Brian Castelli – With His Heart

I’m always looking for ways to link popular media to faith. I like to write about redemptive themes. This post is a bit different. I was talking to a friend the other day about the stickiness of sin. That is, sin has a way of clinging to us. I’ve written previously of a friend who took one step off the narrow path and then proceeded to sprint into deeper and more flagrant sins. I also know first hand of what it feels like to carry the guilt of unconfessed sin. It’s like an invisible backpack of bricks. Other people can’t see it, but it slows us down, hunches us over, and affects everything we do.

Spiderman 3, the movie, comes to mind here because of that black, icky thing that covered Spiderman for part of the movie. Background: An asteroid crashes to earth and Spidey goes to investigate. The asteroid contains more than just rock and ice, however. It carries some kind of icky black symbiote that clings to Spiderman, becoming part of his Spidey suit. Except for the fact that Spidey’s suit changed from red to black, you couldn’t even tell it was there. I’m not sure if the thing was evil or if it somehow amplified Peter Parker’s evil nature, but Spidey and the icky black thing together were a bad mix.

After Spidey had done some really bad things, he came to his senses and tried to get rid of the icky black thing. He struggled mightily to get the thing to let go of him, but it was like gum-on-steroids stuck to the bottom of a shoe. Spiderman pulled and pushed, stretched and groaned, tried and failed, but eventually succeeded at ridding himself of the thing.

I think sin in our lives is like the icky black thing. It clings to us, blending in such that other people aren’t always aware of it. We often struggle mightily to rid ourselves of it, but, unlike Spidey, we usually don’t have the strength to get rid of it on our own. (We haven’t been bitten by radioactive spiders after all!) We need help. We need a savior.

I recently rented the movie, “Hancock,” starring Will Smith as John Hancock, reluctant super hero. (Using RedBox for the first time! $1 a night! Try it!) In entertainment terms, it was so-so. The special effects were good, the acting was fair, but the story had holes a mile wide. At the center of it all, though, was the story of John Hancock’s redemption. When the movie opens, we find that Hancock isn’t well liked. Many of the people in the city want him gone. Along the way, Hancock saves the life of a professional PR man who, in return, helps Hancock with his image.

At first the changes are superficial. Hancock sticks to the script he’s been given and pretends to be different. Through a series of events, however, he goes through a true transformation – one that enables him to lay his own life on the line for someone else.

I like redemption stories because they strike very close to home for us. At some level, we’re all messed up like Hancock. John Eldredge in his book, “Wild at Heart,” says that we’re all posers, hoping that no one gets a peek under our fig leaves. In the movie, Hancock is, in a way, running from himself. He knows that he has flaws, and he protects himself from that knowledge by adopting a, “I don’t give a hoot,” attitude.

Isn’t that just like us? I mean, aren’t there times in our lives when our #1 goal is to cover our weakness in order to appear strong? And, although I like redemption stories, Hancock falls well short of reality. That is, we actually can’t fix ourselves. on our own power, we can change for a time and even make steps in the right direction. But it takes something outside of us, something greater, to affect true change.

Here’s the bottom line: We’re all the same. We’re all messed up. In fact, we’re messed up beyond our ability to fix it. We can’t do it on our own power. This is where Jesus steps in. Romans 5:8 tells us that God loved us so much that he saved us while we were still sinners. No clean up required. No perfect saints in this church. Just saints that have been cleaned up by God.

Jesus changes things. That’s true redemption.

I re-watched the movie Galaxy Quest last night. At its core, the movie is the story of redemption.

Galaxy Quest is a parody of Star Trek. Tim Allen plays the actor Jason Nesmith who, 18 years prior, had the lead role of Commander Peter Quincy Taggert. Since the show’s demise, Nesmith and the rest of the cast have been eking out an embarrassing existence by appearing at Treky-like trade shows and making campy product endorsements. Nesmith is self-absorbed. He continues to grab the lion’s share of the diminishing spotlight, much to the consternation of his fellow cast members.

At a particular low point, Nesmith is visited by some folks that he thinks are crazy fans dressed up as aliens. The problem is, they are aliens! They’ve intercepted the television transmissions of the Galaxy Quest show, and they think Nesmith is a real hero! They take him into outer space to do battle with an evil enemy that they cannot handle on their own. Thrust into a real-life situation that requires heroics, Nesmith eventually rises to the occasion, transforming into a real servant leader who puts the welfare of his friends first.

I see a parallel between Nesmith’s fictional life and the life of a Jesus follower. Nesmith thought he had it all together. When his eyes were opened to his true nature, he admitted his condition and then repented – turned from – his former self. Those who follow Jesus have also come to a place where we realize that we aren’t all that great after all. As things fall apart around us, we often admit our weakness for the first time and hit bottom. It’s at the bottom where many of us finally acknowledge that we need Jesus.

Paul, writing in the 7th chapter of 2 Corinthians, says that those who operate in unrighteousness “suppress the truth”. This suppression is our defense mechanism against what God would have us see, acknowledge, and dispose of!