More Than Meets The Eye

Last night I went to go see the musical Wicked. It was a great show. As with any good theater production, there was a wide range of emotions and the applause at the end was electric. While there are so many different lessons that a person could take away from the story, I decided that I would focus on this general principle: everyone has a past.


One of the things I love about this story is that it takes a classic villain, the Wicked Witch of the West (also named Elphaba), and it spins the character to make a classic antagonist the protagonist of her own story and the best part, you grow to love her. There is a reason why. You begin to understand her. You see her sympathetically as a human being who must overcome her own obstacles. Given, shes still a villain from the perspective of Dorothy and Toto as they get a passing reference, but there is a whole lot more to her than meets the eye. As you watch Wicked, you come away loving her.

The story of Wicked seems to be designed to draw you into other people's stories. There are implied back stories for many of the characters, like Doctor Dillamond and the Wonderful Wizard, but you see a great deal into the lives of Elphaba, and even some into her sister Nessarose. There is still a presence of good and evil, but it shows that there is often more than meets the eye. Sometimes, an otherwise decent person lashes out because of pain. There are other times that the frauds and the villains are created from a series of unwise (but understandable?) decisions. Wicked shows us both types of people.

In worship today, we had another pastor, Don Owsley, come and fill the pulpit while our pastor is away at camp. The text was James 5.7-11:

Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

One of the points he made was that we ought not to grumble against each other, especially those in the church, but rather we should be patient and long-suffering with one another. One of the observations he made in light of this text was that people who hurt others are many times hurt themselves. People lash out and take their pain out on others. It doesn't make it right, but it happens. As I was thinking about the sermon, Elphaba came to mind. Elphaba is an endearing character, but poor Dorothy and Toto only knew the Wicked Witch, the damaged outcast of Oz who was more a victim than a villain.

The take away is quite simple to see, but often very hard to apply because of our own sinfulness. We ought to strive to give each other the benefit of the doubt, to assume the best of people. There are many people who we may genuinely not like and not get along with, but we should still realize they have a past, we should seek empathy and understanding when we are able. We should learn from Elphaba that these difficult people may not be the adversary we make them out to be. Even if they are a thorn in our sides, our adversaries and enemies, we should still learn from Christ who loved his enemies more perfectly than any of us ever could, he laid down his life in order to make his enemies his friends. The latter we can not emulate, but we are still called to love others, even our enemies, because God indeed loves his.