Jeff, Who Lives at Home struck a deep emotional chord within me when I first saw it in 2012 -- a very, very dark chapter of my life. I remember my then wife asking me why it had moved me to such tears and I don't think I even knew how to answer her at that time. I was so utterly alienated from my True Self (for what I mean by this term, see Richard Rohr) that I could not perceive the nature of her question -- a question fundamentally about me. Yet now I have rewatched this film twice within the past six months and I think I know what my soul was crying about in 2012. I was encountering the gospel of Jesus in this new story/Story of Jeff. (By the way, the 32 f-bombs in this rated R film -- and its treatment of homosexuality -- means that most "good Christians" wouldn't even watch this mythical story. Their loss, I guess.)
*Spoilers ahead*
Jeff constantly points away from himself.
Jeff senses a purpose to his existence which is mysterious and beyond himself. He loves the movie "Signs" because in the end it is the half-consumed cups of water that saves everyone.
Jeff seems to have a "sixth sense" for what is going on around him, an awareness of the holiness of all of life (birds in the air, phone calls, infomercials, traffic jams, random people); everything matters, Jeff thinks, if we can see with the eyes of faith.
Jeff sometimes doubts himself and, in those moments, he is most convinced that the story is absolutely NOT about himself (which it is! haha! the joke is on Jeff!). After all, how could the story be about him if he is just a thirty year old pothead living in his mom's basement!? What could be more irrelevant than such a man?
Jeff, precisely because he alone considers his own life completely expendable, saves everyone in the end. His mother reconnects with life and love; his brother does too and the ripple effects carry on infinitely. Completely unaware of his own agency, Jeff has single-handedly saved us ALL with his courageous act of self-sacrificial love and utter abandonment to even death itself.
Jeff is baptized into death, enters the roaring waters we are drowning in, embraces the chaos, and quite literally dies.
And lastly, of course, Jeff is resurrected. It could not end any other way since this is the Gospel.
*Spoilers ahead*
Jeff constantly points away from himself.
Jeff senses a purpose to his existence which is mysterious and beyond himself. He loves the movie "Signs" because in the end it is the half-consumed cups of water that saves everyone.
Jeff seems to have a "sixth sense" for what is going on around him, an awareness of the holiness of all of life (birds in the air, phone calls, infomercials, traffic jams, random people); everything matters, Jeff thinks, if we can see with the eyes of faith.
Jeff sometimes doubts himself and, in those moments, he is most convinced that the story is absolutely NOT about himself (which it is! haha! the joke is on Jeff!). After all, how could the story be about him if he is just a thirty year old pothead living in his mom's basement!? What could be more irrelevant than such a man?
Jeff, precisely because he alone considers his own life completely expendable, saves everyone in the end. His mother reconnects with life and love; his brother does too and the ripple effects carry on infinitely. Completely unaware of his own agency, Jeff has single-handedly saved us ALL with his courageous act of self-sacrificial love and utter abandonment to even death itself.
Jeff is baptized into death, enters the roaring waters we are drowning in, embraces the chaos, and quite literally dies.
And lastly, of course, Jeff is resurrected. It could not end any other way since this is the Gospel.
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