Christ in the Shawshank Redemption

I do believe the Shawshank Redemption has a religious message. I didn't see it the first time I watched it. The first time I saw it, I loved it not because it was a religious movie but because it was a film about hope. And although I cringed at the portrayal of the Warden, it was hope that made me return to this film again and again. Only after watching and digesting the movie for many years did I finally recognize the hope the movie was depicting.

I see the movie as an illustration of the above/below divide that has been a constant theme in western literature since Plato's Allegory of the Cave. If you aren't familiar with the Allegory I invite you to read it. The problem with Shaw shank’s prisoners and Red in particular is they have become accustom to prison life. Brook's parole, in a clear reversal of our expectations, reveals the terror one experiences when faced with the possibility of living life on the outside. But there is life outside, a point that Andy wants his fellow prisoners to see. He provides them beer on the roof, music over the loud speakers, and the library, all in an effort to prepare them for this life. Andy does it not because he is chained as his fellow prisoners but because he is the only prisoner that's free and or innocent.

The religious connotation of the film, however, does not become fully apparent until Andy escapes from prison. It is in Andy's cell where we along with Red expect to find Andy dead. But instead of finding death, we find the cell empty and instead of being dead, Andy is alive with a new and powerful life lived on the outside. The imagery is so transparent I don't why it took me, a Christian, over six years to see who Andy is. Andy is Christ. Just as when Red and the Warden go looking for Andy's dead body in the cell, the disciples likewise went looking for Christ's. And just as Red found the Cell empty and Andy alive, so the disciples found the tomb empty and Jesus alive.

This connection is the key to the movie. When you recognize this everything in the film because meaningful in light of the gospel (good news). The prisoners of Shawshank and Red in particular like ourselves are bound to this world. Because of this the prisoners fear being paroled just as we fear death: there is nothing waiting for them on the outside. Like Christ, Andy comes into there world as a free and innocent man, spreading hope of the outside world. Just as Christ first miracle is changing water into wine, Andy provides beer on the roof. Just as Christ miracles proclaim the hope found in a life lived in God, Andy's miracles proclaim the hope that can be theirs.

It's Andy escape (death/resurrection) that makes all the difference for Red. Up until that time he is man unwilling to truly face his guilt and punishment. Up until that time he is a man who is afraid of what awaits him on the outside. But Andy's life means life for Red. It’s because Andy lives that Red does not face the same fate as Brooks. The final scene where Red meets Andy on the beach, I believe is the imagery of the believer meeting Christ in heaven.

This is Christianity in a nutshell. You can’t find this imagery particularly in the Gospel of John. In closing I have to ask you one question. You love the Shawshank Redemption, could it be the image of Christ that you truly love?

A Brief Meditation on Time

Do not say, "Why were the old days better than these?" For it is not wise to ask such questions. Ecclesiastes 7:10

Nostalgia is a funny feeling. Sitting here in my big brown reclining chair with my feet up and my lap top in my lap, I can think of thousand experiences I would like to relive. Why are the old days always better? Growing up I have desired to be in all sorts of past eras. Sometimes I’ve wanted to live among the Romans at the height of the Roman Empire and at other times I’ve wanted to be in the Old West. Recently I bought a book about the history of Camas, Washington my home town. I look through the photographs and yearn to experience a different time and place. Why does the past always seem better than the present?

But even if you have never wanted to live in another era, we have all wanted to go back and relive our past. There are moments in our lives when the good, warm, safe memories of the past flood our lives and the heart cannot help but bleed for the past. But even if it’s not a safe memory we often desire to return and change the past. I wish I could do this or said this. Things I would have done differently, words I would have spoken if given another chance. We yearn for the past because we have a deep desire to make it right.

In all this yearning, though, I think we take for granted our knowledge of the present. We never think about going back to relive an experience without our current knowledge. It’s a given. We want to go back with our current knowledge secure. But this is precisely the difficulty the writer of Ecclesiastes had in this longing. To long for the past is to long for its ignorance and lake of wisdom. Think about if you went back in time to that special place in your memory but lost all knowledge of the present, the past would then become just another present. Going back to that moment, without knowledge of the current is simply to live that experience without truly appreciating why it was so special or recognizing what was done wrong. The very reason you long to go back is not because you want to relive that moment but rather its that you want to know the future in the present.

As I sent here in this present moment writing this post I don’t know what the future holds. Is this a moment that my eighty year old self would want to come back to experience. It may or may not be. I won’t know until I’m eighty. Nostalgia is not a longing for the past; instead it’s a longing to know our futures. Our present knowledge of the past makes it a safe place. But for the present all bets are off.

A group called the Cry has a song called “Take my hand and walk.” In the song they quote Ecclesiastes “Why were the old days better?” To which the singer replies “because you’re scared of the unknown.” Remember the past, plan for the future, but as long as it is called today, embrace it.

Blush

It almost goes without saying that extravagant gifts can both humble and embarass us. I'll never forget the Christmas my wife and I moved back from California after being away from home for some two and half years. Surronded by family, friends and strangers alike, I was humbled by the shere number of presents that we received. The pile rose higher and higher and still the gifts kept coming. I looked at the strangers around us and blushed with embarassement how much had been given. It was difficult to accept the overwhelming extravangance of these gifts given in love.

Jesus washing of his disciple’s feet in John 13 is really about the extravangant gift given in the incarnation – its a powerful symbolic reenactment of the word made flesh. Much of the scene echoes Philippians 2:4-8. When Jesus lays aside his garments and takes a towel he shows how he laid aside his deity to take the demaning role of a personal slave.

Peter's rejection reveals the scandelous, sometimes embarassing reality of what God has done. I think in our present society we have lost the shock and the horror that Peter experienced as His Lord exposed himself to perform the slave’s task. I believe it would parallel in some sense the shock of watching Robert Schuller take off his clothes in the middle of his sermon in order to give his clothes personally to you. Imagine your horror as this dignified man takes off his robe unbuttons his shirt and then unzips his pants. Imagine the gasps from the crowd; the red faces the eyes closing and the heads turning away. Imagine the pale skin, aged and overweight body of Robert Schuller standing exposed, offering all his honor and dignity to you. This is what God did in Jesus. We might have been satisfied with a single piece of his clothing but we recieved so much more.

God is closer than you think and perhaps at times, according to the reaction of Peter, even more intimate than you could desire. For the Jews God was something up there, something wholly other. He was a transcendent being, that no eye could see and no mind could comprehend. God existed far removed from the day to day routine of everyday life. The incarnation, the fact that God became man, changed everything. It turned the world upside down. God could no longer be mistaken for an invisible deity far removed from our cares and concerns. He was as Matthew pointed out, Immanuel which is translated “God with us.”

In Christmas we remember how God fully and completely offered himself to us, giving up the entirety of his honor and respect in order to meet every last inch of our need. This gift of nearness may be difficult to accept. The cynic in us can’t believe it. No God would do that. If I was God I wouldn’t do that. But the surprising thing is that it is exactly because he is God that he has done it for us. Notice how John tells us that the cause for Jesus actions was that he knew he came from God and was going back to God. It is precisely because of his being God, a member of the trinity, that He gave himself to us. To be God, according to the gospel of John, is to give sacrafically. For God is a giver (John 3:16). He goes beyound the limits of what even we would do to meet our every need.

In John 13 we find a God that is truly closer than we think. A God that shocks us so throughly in the extravagant gift of himself that we can only help but blush.