Unlocking Your Own Jail Cell

http://www.sonyclassics.com/getlow

We watch very few movies, because we never take enough time to watch a whole movie.  But we finished an interesting movie the other day called “Get Low.” with Robert Duvall and Bill Murray.  It took us three sittings to finish it, but I enjoyed the show; Amanda not as much, though she picked it.

The movie is about a man who wants to have a public funeral for himself while he is still alive.  He is known as a hermit and is constantly on the rumor mill.  He has lived alone with little contact for some 40 years.  As the show progresses it becomes clear that he is hiding some deep secrets that have created his behavior.  The live funeral turns out to be an attempt to set the record straight, and ultimately find some healing for himself.

He was guilty of an affair with a married woman years ago that lead to the death of her and her husband in a tragic fire.  When the funeral begins and he makes his climatic speech here are some of the key lines which I wanted to share.

“I built my own jail and stayed in it for 40 years.”

“There’s alive and there’s dead and there’s a worse place in between them.”

“I did something I was ashamed of, something I could never fix . . . but I didn’t want forgiveness.  I needed to hold on to what I did, to be sick from it every day of my life.”

I bring up this movie and these memorable lines because they capture many guilt ridden individuals.  They live in the words of Paul like a “wretched man” because of their guilt.  This is why we need forgiveness (Rom. 8:1).  This is why forgiveness is beautiful (Psalm 32).  Yet, we often can nurse our guilt and receive some twisted satisfaction in punishing ourselves.  In the movie, a preacher tried to get him to confess the sin and find healing in Jesus, but he had refused for years.  He would not allow himself to receive and have forgiveness.

We must realize the truth of God’s grace that we don’t deserve forgiveness, but we receive it as a gift.

The jail is really self-built.  We own the key to the jail!  We can unlock the door and walk out anytime we choose.  But we have to surrender our pride and accept the blood of Christ.  We have to accept the forgiveness of others.  We have to let the past go.

Don’t build your own jail and stay it in for 40 years!  Christ came to free us (John 8:31-38).