without vulnerability, there is no genuine love.
The Cowardly Lion: Courage isn’t the absence of fear Bert Lahr
The Lion wants courage. Yet he repeatedly acts courageously while being afraid.
That may be one of the most Christian insights in the entire movie. We sometimes imagine a courageous person as someone who feels no fear. But Christian courage is different.
Courage is doing what is right even when we are afraid.
The apostles were afraid. The saints were afraid. Mary must have been afraid.
with anguish, Jesus asks the cup to pass. Fear does not necessarily mean that faith has failed. Sometimes faith simply means saying: “I’m afraid, but I’m going anyway.”
The Wizard: Beware of false gods, Frank Morgan
And then there is the Wizard. Dorothy and her friends believe he possesses extraordinary power. They imagine that he has the answers to everything.
Eventually they discover the truth: The Wizard is not what he appears to be.
He is a little man behind a curtain manipulating appearances. There is an obvious spiritual lesson here. We create our own “wizards.”
Money. Success. Politics. Celebrity. Youth. Technology. Power. Status.
We imagine that these things will save us. We put our confidence in them and discover eventually that they cannot give us what they promised.
The Bible has a word for that:
idolatry.
An idol isn’t necessarily a statue. An idol is anything we ask to do for us what only God can do.
The Wicked Witch: Evil is real, but it doesn’t have the final word, Margret Hamilton
The Witch represents genuine evil. She wants Dorothy’s destruction because Dorothy possesses something she desires. But evil ultimately fails. The Witch’s power is frightening, but temporary. Christianity doesn’t deny the existence of evil. It simply refuses to believe that evil gets the last word. The Christian story moves toward resurrection. The darkness is real.
But the darkness is not final.
The Ruby Slippers: What Dorothy needed was with her all along
Perhaps the most theological symbol in the movie is Dorothy’s ruby slippers.
She possesses the means of returning home almost from the beginning, but she doesn’t understand their significance. She has been searching everywhere for what she already possesses. That is a powerful image of grace.
We can spend years searching for God, only to discover that God has been searching for us. We can spend years trying to earn God’s love, only to discover that God loved us before we ever thought about loving God. We can spend years trying to become worthy, only to discover that God’s grace was never a reward for being worthy.
And perhaps the greatest theological lesson
Dorothy (Judy Garland) doesn’t make the journey alone.
She has the Scarecrow, Ray Bolger; The Tin Man, Jack Haley; The Lion, Bert Lahr; The Wizard, Frank Morgan; The Witch, Margret Hamilton.
Even the known,strange and frightening experiences are all part of her journey.
That is another profoundly Christian idea:
We need one another. The Christian life isn’t a lonely, solitary trip down one road that’s colored yellow. We need friends who compensate for our ever present weaknesses.
When we lack courage (Bert Lahr), someone lends us courage.
When we don’t know what to do (Ray Bolger), someone helps us think.
When our hearts have become hard (Jack Haley), someone reminds us how to love.
Wizards (Frank Morgan) abound through every inch of our lives – magical formulas to stop this or than for $19.99, televangelists whose eye makeup melts at the sound of a ringing telephone, the adage “it’s too good to be true,” how often we fail to heed it.
The Margret Hamiltons’within our lives remains within our entire lives but we decide the length of our arm. When we lose our way, someone walks beside us.
That’s community. That’s friendship. That’s Church. That’s the Body of Christ.
That’s why The Wizard of Oz speaks to adults long far more than when we watched as children.
We grow older and discover that we’re still Dorothy (Judy Garland). We’re still walking as best as we can. We’re still looking for home. We’re still tempted by wizards (Frank Morgan). We’re still frightened by witches (Margaret Hamilton).
We’re still convinced we don’t have enough brains (Ray Bolger), enough heart (Jack Haley), or enough courage (Bert Lahr).
And perhaps God keeps whispering:
You have more than you think. You are loved more than you know. You are not walking alone. And there is no place like home.
Those ruby slippers? We’ve been wearing them since Baptism. Home is not merely a place, it is the place. Placing ourselves in God’s merciful and grace filled hands. Welcome home.
Rev. Joe Jagodensky, SDS.
Soulful Muse 