WICKED: WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT THEMES FROM THE MOVIES?
Three Key Takeaways
Entertainment shapes our thinking more than we realise. Films, songs, and adverts smuggle ideas into our hearts and minds like a Trojan horse. The idea isn't front and centre—it slips in through the back door whilst we're enjoying the story. Training ourselves to think critically about what we consume is one of the most important things we can do.
The Bible teaches that sin is both personal and systemic. Wicked leans toward institutional evil in the first film and personal reflection in the second. But Scripture is clear: both are real problems. We have personal sin in our hearts, and there are also corrupt systems and cultures that corrupt us further. We don't have to argue against one for the other.
True freedom comes from Christ, not from within ourselves. Defying Gravity is about finding boldness within yourself to break free from restrictions. But Ephesians 2 describes something different: we were dead in sin, and God made us alive in Christ. We're not lifted up because we discovered something within ourselves—we're raised because Christ was raised from the dead.
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WICKED: THEMES FROM THE BIG SCREEN
In this final instalment of our 'Trending' series, Stu takes on the film Wicked. But this isn't just about one movie. It's about how entertainment shapes our thinking, often without us noticing, and how we can learn to filter the messages we receive.
Why Entertainment Matters
When the series first started, the idea was to preach on news and politics stories each week. But the team also thought it would be good to reflect on a big song or film, because in many ways, the entertainment world probably shapes our thinking more than news stories. We watch films, sing songs, read books, and pick up ideas. If we're not careful, we don't actually filter them on the way into our hearts and heads.
Romans 12 describes it: "Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The truth is, almost every single person in our culture faces a constant barrage of messaging conforming us all to wear certain clothes, think certain ways, talk with certain language, have certain ideas—probably much more than most of us are aware of. We're being shaped into a mould.
It's sometimes more obvious in teenagers. You see a bunch of teenage girls all wearing exactly the same thing, or a bunch of teenage boys wearing exactly the same thing. But it's true in adults too, just in different ways.
Learning to Filter Messages
Stu admits he wasn't particularly passionate about Wicked itself. What he wanted was for us to have a practice at filtering the messages we get from the world. Every time you watch a film, listen to a song, watch a TV programme, or even see an advert, you should probably have your brain switched on to think: do I agree with what I'm being told?
Stu shares a story about sitting with his kids watching adverts. His wife Livy was particularly proactive. An advert would come on giving the impression that what you need to be happy is this car, or these trainers. She'd say, "Boys, it's a lie." The boys would respond, "We know, Mum." Then another advert: "It's another lie, boys." There was this constant cycle of her trying to train the boys—and maybe Stu too—to think critically about what they were being told.
The reason these things are so clever is because they smuggle ideas in like a Trojan horse. The idea isn't normally front and centre. The film isn't called "An Argument for This Idea." It's called something completely different, but the idea just gets smuggled in through the back door without you realising it. You listen to a song thinking you're just enjoying the tune and melody, but some of the words are finding their way into your heart and shaping the way you think about life.
Training ourselves to think carefully is probably one of the most important things we do. If you're a parent or working with teenagers or kids, training them to think like that is one of the best things you can do.
The Case Study: Wicked
The case study is Wicked, which just came out. Stu went to the late-night showing on Friday to make sure he could fit it in. The story of The Wizard of Oz has filled Western minds for 125 years. The basic idea is that The Wizard of Oz had a good witch and a bad witch—the Wicked Witch of the West. The film, book, and musical ask: why did the Wicked Witch become known as wicked? What really makes someone wicked?
When you watch a film, it's good to recognise what are the good bits you can agree with, and what bits you want to raise questions about. If you've watched Wicked, there are some good bits. There's a message about friendship—two women who support each other. There's a theme about oppression and justice. There's a theme of truth. There's a prophetic voice speaking truth to power.
But there are also challenging bits. The first film leans towards the idea of institutional evil. Rather than focusing on sin and wickedness in people, it's more popular to think that institutions and systems can be corrupt, and the problem is not the person. The problem is the system. If we can fix the system, then everyone would just be good.
The second film leans more reflective. Elphaba sings a song and asks: was I really doing good or was I just seeking attention? She's reflecting on herself. "I don't know that my motives were pure, actually. How could I know?"
What the Bible Says About Sin
Wickedness, evil, brokenness, fallenness, sin—these aren't comfortable to talk about, even in church. But there aren't many things more important for us to be clear about. You can't make sense of the Bible without a clear sense of the problem of sin. The cross of Jesus doesn't make sense unless there's a clear problem of sin in the world. It's impossible to make sense of the Scriptures we read and the gospel we're building our lives on without understanding sin, fallenness, wickedness, evil, and brokenness.
