So I was watching the Shawshank Redemption last night. If you've never seen it, go get it and watch it. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen, hands down.
But while I was watching it I noticed that there is a theme running it in that mirrors the Christian's life.
We have a man, who was charged with the murder of his wife and her lover and went to prison for it. While there he learns, "Everyone here is innocent." Everyone plays into this idea. We see different exchanges throughout the movie, "What're you in for?" "I'm innocent, lawyer screwed me over."
As the movie goes on, following the main character Andy we see him continually admit that he's innocent. And in actuality, he was, he never murdered his wife or the man she was having an affair with. This is proven by another inmate at a different prison admitting to killing them to a character that ends up at Shawshank.
Near the end of the movie Andy is sitting with his best friend Red, and he has come to the realization, he's not innocent. He's guilty of killing his wife. Maybe he didn't pull the trigger, but his actions led her into her lovers arms, who was the target of a robbery, and they both were killed.
That night, Andy breaks out of prison, crawling through a sewer tunnel full of crap that leads to a river, in the pouring rain, and freedom.
The movie conclude with Andy going into different banks as another person, taking a fortune with him to escape to Mexico, his idea of a safe haven.
Here's how I see this connecting to the Christian life.
We all think we're innocent. I've never killed anyone, I've never robbed a bank. Maybe I stole that kids pencil in middle school, but that's not that bad.
And then bad things begin happening to us. Now I don't believe in karma, I believe that we're in a fallen world and that bad things happen as a result of sin in the world. So if I get in a fight with manbearpig and have my toe smashed, it's not because I did something wrong; it's because we're in a fallen world and bad things happen. Toes get smashed, car wrecks happen, people die, we lose things, we accidentally slice our arms open, bad things happen. All because of being in a fallen world. And we add to that. But we don't think we do because, "We're not that bad."
So we wonder, "Why are these bad things happening to me? I'm not a bad person. I'm innocent."
Eventually we come to realize, we're no innocent. Maybe we're not as bad as this other guy, but Romans 5 tells us one sin from one man was enough to condemn all of humanity, and we sin multiple times on a daily basis. We by no means are innocent.
From there we take our first step towards salvation. Andy had a rock hammer, an old crumbling wall, and a poster to cover the hole. These lead to his salvation. We have Jesus to lead us to ours. But it's not an easy step to be saved. It's not just getting baptized. It's giving up who you are, a prisoner, either to sin or the system as in Andy's case, and crawling through all of your mistakes, realizing what a wretched creature you are, how sinful you are, and coming out the other side into God's saving grace which he pours on you like rain. It washes you clean, and you are liberated and free, becoming a new person, taking on a new identity, and taking the riches, the treasure that is Jesus, the promise of eternal life, and we go on travelling to our safe haven, to be with Christ, but already living like we are.
