A Gospel message in a whimsical children’s story… what kind of nonsense is that anyways? Have I completely lost my grip on reality? No, actually it is the central reality of this world in which we live that the Gospel may be found everywhere, in every nook and cranny, and under every rock. It is woven into the tapestry of life, the very fabric of the universe. And so it should come as no great surprise to discover it embedded in this simple story of a chocolate factory, that is if you have eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus once declared on his triumphant march into Jerusalem that if the crowds were silenced, the very rocks and trees themselves would start to sing His praise, joyfully proclaiming the Good News of the coming of God’s Kingdom.
I am not here asserting that any deep philosophical or theological message was intended either by the author of the book or by the screenplay writer of the movie (the one starring Gene Wilder). Neither is the Gospel message explicitly or fully communicated in this story by any means. It is however, subtly infused throughout the film in three distinct ways: first of all in the firm but gracious way that Mr. Wonka deals with the failures of the four errant children, secondly in the final windfall of blessings bestowed upon the one guileless child who proved himself consistently oblivious to his own innate goodness, and lastly in a way that stretches the frontier of the Gospel’s reach to a point where few would imagine possible.
It is primarily for this third manifestation that I consider the movie to be especially noteworthy and for which I would implore the reader to temporarily suspend judgment. An allegorical reference to Satan is made which suggests the possibility of a different purpose and a more grace-full destiny for the fallen archangel of evil. Specifically the concept is played out in the surprising role reversal of Wonka’s supposed antagonist, his arch enemy and competitor, Arthur Slugworth of Slugworth Chocolates Inc. Even if you have already seen the movie you may want to take a second look at it after considering the real life implications suggested by such a clever masquerade.
Let me be clear from the start that attempting to understand the purpose and fate of the Devil, whomever or whatever he is, is not really of central concern to this blog’s discussion of God’s plan for the salvation of all mankind. In fact, it is a matter for which I am quite content to defer settlement to that final Day of Judgement. Clearly the focus of my writing is and will remain the universal fulfillment of God’s glorious purpose in all of our individual and collective human lives, a subject with which I am much more intimately acquainted. As far as angelic beings are concerned, I have little personal context from which to even speculate, let alone draw definite conclusions.
On the other hand, the more that I allow this particular topic to filter through my understanding of the Gospel, the more I am inclined to believe that the Biblical statements concerning the reconciliation of all things in heaven and on earth really do refer to all things. And I am compelled to ask — would that not necessarily include all angels? If not, why not? Why should any part of God’s creation be lost to His immeasurable redemptive capabilities?
I find that a full embrace of the Gospel leads quite naturally to a view of evil as… well, “a necessary evil” without which God’s wonderful purposes could not be fulfilled. While evil is most definitely to be loathed and certainly best to be avoided at all times, it is nonetheless a part of the plan. The God who created evil, and who creates nothing in vain, will proceed to use its evil effects to His glory. As Isaiah writes, “I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7 KJV) As a chisel in His hands, evil will be used in the sculpting of a new Heaven and a new Earth, and like a fire in their purification.
So kick back and relax as we pull back the covers on this classic children’s tale to take a second look. Let us begin with a quick summary of the plot…
On the surface, the story is told of an eccentric chocolate manufacturing mogul, Willy Wonka, who devises a scheme for selecting an heir to his chocolate dynasty in consideration of his approaching retirement. It must be a child, he surmises, one that could be trusted to follow his guidance in remaining true to the original recipes. For Wonka believes, much like another great teacher of old, that you must “become as a child” in order to inherit the (chocolate) Kingdom. And so he hides the true intent of his search within the guise of a simple promotional ploy wherein he offers a complimentary tour of his factory along with a lifetime supply of chocolate to the first five lucky children who find a Golden Ticket in one of his Wonka chocolate bars. Unbeknownst to them, however, based on their behavior during the tour, Wonka intends to select one of them upon which to bestow a grand prize of much greater consequence.
The search for the golden tickets proceeds without a hitch, that is, except for the unscrupulous meddling of Slugworth who “introduces” himself to each child soon after their fortunate discovery of a golden ticket. He stealthily approaches them one at a time to whisper in their ear an offer far exceeding that of Wonka’s if only they would agree to reveal the secret formula for Wonka’s Everlasting Gobstopper candy after leaving the factory. Slugworth is convinced that this revolutionary jawbreaker will skyrocket his candy sales and he desperately needs to get his hands on its formula in order to continue to compete with, or rather to crush, Wonka’s business. Charlie, the one decent kid in the bunch, is the only one to display any sense of uneasiness as Slugworth craftily delivers his tempting counteroffer.
