300

Directed by Zach Snyder, starring Gerard Butler as King Leonidas, Lena Headey as Queen Gorgo and Dominic West as Theron (the traitor).

300 is good for its groundbreaking cinematography, creative characters and the fact that the Spartans were fighting for something greater than themselves.

300 also demonstrates the strength of camaraderie. The Spartans are so tenaciously unified that they defeat armies far greater than their own modest force (of three hundred men). A chain carries great weight because its links hold powerfully to one another. So also the Spartans’ strength was not in any singular man, but in the combined efforts of the whole regiment.

However the combined strength of the most disciplined men in the world is still limited apart from God.

In particular, 300 demonstrates the futility of manly pride. Consider this quote from King Leonidas: "Spartans! Ready your breakfast and eat hearty... For tonight, we dine in hell!" That's one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. He obviously does not know what hell is, or he would not be bragging about he fact that he is going there. There is a fearful reason hell is called “hell”: It is designed to be eternally unbearable. If hell-bound people had to face unending hardships that they might overcome then we might rename hell and call it “earth.”

Every man, no matter how great, must eventually die. How men deal with this fact divides the wise from the foolish, the sheep from the goats.

The Spartans thought that their pride strengthened them. This is true to some extent, especially in their fighting abilities... they killed more Persians than visa versa. But where are these great ones now? They’re all dead.

It is possible for our efforts on this earth to make a difference eternally? Yes. That is exactly the sort of thing Jesus came to teach about. The kingdom of God stretches from this life into the next. God's adopted children will continue in the next life in the same direction as this life. If we follow Christ, then our purpose for existing starts now and stretches out into eternity.

All prideful strongholds must eventually crumble. Sparta, for example, has been extinct for two thousand years. Likewise, the foolishness of trusting in mortal strength has been demonstrated over and over throughout history.

King Leonidas cared about something non-material, I'll give him that. But, from a heavenly standpoint, he was still tragically shortsighted.

"Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father's glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done." -- Matthew 16