Stu reads from Romans 3, starting at verse 9: "What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. As it is written: None is righteous, no not one. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one."
Paul quotes verse after verse from the Old Testament. His conclusion: "Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God."
None of us should feel pretentious or confident in ourselves when it comes to righteousness. Every mouth should be stopped. Every boasting mouth should close. Every arrogant heart should humble itself because every single person has fallen short.
Ephesians 2 says something similar but broader: "You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
This talks about the three famous enemies of the Christian: the world, the flesh, and the devil. There is a devil, the prince of this world, working evil and wickedness. You yourself have a problem with temptation and sin. But there's also the course of this world—a way this world works that's set up against the knowledge and purpose of God.
The devil forms the cultures of this world so they work against God's purposes. Because we're gullible and we have sin in our hearts, we make decisions that follow the course of the world rather than righteousness, truth, and godliness.
As Stu said, the first film leans toward institutional evil, and the second leans into personal reflection. Sometimes people argue about which is the real problem. The Bible is clear that both are problems and both are real. Our own personal sin is real. And there are also corrupt systems that corrupt us further. We don't have to argue against one for the other.
The Bible does this with kings too. King Saul is the evil king—he ends up in witchcraft, working against God's purposes, disobedient. King David is the good king, chosen by God. But even the good king murders someone, commits adultery, lies, and completely fails. The contrast isn't bad king and ideal king. It's sinful king and another sinful king who repents, and God continues to use. Everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.
Defying Gravity vs. Being Raised with Christ
Ephesians 2 verse 4 says: "But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
This is the language of defying gravity. Defying Gravity is the most famous song in the film. The witch learns to fly and can do what she wants. In the film, she's breaking off cultural assumptions about her, turning her back on people who want to keep her down. Because she's found within herself this new passion and boldness, she can do whatever she wants and take on the world.
It's like a Let It Go moment from Frozen. The two songs are twin anthems of our age. "I can do whatever I want now. I can get rid of all those rules. Because I've found within myself this new thing, I can become who I want to be."
But in Ephesians 2, becoming a Christian does basically the same thing—you were down, but now you're up. But the contrast is this isn't something you've achieved because you looked within yourself. The difference is this isn't about what you've discovered within yourself. What you've recognised is that Jesus himself was raised from the dead, and in Him you can be raised as well. You can be forgiven for all your sin. You can have His power making you alive and new.
Most of us have experienced the beauty of a song like that in a musical or film. You get caught up in the moment. But that's what happens when we worship as well. The songs help us experience the emotion of the truth we're singing about. We taste in our hearts the reality of the gospel message.
The Bible uses the language of soaring on wings like eagles. There is a God who has overcome the grave and been resurrected to life. You can overcome the reality of sin and shame in your own life. Some of the songs earlier were brilliant: "I was buried beneath my shame," and Christ has lifted me out. "Chains break through the weight of your glory."
How different a message: chains break because I've discovered something within myself versus chains break through the weight of God's glory, through the power of the gospel, through Jesus being raised from the dead. It's a totally different foundation.
Questions on Authority and Entertainment
Someone asked how to navigate authority, especially when it seems wrong. Stu admits it's complex. You can have conversations about different types of authority and how to handle things differently. As a parent, you want ongoing conversations so when they're frustrated, they can talk to you rather than rebel. We believe authority is good. But there must be times when it's right not to do what you're being told. When you're doing that, you're trying to do it with a heart submitted to Christ as your ultimate authority. You're saying, "The reason I'm not obeying this authority is because I'm trying to obey this one, which is higher."
On what entertainment to avoid, Stu suggests three categories. There's stuff you can just receive—like The Chronicles of Narnia. There's stuff you definitely shouldn't watch. The widest category is stuff that's a mixture of good and bad. You watch it together to learn what's good and bad. That's better than trying to stop your kids ever seeing anything that's wrong.
Someone once said: "When I watch films, I know the violence is fake, but the nudity is real." That's someone's wife, someone's daughter. It's a compelling argument as caution against watching stuff that involves nudity and sex.
Different people have different consciences. The more mature we get, the wider that spectrum becomes of stuff we can watch and recognise what's good. But Philippians says: "Whatever is noble, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is good and right, fix your minds on such things." We should be aiming to fill our hearts and minds with truth, godliness, and righteousness.
The subtle stuff is more dangerous. Friends is a good example. It's a PG with no sex or violence, just comedy. But there are assumptions in there that have made their way into Western culture that are really serious. It normalised sleeping around. Pornography went from something even the world thought was illicit to a joke. It got smuggled in through the back door. We need to be much more alert and aware about all these kinds of things.
