Starring: James Mason, Sam Neil, Rhys-Davies, Olivia Hussey, Anthony Andrews, Romald Pickup, Juilian Glover, and Michael Horden
Ivanhoe the 1982 TV movie is one of the greatest Medieval Movies of all time. It has it all: romances, sieges, fidel (faith), pageantry, and great acting. More than this Ivanhoe is the only movie I’ve seen that addresses the truth about interfaith love and marriage. Wilfred of Ivanhoe is exemplary Christian and knight, he saves the life of Isaac of York (James Mason), a Jew and later His daughter, Rebecca (Olivia Hussey) from the pyre. Ivanhoe risks life ans limb for his neighbor, showing how to love your neighbor, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’There is no commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:30-31). When Rebecca falls in love with Ivanhoe, he tells her he cannot be with her because “their faiths will not meet,” and later Rebecca tells the Lady Rowena, who Ivanhoe marries, “there is gulf between us, our faiths.” And yet Rebecca realizes a kindness in Rowena and has seen Christ’s love in Ivanhoe lays down his life for her on many occasions, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends,” (John 15:13), “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded,” (John 10:18) and “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” (1 John 3:16). And yet Rebecca cannot cross the gulf and become a Christian. Wilfred of Ivanhoe shows us the best of Christian Chivalry, by helping the needy and weak, even assisting a race that was hated by his contemporaries. Ivanhoe gives all his bravado and heart into helping Isaac and Rebecca, and in turn they save his life at a crucial moment, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting, And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not,” (Galatians 6:7-8), because Wildred (Ivanhoe) had obeyed Iesus’ teaching, “treat people the way you want to be treated.” (Luke 6:31), “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.,” (Matthew 7:12), and “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Galatians 5:4).
The melancholic end of the film may make some ponder, “can’t a Jew and Christian bridge the gulf with love (philo and eros)?” The truth is no. Ivanhoe resisting to tempt God, and instead making the Lady Rowena his wife, is realistic. Ivanhoe loves (eros) Rebecca, but he knows passion cannot survive piety, for it is written, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18), and “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, “Come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”” (2 Corinthians 6:14-18). Ivanhoe is great and kind knight because He is Christian, and Rebecca loves him, but in time her faith would be at odds over his, as in particular, “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
” (John 14:6), “Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? ” (Hebrews 10:28-29), “1We must pay closer attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every transgression and disobedience received its just punishment,how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?This salvation was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, and was affirmed by God through signs, wonders, various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will,” (Hebrews 2:1-4), and “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Ivanhoe would be torn apart that had he made Rebecca his bride, she would not join him in eternity.
A foil to Ivanhoe is his archenemy Brian de Bois-Guilbert (Sam Neil), a Knight Templar, who is also beguiled by Rebecca’s beauty. We get to see lvanhoe’s fate had he chased Rebecca. Brian goes mad because he is Templar, who has sworn a vow of chastity and to never marry, a monastic discipline. Brian tries to entice Rebecca to flee with him and start a new order, and be together, but she tells him, “that is a dream, that can never be.” The strain of his passion for Rebecca, the strictures of his Order, The Knights Templar, and the risk of losing the Jewess to the pyre makes Brian expose his chest and let Ivanhoe pierce it with his sword, saving Rebecca from the burning stake. Through Gullbert we get a glimpse of what would have happened to Ivanhoe had he entertained his amorous feelings for Rebecca; madness and death.
Ivanhoe (1982) dares to throughly examine 2 Corinthians 6:14-18, “do not be unevenly yoked to an unbeliever...” in an age of mixed faith marriages. The truth is like Wilfred of Ivanhoe, we must chose the believing wife of Rowena and not the tempting Rebecca. For to quote the prophet once more, “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Amen.
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