Finally the day arrives when all five children are allowed through the gates to embark on the magical tour. Upon entry, the kids are immediately required to sign a contract which rather obscurely lays out the terms and rules of the tour. Before the day is through, all of the children have clearly violated one or more of these rules and in so doing have forfeited their claim to the lifetime supply of chocolate, according to the contract. All of them except Charlie were caught in the act at the scene of their trespass and were immediately whisked off through some side door where their self imposed condition could be dealt with properly. In the end they would all be completely restored to their former terrible selves except perhaps a bit “wiser for the wear”.
Each of them had become ensnared it seems by a temptation which had been intentionally prearranged to play upon their individual weaknesses. Their resulting maladies were simply the natural consequence of their own poor choices – choices for which none of them displayed any true remorse. Actually, quite the contrary, right up to the moment of their apprehension and subsequent ejection from the tour, they remained fully intent upon total compliance with Slugworth’s unscrupulous request to reveal the secret formula of the Gobstopper… that is, if they could ever get out of the factory alive.
Interestingly, while Charlie was not explicitly caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he had nonetheless given in to temptation just the same, as Wonka was secretly aware. So at the end of the tour, Wonka harshly reprimands Charlie for his own transgressions and informs him that he too would receive no chocolate whatsoever upon exiting the factory. But unlike the others, Charlie did not think to get even with Wonka (as his grandfather immediately vowed to do), but rather he humbly accepted his fate and proceeded to return his Gobstopper sample to Wonka before leaving the office.
To this, Wonka mutters under his breath, “So shines a good deed in a weary world”. He then leaps from his chair and spins Charlie around in his arms while excitedly exclaiming, “Charlie, my boy, you did it! You won! I knew you would do it! …Forgive me for putting you through this.” And then from out of the blue, just prior to explaining to Charlie all the wonderful details of his bright future at the factory, Wonka drops the bomb concerning Slugworth. He opens the back door to his office and says, “Charlie, meet Mr. Wilkinson”. Charlie gasps in utter disbelief as he clearly recognizes the man standing in the doorway to be the one who had offered him the bribe. “Slugworth?” he says, and then Wonka continues, “No, that’s not Slugworth, he works for me. I had to test you, Charlie.”
And there you have it, the wretched Mr. Slugworth (actually Mr. Wilkinson), had been in the employ of Wonka all along. So, does the analogy ring true? Just like Mr. Wilkinson, the Devil brings custom made temptations to us which are essential to God’s purpose in the creation of free willed beings. I would ask the reader then to consider the proper fate of such a creature. Would God create a being, an angel who, after performing the essential role of temptation in the creation drama, would be found to retain absolutely no redeeming value, being fit only for an eternity of suffering? On the other hand, if all of us human beings who have fallen to such temptation (and actually committed the evil deeds themselves) are found to be ultimately redeemable, then why not this angelic “servant” as well??? Anyway, I will devote another blog posting to a more thorough shake out of the ramifications of this prospect, entitled: “Good versus Evil: or God uses Devil”. For the time being I will leave it for the reader’s own private contemplation and once again suggest a re-viewing of the film.
Returning now to the more light hearted ambiance of the movie itself, let’s explore the various Gospel-like quips to be found sprinkled throughout the dialogue of this most delightful story. Following each reference will be a brief statement of its significance in life and perhaps a connection (albeit loose?) to the Scriptures. Here they are, more or less in chronological order as they appear in the movie:
- After doing everything he could to find a Golden Ticket, the fifth and last one was finally found by another child, and Charlie lost all hope of ever seeing the inside of the chocolate factory. It was just then that he stumbles upon a coin in the gutter and decides to buy a Wonka bar, this time just to enjoy eating it. After gobbling it down he chooses to buy one more for his grandpa Joe. Then immediately upon exiting the store he learns that actually one ticket was still outstanding. He opens the wrapper to find the last Golden Ticket …As Paul reveals, quoting Isaiah: “I was found by those who did not seek me.” (Romans 10:20 NIV)
- Charlie bought the lucky chocolate bar not for himself but for his disabled grandpa. …“It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35 KJV)
- Slugworth promises “bread and clothing”…“you and your family will want for nothing” if only you will serve his evil purposes. …Likewise in the familiar Biblical story, “…and Jesus was tempted again by the Devil who offered him everything if he would just bow down and serve him.” (Matthew 4:4 KJV)
- Upon entering the factory, Wonka provides “little surprises around every corner but nothing dangerous” …God too provides a life full of little (and big) surprises but nothing that will harm us… in the long run anyway, and on the contrary, all “surprises” will end up working out for our own good… and for His.
