Julie, Julia, and Jesus

October 9, 12:32 PMFaith & Culture ExaminerDr. Bob Beltz

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      A really good "chick flick"

     I went to see a chick flick. Julie and Julia is the story of two women and cooking. Not too manly, I know. But I thought the film was great and that the writing, directing and acting were all tremendous. Nora Ephron is a genius. I also thought the film was a great metaphor of the concept of what Christians sometimes refer to as “discipleship.” The more hip term for the concept is “spiritual formation.” Let me begin by telling you the idea behind the movie and then applying it to the life of faith.
     Nora Ephron took two books and blended them into one story that runs on two parallel tracks in the film. The first book is My Life in France, and is an autobiography of Julia Childs and how she learned to cook during her years in France, ultimately writing the book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Meryl Streep plays Julie Childs and is a total riot in the role. The second book is Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment by Julie Powell. Powell, played in the film by Amy Adams, came up with the idea in 2002 of cooking each of the 524 recipes in Child’s cookbook in a single year and documenting her experience on a blog. I thought the film was great, but should warn you that it is rated PG-13, probably due to a single use of the “F” bomb.
     So how does Jesus, fit into this story? I thought the film provided a perfect illustration of how we can operate as true “disciples” of Jesus. The word we translate “disciple” in the New Testament is the Greek word mathetes. It was a technical term in the culture of Jesus’ day that referred to the relationship between a rabbi and his followers, or a teacher and his students. Unlike education in our time, in the first century, the teacher was viewed as someone who had mastered a way of living along with a body of information. The student not only hung on the teacher’s every word, but also attempted to imitate their every move. In the film, Julie Powell became a disciple of Julia Childs. She acquired Julia Childs’ cookbook, and every day for an entire year followed the instructions contained in it word for word. Scene after scene we watched her with a stirring spoon in one hand and the cookbook in the other. She even obtained old videos of Childs’ television programs and studied her every move. Julie adored Julia Childs to the point of virtual worship. By the end of the year, she had mastered the art of French cooking and had become a true disciple.
Jesus taught his disciples how to find their way back to God. He modeled for them a way of life that went against the grain of almost everything they had ever been taught. They had been taught, “an eye for an eye.” He told them to turn the other cheek, and then modeled it. They had been taught that God’s blessing was measured in material prosperity. He taught them that true prosperity was not found in the abundance of possessions but in the simplicity of desires and the abundance of generosity. They had been taught one version of the Golden Rule: that he who has the gold rules. He taught them that the real Golden Rule was to treat people the way you wanted to be treated.
     Everything Jesus taught them, they attempted to imitate and then eventually wrote down. We find those writings in the four gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Those that were disciples eventually had disciples of their own, and for these second generation followers of Jesus the original disciples wrote a “cookbook.” We call it the New Testament. Imagine how different our lives would be if we treated the New Testament (including the gospels) the way Julie treated Julia’s cookbook? Every recipe carefully followed. Every ingredient carefully included. Cooking instructions carefully followed. I think this is what Jesus had in mind when he issued the invitation, “Come, follow me.” I walked out of the theater thinking about how I could do a much better job of paying attention to, and carefully following the recipe for life that the Master Chef left for us. It might have been a chick flick, but it contained a message from which every woman and man could benefit!