How to Share Your Faith Using Lemony Snicket's
First of all, let me get this out of the way: The movie is weird!! I didn't particularly enjoy the movie, but apparently the books are pretty popular and the story does have a great tie-in to the Gospel message.
WARNING: This Culture Commission will spoil the end of the movie. I'll be as vague as possible, but be prepared!
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events begins telling the audience about Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Beaudelaire. We find out that Violet is an incredible young inventor, Klaus reads everything he can and remembers it all, and Sunny is a terrific biter. Very soon they become orphans due to their parents' death and are placed in the care of their sinister relative Count Olaf (Jim Carey). Olaf has plans to take the children and do whatever it takes to get his hands on their very large inheritance. His first plot, to kill the children, goes wrong and they are quickly placed in the care of a new guardian. Olaf kills him off, kills off the next guardian, and finally gets them back in his own care again. He has one more plan to get the inheritance in his hands, but thankfully the brilliant children ruin his plans and escape alive.
The movie ends with the children being taken by Mr. Poe to yet another relative to live with. On the way they stop by their home, which was gutted by fire. While there, they receive a letter from their parents. The letter is a little bit of an odd moment because it is from their parents, letting them know that they are fine, yet the audience knows they're still dead. The letter encourages them and lets the kids know that they will be OK because they have each other. The letter restores them and gives them a new hope as they continue on their life journey as "quite fortunate children after all."
So, how does all this tie in to Jesus and the Gospel? At first it's not obvious, but there's a great parallel to the human predicament and the message of the Gospel.
At the beginning of the movie the children's relationship with their parents, their guidance, was broken. They were then lost, going from place to place and finding themselves just as lost as before. It wasn't until the end of the movie, when they received the letter from their parents, that they regained hope for their future.
It's the same with us. At first we have a broken relationship with God because of sin. It separates us from God's guidance because he is not in our lives. Because of that, we wander aimlessly through life going from place to place, always lost, and always looking for some purpose in life. But, then comes the message of hope - the letter from our Father. The message of Jesus' sacrifice is the message of hope that gives guidance to our lives and restores our relationship with our Heavenly Father.
This is how you can tie the Gospel into this odd movie. Make sure you're prepared to share the GOSPEL Journey with your friends and then when the movie is over, skip the outtakes (because they're not very good anyway) and take a few minutes to show how your friends can escape their unfortunate sinful state and become quite fortunate after all...for eternity!