- The contract that Wonka has the kids sign prior to entering the factory floor is only partly legible and barely comprehensible, but sign it they must if they want to see the factory. …Isn’t life on earth that way for us human beings? We can’t really be held completely responsible for our participation in this experience called life, first of all, since our consent is tenuous at best. Yes we have been infused with a piece of His Spirit (awareness of right and wrong) and therefore are accountable (as if to a contract) for our actions to some extent, but since we yet “see but through a glass darkly”, even Jesus himself is compelled to cry out on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing.” (Luke 23:24 KJV)
- Charlie’s grandpa is the only one to support the signing of the contract. He says, “Sign away Charlie, we’ve got nothing to lose.” …and so we’ve got nothing to lose in life when we submit ourselves to His will, and moreover, everything to gain!
- When the path of the tour becomes a bit frightening and confusing, a few members of the group try to exit back through the entrance. Wonka then points out that “There’s no way out of the factory by going backwards… you’ve got to go forward to go back.” …Our first parents, Adam and Eve, strongly desired to get back into the Garden after their acts of transgression, but God placed a cherub with a flaming sword to guard the entrance. (Genesis 3:24 NIV) There’s only one way through life, and that is forward. There’s no climbing back into the security of the womb, or of the Garden. God asks that we trust Him in His ability to get us through, one moment at a time, to the end of our life’s journey on earth and beyond.
- To the perplexed look on their faces as they witnessed yet another one of the wild things Wonka had up his sleeve, he quipped, “Never ever doubt what no one is sure of.” …and so it is with faith which is vital to the development of our relationship to God, that is, believing in what no one is sure of. (Hebrews 11:1 KJV)
- Wonka repeatedly feigns grave concern over the bad choices in behavior that the children are making, and yet clearly is not the least bit interested in taking any credible action to stop them — such as when Augustus is being sucked up the pipe after disobediently drinking from the chocolate river. Wonka merely yells in a greatly subdued tone of voice, “Murder… Help, police!”, or when Violet is about to put the Full Meal chewing gum in her mouth, he softly quips, “I wouldn’t do that… I really wouldn’t!”, or once again, when Mike Teevee jumps into the Wonka-Vision machine, Wonka practically whispers, “Stop, don’t… come back!” Lastly, when Verruca is flushed down the egg chute, Wonka matter-of-factly states that “she was a bad egg” and explains to her father that she is headed for the incinerator, but not to worry as she has at least a fighting chance of survival since that one is only lit every other day. …God knows the end from the beginning, and he knows it to be good for all concerned. So He is neither frantically trying to prevent our misbehavior nor the bad consequences which naturally follow such behavior, knowing full well that allowing these experiences to be carried out is essential to our personal growth and development.
- Yet one more instance of this seeming ambivalence regarding the misbehavior of the children was displayed when Augustus was impatiently yearning for the chocolate. Wonka chides, “Don’t lose your head, Augustus, we wouldn’t want anyone to lose that… yet!” …Isn’t it like God to understand that – rebel we will, rebel we “must” — and yet remain calm through it all as though in complete control of the outcome?
- To reassure Augustus’s mother that her son would be okay after getting stuck in the chocolate processing pipe, Wonka remarks, “Across the desert lies the promised land.” …And so it was for the Children of Israel as it will be for all of us children. We must cross the desert of life’s trials and consequences before reaching the Promised Land.
- In a song, Wonka refers to the factory as a “World of my creation” and continues with: “Anything you want to, do it… you can change the world, there’s nothing… to it.” Immediately after singing this verse about doing whatever they want, he warns Augustus Gloob, the glutton, not to swim in the chocolate river — “no one must touch my chocolate river.” …and so it was that God told our first parents to eat freely of all that they found in the Garden, and then followed with, “except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.” Genesis 2:16,17 NIV)
- As shown in multiple instances, Charlie is the only one on the tour to show faith in Wonka’s incredible statements and in his marvelous inventions, such as when Charlie views the chocolate river and declares it to be “amazing” as opposed to Mr. Salt who simply refers to it as “industrial waste”, or when Mike Teevee was asked to pick up the candy bar off of the Wonka-Vision screen, Mike rebuffs Wonka by saying that “it’s only an image”, whereas Charlie immediately reaches out and snatches a three dimensional bar from the two dimensional screen. …Jesus said that to enter the kingdom you must become as a child, fully trusting in your Father’s desire and ability to care for you. (Matthew 18:3 KJV)
- The rules are clearly stated upon entering the Invention Room that the kids must not touch anything and must not tell anything that they see to anyone else. Of course each one of them wastes no time in breaking the first of these two rules, and all but Charlie fully intend to break the second rule as soon as they leave the factory. In each case their crimes are directly related to their own personal vices and in each case it was clear that their doting parents were in full compliance with their deviant behavior. For Augustus it was overeating, for Violet it was nearly continuous gum chewing, for Mike Teevee it was incessant television viewing, for Verruca it was wanting virtually everything to be given her, NOW!!, and for Charlie I guess you could say it was just his fun loving curiosity that got him into trouble. …So it is for us as we travel down the road of life; we are repeatedly confronted with opportunities either to overcome our unique individual weaknesses and shortcomings or to give in to them. And clearly, our parents play a definitive role in the formation of our neurotic/sinful weaknesses, this being most poignantly portrayed in the Oompa Loompa song about the source of Verruca’s bratty nature:
“Who do you blame when your kid is a brat
Pampered and spoiled like a Siamese cat?
