The Last Crusade

I just finished watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and I thought I would take this moment to write down the various ways I have related it to the Gospel.

I believe the Holy Grail represents the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The chalice was used at the Last Supper, which was also the institution of the Lord's Supper, the sacrament. And more importantly it caught the blood of Christ while He hung on the cross, this is a clear representation of the Atonement. The movie states that if one drinks from the grail he shall have a spring in his soul welling up to everlasting life. This language used (mine wasn't verbatim) is very similar to what Jesus of Nazareth told the Samaritan woman at the well when He offered her the waters of life, not referring to actual water rather His Gospel and His Way. Also, the water from the grail will heal any wound (a bullet shot to the gut) just as the Atonement has power to heal us of any wound to our soul.

The movie tells of three knights who drank from the cup and although they all drank from the cup they also all eventually died. This is because the cup will only give everlasting life so long as the person continues to drink from it. So also will the Atonement give everlasting life only so long as we continue to exercise faith in it and Him and "drink from its waters". We cannot be baptized, receive a remission of our sins, make necessary covenants with the Lord, and then go about our merry little lives and not think of those things again. No, we must continue to strengthen our faith, repent of our sins, renew our covenants (again referencing the sacrament), and share these things with others. When Indiana Jones was about the take the grail the knight told him it must not pass the great seal, "for that is the price of eternal life", meaning when we partake of the Atonement then our responsibility is to dedicate our lives to it, administer it (in a sense) to others who are worthy of it, and to show people where to find it (just as the other two knights in the movie left markers to show the way to the grail).

The directions to reach the grail include crossing the desert and going into the mountain of the Lord, these can easily be compared to worldliness and the temple, not suggesting that one has to go through the world to reach the Atonement but rather one must exit the world and enter the temple as part of the process to receiving the full blessings of the Atonement.

The three tests are very clear, to be blessed by the Atonement we must be humble, repentant, obedient, and exercise faith. Only through the true Gospel can we receive all the blessings of the Atonement.

I really enjoy comparing things to the Gospel; we learn so much when the Gospel is compared to things in our lives that we are familiar with (maybe some day I'll post my Star Wars links to the Gospel). I love this Gospel and I love learning more about it.