He met her when they were just children. How could a recluse, nerdy boy relate to such a spunky, daring girl? But she intrigued him, and he held a soft spot in her heart. They were two different puzzle shapes that perfectly fit without gaps. A grape soda bottle cap sealed their commitment to each other. They grew up together. They married. They dreamt of adventures, the grandest of them all: Paradise Falls. But she got ill. She eventually passed without fulfilling their greatest adventure. Or so he thought.
Who didn’t bawl their eyes out during the first ten minutes of the movie Up (2009)?
Movies like these draw us in with a cinematic technique: point-of-view, or POV. POV is seeing through the eyes of a character. In Up’s beginning scenes, the POV was Carl’s. We see what he sees, and we don’t see anything he doesn’t see. Both the access to and the limitation of his perspective are powerful because they cause us to identify with him. POV affords us the emotions, opinions, attitudes, beliefs, and questions of a character. That’s why we cry at the beginning of Up, our hearts race as a character dashes down a dingy hallway, our hands clench while a hero battles a horde of assailants in a forest of Middle Earth, and our facial muscles relax while butterflies flutter in our chests when the girl finally kisses the boy. We are there with the characters through their POVs.
POV not only grabs our attention; it pulls us into the mental worlds of the characters, and we process information through their perspectives. POV technique achieves something important in narrative: empathy, which is a specific aspect of identification. “The narrator can lead readers to relate to characters in a variety of ways… identify with a character by seeing oneself in the character…” Seeing ourselves in characters delivers a potent effect. When empathy is established between the audience and a character, the audience feels what the character feels and perceives what the character perceives, and then we care about the character.
How does this cinematic storytelling technique matter to studying the Bible? Biblical accounts employ POV!
Open your Bible and read the familiar account of Mark 4:35-42, Jesus calming the storm. After reading it, do a second read, but a little slower. Take in the story.
Whose POV are you in? There are three possible POVs in this true tale. Jesus. Disciples. And a third, did you notice, “There were also other boats with him.” (Mark 4:36)? The third POV belongs to the people in the surrounding boats.
We don’t have access to the POV from the other boats; we don’t know what they see. We don’t have access to Jesus’ POV; he’s asleep most of the time, and we don’t know what he’s dreaming, feeling, or thinking outside of what he says, which is heard by the disciples. But we do know what the disciples see from beginning to end. We saw how they perceived Jesus, “They took him [Jesus] along, just as he was…” (Mark 4:36). We know their struggle with the waves breaking into the boat while Jesus was asleep (Mark 4:37). We know the terror filling them (Mark 4:41). And we know the perplexing question they pondered between one another at the end, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” (Mark 4:41). They didn’t say it to Jesus or shout it out to the other boats. It was a private question between them. We have the disciples’ POV. Can a POV be that of a group? Yes. The account presents a collective POV versus an individual one.
Here is an amazing thing: theological understanding for the reader is being developed using the technique of POV. By putting us in the POV of the disciples, we live the drama they experienced, grapple with their emotions, and consider the perplexing Christological question they pondered. Who is Jesus? In light of what they saw him do. But the question remained unanswered. Jesus didn’t return to tell them. The scene ends with a mystery from the disciples’ POV, like a good, unsettling ending of a C.S.I. episode.
The question is about the nature of Christ. In the disciples’ POV, we are left to ponder this question with them. How is this helpful? Because the theological answer is being discovered, often through drama. We thought we knew who Jesus was when we invited him into the boat, but then the storm hit, and after he calmed it with a command, we’re wondering, who is this guy? He is much more! Essential to the disciples’ development of faith in Jesus is an understanding of who Jesus is – Son of God, second person of the Trinity, fully man and fully God. But the Christological truth will not just be told to them. It will be developed in them by discovery through dramatic experiences of Jesus’ actions combined with his teachings, stirring them to wonder and process. The questioning formed a fertile sandbox to wrestle in and discover answers through many successive scenes. We are in the sandbox with them.
With POV, we step into the dramatic movements of the characters and connect with them to discover theological truths that shape our faith.
Read the tales in the Bible and allow the narrator’s use of POV to put you in the characters’ shoes. Feel their emotions. Capture their perspectives. Wrestle with them. Learn, discover, and grow through their POVs in the true tales that shape our souls.
Here are some for starters:
Mark 5 – The account of Jesus calming the storm
Acts 9:1-9 – Saul’s conversion
Acts 9:10-18 – Ananias’ calling
1 Samuel 17 – David versus Goliath
Judges 7 – Gideon versus the Midianites
Enjoy rich adventures of discovery and growth!