Blaming the kids is a lie and a shame
You know exactly who’s to blame: The mother and the father!”
The Lord says He will “…visit the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third
and to the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:7)
- From the beginning, only the Oompa Loompas are allowed in the factory as they are essential to the day-to-day production of chocolate. However, when the children arrive, under Wonka’s directive the Oompa Loompas take on the additional task of assisting with their corrective/disciplinary processing as each of them fall to temptation. …In the same way, in the beginning only the angels were allowed in heaven and perhaps they were instrumental in the physical creation as well. When we humans were created, whatever their responsibilities were previously, they were expanded to include assisting us in our navigation through life.
- When Charlie’s “crime” is exposed, Wonka again references the original contract to justify the penalty by stating that: “…the contract signed by you was crystal clear!” when actually it was anything but clear. In fact part of it was completely unreadable and elsewhere it contained arcane strings of Latin that no one outside of a graduate law school could decipher, let alone a child. …Again I find there to be a dual reality we live under here on earth where seemingly we are to be held entirely accountable to the guidance offered by that “still small voice” and yet at the same time deemed to be completely incapable of hearing it. We are characterized as being blind or even “dead in sin” and therefore cannot be expected to see, let alone follow the path of righteousness being set before us. It seems therefore that it must fall upon the Creator to assume overall responsibility for the conception and the ultimate fate of His creation — and indeed He does!… “But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.” (Jeremiah 18:4 NIV), and “For God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.” (Romans 11:32 NIV)
- Charlie always shows concern for others ahead of himself. At home he turns over his paper route money to his mom so that his disabled grandfather can continue to finance his one treat in life, his tobacco habit. When he is told that he had won the grand prize, his first concern was directed towards the four bratty kids who had not won. Finally, when he is informed that in addition to having won the life time supply of chocolates, he would also be given control of the entire factory which would be his new home, once again his first response was: “What about the rest of my family?” …Of such concern for others is the Kingdom of Heaven built and the reconciliation of all creation realized.
- And what is Wonka’s reply to Charlie’s selfless concerns about the others? He says in regards to the other kids, “My dear boy, I promise you they’ll be quite all right. When they leave here, they’ll be completely restored to their normal, terrible old selves. But maybe they’ll be a little bit wiser for the wear.” And in regards to the rest of his family, “Of course, they can live there in the factory too.” …Likewise in our own lives, God uses all means available, from loving correction to loving compassion, in order to ultimately bring all of His children into intimate communion with Himself. “Hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.” (I Corinthians 5:5 NIV) and “…will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?” (Matthew 18:12 NIV)
- In the final scene before Charlie’s redemption, Wonka is busily taking care of neglected priorities after “a whole day wasted”. Every object in the office appears as only half an object. There’s half a desk, half a clock, even half a sink, etc. …Whereas Christ has already triumphantly declared that “It is finished!”, 2000 years ago on the cross, the actual working out of the creation drama is in some sense still to come. All is really only half-finished from our perspective. Meanwhile, “… the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.” (Romans 8:19 NIV)
- Based on a strict observance of the rules (The Law) as spelled out in the signed contract, no prize should have been awarded to any of the children, as all had failed to comply. In the end, however, it was by grace that Charlie (and the others by implication) would be given access to the factory (the Promised Land).
- Last of all (and my personal favorite) comes the grand conclusion of the movie and the allusion to our collective destiny. After Charlie has been informed of the fabulous future that awaits him and his family (and by inference, ultimately for the rest of the children as well), Wonka poses one last foreboding question which understandably throws Charlie for a loop. He says, “But Charlie, don’t forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted!” …a painful pause follows as a distressed look spreads across Charlie’s face, and then with a big beaming smile, Wonka continues, “…he lived happily ever after!”
- …and so it will be, amen.