Dr. Warren Hoffman

Is it just me or is OZ in the air we breathe? For the last 2 years we have seen 2 remakes of the classic story with some additions (The “Wicked” series). Personally, this past October, I helped with vocal supervision for “C.O.A.C.H.” homeschool group’s fantastic production of the original musical. Then in January Laura and I had the privilege of attending yet another wonderful OZ presentation in dinner theater format at the Center Building.

The Wizard of Oz really tells quite a relatable story, doesn’t it? In my humble opinion, the Broadway musical has become the most powerful and recognizable storytelling mode of our time, to narrate the condition of humanity, our hopes and challenges, our dreams and fears and woes.

The Wizard of Oz has replaced Shakespeare as the common reference point of popular language and culture. We all know what it means to pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, we know that the Yellow Brick Road goes through the Haunted Forest, and we know what to sing on the death of wickedness. “Ding Dong, the witch dead!”

But the story leaves us with many puzzles, too. Why would anyone want to get out of colorful Oz and go back into Black and white Kansas? Why does water melt a witch? Must we dream before we can understand reality? How do we acquire the virtues of courage, heart, and intelligence?

Is the Wicked Witch really wicked or does she merely have a wicked reputation? What is her backstory? Can we simply tap our heels together and be brought into a clear understanding of our lives?

The original 1939 production starred Ray Bolger as the slap stick Scarecrow and Bert Lahr as the mostly cowardly Lion. Jack Haley was the often tearful Tin Man and Judy Garland, the inimitable, somewhere over the rainbow, Dorothy. From the first time I watched her place one red slipper in front of the other, I was hooked.

There is so much I took from this wonderful fable; so many lessons hidden in plain sight. For instance, when the foursome, plus Toto, was lost in the woods and began to sing, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my” they taught me the value of friendship; they taught me that even in dark and dangerous places the presence of a friend to walk with you and sing with you is worth its weight in gold.

Oz reminds us when adversity rises – or falls in the form of a broom toting green threat – it does not always signal disaster. In fact it just may be that some forms of adversity are a blessing. It just may be that trouble positions us to learn life’s most important lessons. Dorothy and her gang teach us that adversity is not all bad.

Yes, there are many good things to be gained from a 1939 tale of a girl, her dog and their friends. That we serve one another, overcome obstacles and achieve success are powerful lessons learned from this story.

Most of us, love Oz. But its basic premise is also deeply disturbing. There within the Wizard, amidst all it truths of friendship and character development, a very big lie.

It is one of the core lies of redemptive history. It is a lie that Jesus referenced in John’s gospel chapter 8. Jesus was pointing to not just a lie, but to the father of lies, an entire paradigm of telling lies, pointing to the great ancestor of lies – the one for whom the lie is the native tongue – the devil.

The lie? The Wizard of Oz ultimately preaches a pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps-look-to-the-power-within yourself message.

Near the end of the story, the tin man asks Dorothy what she has learned. She turns to the “good” witch Glinda and says: “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look further than my own backyard. That’s right, isn’t it?” The witch answers, “That’s all it is.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact this is the most devastating lie since Eve heard the garden serpent hiss, “You shall not surely die.”

I think that the way the Wizard of Oz puts the lie- is incredibly poetic don’t you think? From the mouth of Dorothy: “If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look further than my own backyard. That’s right, isn’t it?” The witch answers, “That’s all it is.”

This is a lie which has obviously been around for a long time. And as we have learned, a big lie, told often enough will be believed.

Joseph Goebbels, propaganda chief to Adolf Hitler had some primary rules to reinforce the lies of the Third Reich: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame them for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.

Friends, we’ve been told a big fat lie.

The big lie is that you don’t need God. You don’t need salvation. There is no need for redemption or atonement. There is no use for a rugged cross. It is all within you – in your back yard. You even hear that lie in musicals. During this season of Lent, the church proclaims the truth that Salvation is available but NOT within you.

The truth is that we have been broken by sin. The truth is that we are helpless without God’s grace, the truth is that we find mercy by faith through the cross and the resurrection of Jesus, which are external realities outside ourselves. In this, we are reconciled to God, and find our true home.

As courage was to the lion, as home was to Dorothy, as a heart of passion was to the tinman, as thoughtful intellect was to the scarecrow, so is our knowledge of Christ to us. When we know Christ, we are redeemed, forgiven, completed, fulfilled, sinful though we are.

Our journey, our yellow brick road, is to know the salvation of Christ. It is to know the mind of Christ, to know Jesus as the light of the world, to imitate how he moved and how he reached out to touch and transform.

The one who claimed to be the way, the truth and the life challenges the big lie from OZ: ‘that salvation is within you in your own back yard’. By faith, Jesus is the Truth that frees us and reconciles us forever with God.