Everything Is Awesome?

Everything Is Awesome?

If the Son sets you free, you are truly free.

John 8:36

IN THE LEGO MOVIE, President Business rules over the LEGO world. He wants everyone to follow the instructions. He enforces the rules and threatens anyone who doesn’t behave. His goal is conformity. President Business is all about the externals. He wants everyone to agree that “everything is awesome” and to look good and look happy, even if they’re not.

Emmett is your average, ordinary, everyday LEGO guy. He starts every day by reading the instructions on how to “fit in, have everybody like you, and always be happy.” The instructions say to eat a complete breakfast with all the special people in your life, but Emmett doesn’t have any special people in his life. He’s behaving, but he has no relationships and no love.

No one notices Emmett. He’s doing such a good job of fitting in that no one really knows him. When people are asked, they can’t think of a single distinctive thing about him.

But then Emmett finds himself pulled into a countercultural movement of renegades who believe President Business is wrong. They’re seeking to destroy the culture he has created. Instead of conformity, this group emphasizes the uniqueness of everyone and the distinct contribution only each individual can make. Emmett is told, instead of following the instructions, to “build something only you can build.”

In this group Emmett discovers what he’s been missing: relationships.

He also finds, for the first time, that he’s free to admit his weaknesses and fears. Since he no longer has to be the same as and impress everyone else, he can just be himself. He can be authentic.

Emmett joins and eventually becomes a leader in this freedom movement.

In Jesus’ Day

As odd as this may sound, the culture in Jesus’ day was very similar.^a

The Pharisees played the part of President Business. They were the religious leaders but acted like the religious police. With them, everything wasn’t awesome; everything was rigid.

They wanted everyone to follow the instructions and to behave. It was all about the externals.

The problem is that God, whom they claimed to represent, really wants a relationship with people. But these religious leaders weren’t leading people into a relationship with God; they were pushing conformity under their oppressive authority.

The Pharisees acted like they were perfect. They hid their flaws, which led everyone else to feel like they could never admit weakness or confess sin.

But then Jesus came along. And he started a countercultural movement, teaching that the Pharisees were wrong and seeking to destroy the religious culture they had created.

In one confrontation, Jesus said, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.”^b

The Pharisees had made religion a burden, and that’s wrong. Jesus taught that he came not to burden people but to set them free.

He continued, “What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people’s faces. You won’t go in yourselves, and you don’t let others enter either.”^c The Pharisees were supposed to be helping people connect with God and go to heaven, but they were actually keeping people from God and heaven.

Jesus wouldn’t let up:

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.”^d

Whereas the Pharisees were about externals, Jesus cares about what’s inside a person, about the heart. Jesus focuses on love and relationships.

And Jesus teaches people to be themselves. God’s signature color is diversity. He loves it that people are different. And that means people can be authentic and make a unique contribution in the world.

Same as It Ever Was

What’s really sad is that there are churches today where things seem very similar to how they were back in LEGO world under President Business and in the Bible times under the Pharisees.

Some churches teach that it’s all about following the instructions. This is often called “legalism.” It’s a focus on externals and the demand that everyone should conform. Legalists think Christians all need to act the same and pretend they’re happy, even if things aren’t awesome. No matter what happens, just smile and say, “God is good.”

Someone died? Just smile and say, “God is good!”

You’re struggling with doubts? Just smile and say, “God is good!”

Sin has crept into your life? Don’t tell anyone. Just pretend everything is awesome.

Too often, religious people can live as if Christianity is external and rule based, but what God wants is internal and relationship based.

External, rule-based religion tends to create cookie-cutter Christians. That’s not God’s desire. He created us to be individuals. He loves diversity. The only person we’re supposed to model ourselves after is Jesus, and again, that’s an internal thing, not external.

External, rule-based religion also tends to create hypocrites. Legalism encourages hypocrisy because we can cover up what’s really happening on the inside by performing the externally right behaviors that are sure to impress people. But what God wants is for us to be authentic in our relationships so we can get the help we need.

External, rule-based religion is also wrong because it attempts to change the world through behavior modification, by wielding power and enforcing rules. The way Jesus changes the world, however, is through love. Christians don’t work to change people’s behavior; we love people despite their behavior. And when people truly experience that kind of love, it will change them from the inside out. The church’s message is not one of enforcing morality but of offering mercy. Our message is not, “Stop messing up!” No, it’s that God is head over heels in love with mess-ups, and that his love changes lives.

And you are being called. Jesus wants to bring you together with a ragtag group of renegades in a countercultural movement to offer freedom and meaning and community to a world that’s desperate for it. Will you sign up? Will you give your life to God’s mission of love?

Now What?

• Read John 8:34-36.
• The Pharisees focused on obedience to rules, and it drove people away from God. Jesus focused on love, and it drew people to God and led them to want to follow the rules. If a church followed Jesus’ example and really focused on God’s love for us, how might it better attract people and better lead them to truly live for God? How could you help make your church more like that?
• Pray today that God’s love will change you from the inside out so that you become a person of godly character, increasing integrity, and Christlike compassion. Ask him to give you an internal desire to be more like Jesus.