Oz - The Greatest Reversal?

Painted by Paul German

Sitting in church on that Easter Sunday I could not believe my munchkin ears. Pastor Mac was speaking on what theologian’s call “The Great Reversal.” As Mac explained the concept, I heard words like upside-down, twisted, reverse, invert, unexpected, words so counter intuitive to what a person expects to hear when in church.

It is something so upside-down but so right-side up that when we undertand it, it than that it clicks into place. Mac talked about how confounded the expectations of Peter and the other disciples were when Jesus is to be crucified. He spoke of a kingdom of God quite opposite of the power, privilege, and wealth that the world cherishes. That Jesus is not a militaristic conquering king who flexes His muscle and might but is a lamb that came to serve.

Our expectations are reversed as Jesus turns his cheek when slapped. He hangs out with all the wrong people, tax collectors, prostitutes, and those on the margins. All while serving rather than to be served. The idea that Jesus came to die for His enemies, to bless those who cursed Him and not to fight evil with evil, but with love is just crazy.

Jesus reversed how we relate to our stuff, our wealth, and our enemies. He wins by losing, conquers by suffering, forgives sin by becoming sin and blesses those who curse Him. He doesn’t wear a royal cloak but a pair of underpants. What kind of king is this? He reverses the entire social ladder, the trajectory of life by saying it’s not upward mobility it’s downward.

I thought to myself this concept of reversal this notion that God turns everything we know upside down, the “Great Reversal “sounds very familiar. Then it came to me. I was just talking with an artist friend about the movie Wizard of OZ that premiered at the Stand Theater in my hometown of Oconomowoc in 1939. Hmm, Jesus’ story does sound a lot like the story of the Wizard of Oz doesn't it?

Then the famous words “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain” rang out in my head. Dorthey believes that the wizard is this big scary powerful being up on the wall. Soon when the curtain is pulled back, she sees a man who looks just like the old man that greeted her and her friends at the door. The opposite of what we might think. I'm quesssing that they didn’t know what to think.

We all have our own expectations of the yellow brick road. Some are made of the gold of success and wealth leading to what we might think is happiness then somehow all the bricks get shattered.

After Jesus died the disciples on the road to Emmaus must have felt that they too were on the same road that Dorothy and her friends traveled. A place where feelings of jubilation turn quickly into abandonment, sorrow, disbelief, anger and even hopeless at times. Dorthey saw a wizard without any powers. The disciples saw a lamb going to slaughter not a king roaring like a lion coming to conquer. It just didn’t make sense.

If we take a deeper look into the story of the Wizard of Oz what we see that everything Dorthey is looking for was right in her own back yard the whole time. Dorothy ends the movie saying, “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”

For all the time we spend searching in our lifetime, seeking validation, love, happiness, joy from outside sources the only thing we need to find is our own heart. The backyard is a metaphor for finding our heart right where it has always been and will always be. Within the beautiful soul that is us. It’s when we reconnect with our heart and soul that it offers others the true essence of who we are. For me it is in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s about the self-sacrificial love of Jesus that I embrace.

The story of Jesus is like Dorthey’s is about finding our hearts. That we need to look in our own back yards or in the Word of Jesus. To invite Jesus to fill our days with His presence and thoughts, to realize that our home and backyard is all the further we need to go on the yellow brick road of life. It’s a faith in His love not the idea of what we desire outside of ourselves has all the answers.

Dorothy and her friends search for the mighty Wizard of Oz to fill a void in their life. Just like Dorothy, we tend to look externally for answers, validation, and approval in what turned out to be an old man. We think something or someone else will solve our problems. We build those things up to be grander and more powerful than we are or better yet who Jesus is. Just like Dorothy did with a grand illusion of the greatness and powerfulness of the Wizard.

In the movie, Dorothy eventually finds the Wizard only to discover a fumbling old man with no power but a heart to help. It turned out to be all smoke and mirrors. Everything was quite opposite of what everyone thought. Once the lamb pulls back the curtain, we then see the truth. It’s than that we can stop seeking love and validation externally. It’s only when we truly love ourselves as Jesus loves us are we able to fully love others.

Last Easter, I celebrated by painting a picture of the crown of thorns and the Holy Spirit from the stained-glass window in the front of my granddaughter’s church. This year it’s by the word of Jesus that I painted OZ - The Greatest Reversal?

The Wizard of Oz was an amazing reversal, but the greatest reversal is the story of Easter when Jesus comes not as a conquering king but as a carpenter, fisherman, shepherd on a donkey and lays His life down like a lamb to forgive all our sins by dying on a cross. It continues to clarify for me the life that God wants me to live. Hindsight this Easter has brought real clarity into my life. My wish for you is that Jesus can bring some clarity to your life. Everything that He is telling us is in plain sight found within the scriptures themselves.

As you look at my painting the image of the powerful Wizard of Oz is seen with the roaring lion right below the alter. Jesus the lamb pulls back the curtain reveling the truth. A mere man misleading the people of the Land of OZ and now Dorthey and her friends as well.

Most of my life I have paid no attention to the man behind the curtain. Then as I grew up Jesus changed everything for me. He transformed His disciples not as a roaring lion but as a helpless lamb in a way that they were willing to die for Him. Maybe, just maybe if I follow Jesus every day, every minute, every moment He will transform me with His amazing love and the ultimate reversal will take place in my life.

Some believe that the Yellow Brick Road of Oz symbolizes the path to enlightenment, with the characters encountering a variety of emblems of sin and temptation along the way toward the Emerald City, which is a kind of a heaven. Also, the Wicked Witch is killed with water, suggesting baptism. Even if you only pounder what your spiritual journey might be it could be the start of a new journey on your yellow brick road in life.

“My Yellow Brick Road is to journey with Jesus, to linger in His presence as my heart burns with His love while facing the pain in my life and the sting and finality of death. To see my darkest shadows dissolve into the splendor of heaven.” Paul German

What is your Yellow Brick Road?