A regular theme in storytelling is the prince rescuing the beauty. And unfortunately, many of our modern interpretations assume this portrayal is just about keeping women weak and dependent on men. But this misses the larger pattern present in the story God is telling.
Of course, our propensity to sin affects everything we do. And this includes how we tell stories. And many of our stories might indeed include simplistic or otherwise demeaning elements. But this doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Rescuing the beauty is not a judgment on women any more than it is an affirmation on men. It’s a recurring motif in our stories because it taps into an eternal reality that transcends our particular circumstances, even when this is done unwittingly.
To be sure, Christ Jesus is our conquering prince – rescuing us from the kingdom of darkness and bringing us back to his kingdom of light. He is the true prince, and we, as his church, are the beauty. And our need to be rescued in no way diminishes our value or worth. In fact, it does just the opposite. Because of his passionate love for us he was willing to suffer and die on our behalf – purchasing our freedom and forgiving our sins.
Christ saving his bride is the universal pattern that gets played out in the stories we tell. And this is why stories that refuse to let the beauty be rescued by the hero miss the point. The pattern is less about our particular roles as men and women, and more about our relationship to Christ. And it’s heresy to assume the church could save herself without Christ.
In the end, rejoice and be glad every time the beauty is rescued because this reminds us of what Christ did for us.
