Shades
of Jiminy Cricket!
Hebrews
10:19-25
Most of us know the story of Pinocchio, both the original
tale and the version created by Walt Disney.
It’s a good story, made visible and more striking by the Disney
storytellers and animators.
In the animated version we follow Pinocchio from his
creation as a puppet by Geppetto, through his enlivening as a reward to his
creator, through his misadventures, and finally to the realization that freedom
does not mean license to do anything that comes to mind.
In the Disney version, the character who tries to provide
guidance to the willful boy is Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio’s conscience. From his first appearance he tries to tell
the puppet-become-boy how to live so as not to cause harm to himself, Geppetto,
or anyone else. Pinocchio will have none
of it, but insists on his own way, paying increasingly more serious
consequences for ignoring the advice of his conscience.
Each time Pinocchio contemplates a new adventure, Jiminy
Cricket warns him of the dangers involved in following that path. Pinocchio blows by him like an NFL running
back past a cheerleader. Sure enough,
Pinocchio suffers the consequences of his willful behavior, finally endangering
both his life and Geppetto’s. Somehow,
with Jiminy Cricket’s assistance and his own determination, Pinocchio manages
to escape every situation, coming finally to the realization that freedom must
have limits if we are to live in a way that ensures happiness for us and for
everyone around us—at least we hope he has learned that lesson.
People refusing to listen to their conscience is a
repeating theme in literature. If we are
wise, we will read these cautionary tales, learn from them, and avoid the
pitfalls that await us if we ignore our conscience.
According to Strong’s Complete Concordance (a book
which lists significant words in the Bible and where to find them) the word conscience
does not appear in the Hebrew Scriptures.
It is, however, found frequently in the New Testament. Does this mean conscience is a Christian
concept? The word may be found only in
the New Testament, but the concept is evident from Adam and Eve on. We know their story, what happened to them
when they didn’t follow their consciences.
Jacob also comes to mind as someone who had to suffer consequences
because of his conscience-deafness. The
prophets were sent by God to be the conscience of Israel. Often they were ignored, as the rulers led
the people into one destructive situation after another.
The first problem with conscience is that it can be
ignored. As Nicholas de Chamfort said, “Conscience is a dog that does not stop
us from passing but that we cannot stop from barking.” Pinocchio, Jacob, Adam
and Eve and so many others have proved that conscience cannot stop us from
doing what we want; it can only warn us of the dangers that lie ahead.
And that brings us to the second problem with
conscience. The barking of the dog
becomes weaker and weaker the more we pass by it. Perhaps the dog becomes so used to us that it
doesn’t try as hard to stop us. Or
perhaps we become more and more deaf to warning barks. Whichever is true (most likely some of both),
the more we ignore our conscience, the easier it becomes to ignore it. Pinocchio saw Jiminy Cricket as someone who
was trying to stop him from having fun—until it was almost too late.
The writer of Hebrews encourages us to “draw near [to
God] with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled
clean from an evil conscience…”
Good advice for all of us: listen to our version of Jiminy
Cricket. He knows what he’s talking
about.
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