Harry Potter's Forbidden Forest and the Wilderness Concept in Scripture

The other day I found myself watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. You may ask “Why would you do that? Are you 12?”

I can understand that line of inquiry. But for the record....I like watching my favorite movies and movie series over and over because they always seem to give me something to notice. This time I found myself thinking about the Forbidden Forrest.

In the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry descends into the forest with a group of his friends, a dog, and one of his nemeses. They are on the hunt for something that has been killing off unicorns, and ultimately they find what they are looking for. In the process, Harry meets the spirit-form of Lord Voldemort, the one responsible for destroying his family and setting his life on particular path.

The Foribidden Forest is a recurring location throughout the Harry Potter saga, and so let’s tease this out for just a moment. To be overly abstract, the Forbidden Forest is a definable region that exists on the fringe of the Hogwarts grounds and is associated with concepts of disorder, chaos, danger, and sinister forces. It is distinct from other sections within the grounds that are orderly, hospitable, and largely safe. In a word, the Forbidden Forest is a type of “wilderness.”

Yet there is something important about this forest as one progresses through the Harry Potter saga. Harry can’t avoid the Forbidden Forest. No matter how much he wants to, he finds himself going back there again and again. Climactically, this is the location where he faces the biggest choice of his life—the sacrifice of his life to stop forces of evil.

So, this got me thinking. How does the “wilderness” function within the Biblical narrative?

For many of us, the wilderness is profoundly negative. It is the location of one of Israel’s greatest historical failures and the location of years of wandering and the death of an entire generation. Furthermore, there are very powerful voices in the New Testament that want the reader to remember those failings so that they are not repeated (for example, Paul in 1 Corinthians and the writer to the Hebrews). However, this perspective does not represent the entire picture painted by Scripture.

The reality is that there is a duality associated with the wilderness throughout Scripture. To put it crudely, it is both positive and negative. For example, it was indeed the place of Israel’s failures on their way to the Promised Land. But it was also the location of Israel's encounter with God at Sinai. [Remember that half of the Pentateuch is set in the Sinai Wilderness!] Indeed, the wilderness is a place of banishment and isolation, but in the case of Hagar and Elijah, it was also the place of personal provision and intimate encounter with God Almighty. Jeremiah remembers it as the place of Israel’s (short lived) innocence, and many prophets envision the wilderness as being a place that will reflect God’s future glory. Perhaps most importantly, the wilderness was a necessary place of preparation for Jesus. In the words of Randall Kohls, “The Gospel Begins in the Wilderness.”

Naturally, this begs the question. “What dictates a positive or negative experience associated with the wilderness?”

In many instances, it is choice.

It was the actions and choices of a generation that transformed a time of encounter and intimacy into a time of death and isolation. It was the persistent rebellion and inability of a people to look beyond their uncomfortable state of affairs that allowed them to forget their salvation and, in time, forfeit their future. It was unfaithfulness to God’s expectations that shattered what was supposed to be a time of innocence. And true to form, it will be our choices and actions that will dictate our experience with the gospel.