I grew up loving martial arts movies. Blame it on my father- I vividly remember being 6 years old and watching Jean Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport with him. Don’t worry, he covered my eyes through all the bad stuff. But either way, a passion for bad dialogue, canned story lines, one dimensional villians and slow motion action sequences was born.
To say that I got my passion for action movies from my father is an understatement. There was no genre my father watched more than action movies- and his star of choice- Chuck Norris. My dad loved Chuck Norris movies before the whole “Chuck Norris can defeat Godzilla” Saturday Night Live craze. He raised me on Lone Wolf McQuaid and Delta Force; I can still vividly remember Chuck Norris driving through a shopping mall in a jacked up truck shooting bad guys with an Uzi in Invasion USA. To me, no one was bigger than Chuck Norris- not Rocky, not Rambo, not Van Damme or Segal, not even the guy from American Ninja.
There was no one who could defeat Chuck Norris. Except for the one guy who did.
In my quest to consume as much Chuck Norris as possible, I discovered a little film called The Way of the Dragon. In it, a shorter, smaller Chinese guy destroyed my 7 time international Karate champ – in the Roman Coliseum no less. And I’ve been hooked on Bruce Lee ever since.
Bruce Lee started the martial arts film craze in America. Enter the Dragon, Lee’s last complete film, is one of the most important movies of the 20th century. I remember going to a friend’s house and watching it on VHS, and from the opening credits, I was hooked. I wasn’t stupid enough to believe I could pull off all of Bruce Lee’s stunts, but I was stupid enough to try. I grew up in the age of Power Rangers and Steven Segal films, so to see a movie so raw and pure, and believable was amazing.
Enter the Dragon is a piece of motion picture magic. The first martial arts film financed by a major Hollywood Studio, it introduced the west to an entirely new way of thinking. In some ways, you could argue that Lee’s movie created the Western world’s fascination of Eastern thought. It was the first major vehicle that anyone had ever heard words like Shaolin or Buddhism- two words that Hollywood has been in love with ever since.
But what does Bruce Lee and Enter the Dragon have to do with Christianity? What does my fascination for martial arts and action movies have to do with my faith?
One of the most troubling commands of Christ for me has always been the “turn the other cheek” statement in Mathew. For a traditional American male this is nearly sacrilege. The entire Cold War was built around the idea that if your opponent strikes you, hit him with the biggest bomb your have. If they should bomb you back, build a bigger bomb. So for me to accept the idea of turning the other cheek to anyone was un-American.
That’s where my love of action movies came in. Van Damme never turned the other cheek. And Chuck Norris? If you managed to hit him in his cheek, he would rip off your hand, put a grenade in it, and shove it down your throat. For years, I had a hard time looking up to Jesus because I thought him a coward. Compared to my heroes of the films, Jesus was kind of a wimp.
And that’s the problem with the American church. As John Eldridge points out in his wonderful book, Wild at Heart, we (the church) have sissified Jesus. Which is why so many men have such a hard time accepting the term “godly” man. In everything we’re taught about masculinity in our culture, Jesus is not manly.
But what if we had a different view of Jesus? What if we could view Jesus as someone who didn’t advocate fighting but did advocate standing up for yourself? Does the Bible not command us to always be ready to “give a defense” for our faith (1 Peter 3:15)? Does Jesus himself not command us to be as meek as doves but as wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16)?
What if we were to really look at the verse in question? But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matthew 5:39. The bible doesn’t say, if an enemy strikes you, turn around and run away. The bible only tells us to “turn the other cheek.” That implies that you willingly get up from the blow and stand face to face with your assailant. To me, that’s pretty manly.
Which is why I love Enter the Dragon so much. In it, the main character Lee is a holy man, who trains his body, not because he wants to fight, but for the sake of staying physically and mentally fit. He does not seek out conflict, but instead only agrees to fight in order to avenge the death of his sister (family) and to restore honor to his temple (religion).
In some ways, as a child, I connected more with Lee (the character in the movie) than with Jesus. No child ever imitates Christ in their backyard. But every 10-year-old boy who watches any clip from any good martial arts film will begin jumping around making noises as their punches fly the air at imaginary targets. So what is the church to do?
For starters, they could portray Jesus in the proper light. They could stop emasculating Christ and start showing Him for who He is- a warrior for what is right. Jesus may not have physically assulated anyone- unless of course you count his rage filled attack at the temple priests and salesmen- but He did not back down from His persecutors either. He answered them with strength and courage, without arrogance and pride.
Am I suggesting that Jesus should have jump kicked Pilate if He had been given the chance? No. But I am saying that we have to understand that the same appeal that Lee’s character in Enter the Dragon has for countless of teenage boys (and grown men) is the same appeal that the proper image of Christ could create. In Lee’s case, he’s defending his family and his faith. In Christ’s case, His entry into our world is His fight for his family (us) and His faith (His Father). In Lee’s case, he must fight against a former protégé of his temple master. In Christ’s case, He fights against His master’s former protégé as well. In Lee’s case, he endures physical pain but wins in the end. In Christ’s case…well, we all know how that one ends.
