The wife and I recently watched “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2025)” on Netflix. All in all a decent detective mystery movie. Some reviewers considered it the best of the three in the franchise – I do not. The first one was by far the best and the only one I would heartily recommend.

I don’t need to go over any of the plot or character development, etc. here. What interests me is the religious point of view of the writer and director Rian Johnson. Sharing a little dialogue between the accused priest Rev. Jud Duplenticy and the exonerating detective extraordinaire Benoit Blanc will show this best.

======================================================

You’re welcome. Come in. Come in.

Thank you. Thank you.

I don’t want to take you away from your priestly duties now, do I?

[Benoit clicks tongue]

Well… [chuckles] Isn’t this something?

[Jud] Right?

It’s… hard to be in here and not feel His presence.

Whose?

Oh. God… Oh. Yeah. [laughs] Yeah.

You’re not a Catholic.

No, very much not, no. [chuckles] Proud heretic.

I kneel at the altar of the rational.

Uhhuh. You weren’t raised in the faith?

My mother is… was, uh, very, very religious, you know.

Were you close with her?

No.

When I was a boy, we, um… But it’s…

Complicated. Family.

[chuckles] It’s complicated.

Yeah. That’s right.

How does all this make you feel?

How does it make me feel?

Truthfully?

Sure.

Well, the architecture, that interests me.

I feel the grandeur, the… the mystery, the intended emotional effect.

It’s… [exhales] And it’s like someone has shone a story at me that I do not believe.

It’s built upon the empty promise of a child’s fairy tale filled with malevolence and misogyny and homophobia and its justified untold acts of violence and cruelty while all the while, and still, hiding its own shameful acts.

So like an ornery mule kicking back, I want to pick it apart and pop its perfidious bubble of belief and get to a truth I can swallow without choking.

[spluttering] The rafter details are very fine, though. It’s…

Listen… you want to kick me out, you go right ahead.

No, no.

You’re being honest, it’s good.

Telling the truth can be a belly rub.

[chuckles softly] Now, I suspect you can’t always be honest with your parishioners.

You can always be honest by not saying the unhonest part.

Yeah. [laughs] You’re right. It’s storytelling.

And this church, it’s… it’s not medieval. We’re in New York.

It’s neoGothic 19th century.

It has more in common with Disneyland than NotreDame…

[chuckles] …and the rites and rituals and costumes, all of it.

It’s storytelling.

You’re right.

I guess the question is do these stories convince us of a lie?

Or do they resonate with something deep inside us that’s profoundly true?

[clicks tongue] That we can’t express any other way… except storytelling.

Touché. Padre.

[laughs, sobs]

Son.

I’m sorry.

I just…

I just felt like a priest again, and now I’m gonna lose that and… and lose my purpose and I’m frightened, I…

I don’t know how I’ll live.

=======================================================

Storytelling is a powerful way of expressing spiritual truths. Jesus used this all the time in His parables, keeping in mind that He clearly stated that the truths of the Kingdom (of God) were hidden from the casual inquirer or skeptic but revealed to His disciples when He later explained their meaning.

But my issue here is not the meaning of the various sayings of Christ but rather whether or not the crux of the Gospel is storytelling or a space-time, historical account of real events.

Benoit Blanc is expressing the modern skeptic’s point of view while the Rev. Jud Duplenticy is expressing the modern liberal’s religious point of view. Neither of these is the historical position of the Church which until the later part of the 19th century was that Jesus had actually and factually risen from the dead – it’s not just storytelling.

As the Apostle Paul wrote, if Jesus has not been raised from the dead then your faith is worthless. The good Rev. Jud Duplenticy is saying that it doesn’t matter whether the resurrection of Jesus is a lie as long as you emphasize the parts of His message that have to do with kindness and service and love and hope.

Writer/Director Rian Johnson is saying that whether you are a believer in the Church, like Rev. Jud Duplenticy, or an unapologetic skeptic like Blanc, what matters is that you show service and love to those who need it. And further, that you tell people whatever they need to hear to maintain hope and help them to carry on regardless of their afflictions or traumas.

Whereas the Bible declares God to be the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, the Lord and giver of Life, and Savior of mankind from death, hell and the grave. This Triune God entered space/time history by redeeming Israel from bondage and despair in Egypt and leading them into the Promised Land a type of Heaven. Then in the fullness of time this same God once again entered space/time history and became a real man who suffered on a Roman cross for the sins of the world, was crucified, dead and buried. And on the third day rose again from the dead and appeared to hundreds and probably thousands of people, walked among his disciples, ate bread and fish with them, and convinced, hardened, skeptical fishermen, who had gone back to their nets fully convinced that they would never see Jesus again – that He had indeed Risen, conquered death and would ascend into Heaven before their very eyes to prepare a place for them, And not only them but all who believe on His name.

The empty tomb also stands as witness to this. Whereas Johnson is implying that an empty tomb means nothing, a resurrection can be faked and gullible people will believe the lie. Therefore know that the miraculous does not exist, all such claims are false, many religious leaders are simply charlatans and frauds (not unlike Dr. Fraud Fauci) who convince the weak and vulnerable that if they practice certain, worthless religious rites (like social distancing, sheltering in place, wearing a mask, and taking an ineffective, dangerous jab) they will obtain life and salvation.

Furthermore life evolved from lifeless chemicals, all creatures have descended from a common ancestor, death is the end of all things, and we can all look forward to smoldering in the grave until the sun explodes and this meaningless life on earth is over forever. However we can all find some kind of temporary meaning and relevance if we selflessly serve others as both Rev. Jud Duplenticy and Blanc do. Or – do whatever the hell you want, live for yourself and your clan, lie, cheat, steal and murder because when it’s all over we all end up in the same place regardless. Peace out.

===================================================

Please click here for further discussion of Intelligent Design vs Undirected biological evolution (i.e., Darwinism)