The Treehouse Ep5: Tale as Old as Time

Discussion Guide

• Can you think of any other movies or fairy tales that remind you of Jesus? Cinderella is one, maybe Aladdin....
• What does it mean to be new on the inside?
• Can you think of any animals that transform? Talk about how butterflies and frogs don't just grow bigger, but go through significant changes. We experience that kind of transformation through salvation

Episode Transcript 

Over the last several weeks, my family has been watching a lot of Disney movies together. Three cheers for, Disney +! We've watched Toy Story, Cars, Sleeping Beauty, Lilo & Stitch, Tangled, and we have a list of more we want to watch. On that list is one of my very favorite movies, Beauty & the Beast. When I was six or seven years old the animated movie came out and it was one of the first movies I ever saw in a movie theater. But just a few years ago, the one of with real people came out and I saw it a bunch of times in the theater! Because as long as you have a babysitter, you can go to the movies as much as you want when you're a grown-up.

And I want to tell you that one of my favorite things about Beauty and the Beast is that it reminds me of Jesus. I know, you probably think that's crazy but once I tell you why, I think you'll agree with me. 

In the story of Beauty & the Beast, a prince is cursed and turned into a beast. He's cursed because he was selfish and unkind. An old woman had come to his castle to ask for shelter from a storm, and he laughed at her and turned her away. As is usually the case in fairy tales, the old woman was actually an enchantress and she turned him into a hideous beast. All of the castle servants were turned into objects-- a candlestick, a tea pot, a clock, for example. And they were doomed to stay this way forever unless the beast could learn to love and be loved in return before all the petals fell from an enchanted rose. 

So that's literally the first five minutes of the movie. And you want to know what else? That's also the first few chapters of the Bible. Stay with me here. I'm not crazy. 

When God created the world, it was perfect. It was beautiful and everything inside of it lived in perfect harmony. Adam and Eve weren't afraid of animals, animals weren't afraid of them, fruit and vegetables simply grew from the land because God created it to grow. Imagine how perfect it was. 

But then the serpent tricked Eve into doubting God's goodness and truthfulness, and she ate the fruit which was forbidden. The one thing that she was not allowed to eat. And then, she gave it to Adam and he ate it also. Sin entered God's perfect creation. And it was not perfect anymore. God had to punish Adam and Eve for disobeying him. He also had to cast them out of the garden. In fact, in Genesis 3, we read about the curses God placed on man, woman, and the snake. Unlike a fairytale, this story is completely true. And because Adam and Eve were cursed, we are all cursed too. Our desire to sin, our habit of sinning, has been passed on from parents to children and parents to children and parents to children all the way back to Adam and Eve. The curse--the consequence of sin--has been passed on too. 

No, we don't look like hideous beasts like in Beauty and the Beast. Not on the outside anyway. I've seen most of you kids, and you're all pretty cute actually! But the Bible tells us that God looks on the inside of a person and judges them there. He doesn't care if you have all  your teeth or if you're missing a few, he doesn't care if your hair is blonde or brown, if your eyes are blue or green. He cares about what your heart looks like. And our hearts are beastly. 

We all know that we can be selfish, mean, and rude sometimes. And sometimes we hurt someone's feelings and don't even feel bad about it....at least for a little while. We sometimes lie or cheat or take things that aren't ours. We can feel jealous and want what someone else has, or the attention that someone else gets. There are lots of things we do every day that show how beastly our hearts really are. Don't get me wrong--I know most of you who are listening and you're good kids. But the Bible does say that no one is good enough to get to heaven on their own. Without Jesus, our goodness just isn't enough. Because even if we're good most of the time, we all have sometimes when we can be just like beasts. 

In Beauty and the Beast, the prince must learn to love and be loved in return. You know, the whole only-an-act-of-true-love-can-save thing. We see this in a lot of fairy tales and Disney movies. And most of the time, when we think of true love with think of romance. You know, like boyfriends and girlfriends and weddings and kissing. If you're anything like my son, you're now making a yucky face. 

Did you know that only an act of true love can save us from the curse of sin? No, seriously. It's true. The truest love of all has nothing to do with boyfriends and girlfriends and kissing. That should make you feel better if you think all that mushy stuff is kinda gross. The truest love of all is from God. God actually is love. All the feelings of love that we have are because of him. Even the love you feel for your parents or a brother or sister or your puppy dog. God gave us hearts that can feel love, and brains that can choose to love someone even when they hurt your feelings or make you mad, and he gave us people and things to love. He did all of this because he is love itself. 

And because of that love, he had to do something to remove that curse. God had to make a way for us get rid of those beastly hearts and be able to really love him. Take a second and think about what God did for us. Do you have a guess? Go ahead and say it out loud. 

Did you say Jesus? If you did, you get a gold star and a thousand points. Don't get too excited, the points don't count for anything. 

Yes, Jesus! Do you remember learning this verse? John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

God loved us, all of us, anyone he has ever made including you and me. He loved us so much that he gave up Jesus. Jesus is God's only son and he loved him so very much. It wasn't easy for God to give us Jesus. And it wasn't easy for Jesus to take the punishment for our sins on the cross. But because they loved us so much they made that sacrifice so that we don't have to live with the curse of sin anymore. We can be whole and beautiful inside instead of beasts! 

An act of true love has saved us! 

So in Beauty and the Beast, spoiler alert, the beast learns to love and be loved and blah blah blah, and he transforms back into a person! But do you think he was the same selfish person inside? I don't think so! He looked the same on the outside as he was before--a handsome prince and all that fairytale stuff. But on the inside, he was a new person. He was a better person. Kind, loving, gentle, generous because he had learned to love. 

So when we ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins and take away our beastly hearts so we can live like him and love like he does, we are made into new creations! We look the same on the outside, but inside we are new. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it says: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (NIV) Or, another way of saying it is this: This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (NLT). 

At Bloom Baptist Church, the name of the class for kids in first, second, and third grades is "New Creations". This is why! Because of Jesus we can be made new inside. We can start a new life without a beastly  heart that is cursed. Yes, we'll still sin and need forgiveness from Jesus, but that curse has been broken! Isn't that so awesome??

And so  now you know why Beauty and the Beast reminds me of Jesus. A curse, true love, and a new life. It's pretty cool how we can find Jesus and the gospel in all sorts of place is we look for him, even in our favorite movies.