13 Reasons Why did exactly what Netflix does best and drew
me into a binge-watching frenzy like so many other shows. But instead of being
inundated by my favorite Sci-Fi show's geekery, or re-watching Sherlock for the
14th time hoping the fourth season will get uploaded soon.
I sat down for 13 hours of sheer and utter pain watching a
girl slowly describe the knife of society and culture entering her heart.
And God damn it!
Damn the world that so accurately reflects the tragic beauty
that this show projects.
Damn the rapist's that get away with it hiding behind drunken
party antics.
Damn drunk drivers and how they can be our best friends
prior to killing themselves behind the wheel and bottle of their choices.
Damn the gossiping hypocrites who trash the perfectly
mundane lives of people who made mistakes like we all do.
And damn the 4-5 inches of plastic, glass, and metal that
enables a tweet or an Instagram to embarrass and crush the social standing and
heart of anyone below the age of majority. One even I, a 30 something man with
a family and a savings account still seek approval from in my shame.
So then as I fought back the tears that usually only come
out in the back end of a Pixar film, I realized God did damn everything I was
mad at. In this terrible piece of beautiful fiction.
That like the pages of this tragic story, we are books just
as worn and broken, ripped at the seams and tattered by the sins of others and
ourselves. Written in the blood of our sins and their consequences. In need of
something to make us clean again. To clear our tapes.
Nothing shone clearer, in 13 Reasons, than the darkness left
in the wake of a film directed without the light of Christ to redeem and repair
the brokenness inside its scenes. Jesus was horribly absent along with his
youth pastors and sponsors from a school that was all too real. He was
referenced by only one character in his admittance of being catholic. While
grace was spoken in vain prayers for the food to bless the character's bodies,
as their souls were being slowly destroyed.
God help me for the felt rage as a former youth pastor at
just how far, some of these fictional characters, fell through the cracks of
the adult’s care that was fictionally not there.
So if nothing else as you question whether or not to watch
this monstrosity because it is, it’s a monster that rips at your heart and
sensibilities, find a teen you have influence with.
Find a teen from age 10 to age 20 growing up in a world so
booby-trapped by the online world and so broken by sin's stains it needs a
savior.
And love them. Like Clay Jensen wishes he could have.
“By this all people will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:35
(ESV)