Good art sticks in your mind like tar sticks to your feet at the beach. "127 Hours" is good art. After watching it with my wife on Thursday night I just can't stop thinking about it. It was so raw, and real, and visceral. It truly captured the intensity of a young man's dire situation. If you don't know the movie, an avid outdoorsman gets his arm lodged between a rock and a hard place (literally) in the barren wilderness of Utah. He is stuck in the middle of the desert alone and with very limited water and food supply. The movie follows the 127 hours of his entrapment as he slowly becomes more bitingly aware of the desperation of his situation. He soon realizes that there are only two options for him: Death or the amputation of his arm. His very life hinges on a normally unthinkable act. How can anyone cut off their own arm? As he ponders the alternative, death, cutting off his own arm is the only viable option, though horrendous as it may be. In a horribly gruesome scene, this young man purposefully breaks both bones in his forearm and then proceeds to cut through his own flesh with a small, dull, rusty leatherman. It is shocking, excruciating and almost unbearable as he slowly and painfully cuts through his own skin, muscle, cartilage and nerves. After a few moments of horror he eventually frees himself from the very rock that was determined to take his life. As he stands back from his place of entrapment, staring at his own severed appendage, he realizes that he is free! His life has been saved! A moment of unfathomable amputation has led to the saving of his life.
As I re-run this movie in my head over and over, I can't help but think of the words of Jesus: "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:30) That young man in the movie realized that his very life was on the line, and therefore he went to the most extreme measures necessary to remedy the situation. If we, as the young outdoorsman did, started to realize what is at stake, I believe we'd start to be much more extreme in dealing with our sin. Our very lives are on the line, and yet we play around as if it's some sort of game, like it's ok that we continue on in our rebellion; day after day drinking poison and death. Jesus says, "Get serious about about your sin! Deal with it! Rid yourself of it! Cut your arm off if you have to, because sin left unchecked could mean that you are on a path to eternal hell! Get off the path to death!"
Powerful stuff.
I thank Danny Boyle for making such great art, art that speaks, and sways, and sticks in our mind and hearts. I pray that I would allow that art, and the words of Jesus, to drive me to deal with my sin as it truly is: Death, Cancer, and a Dastardly Rock!
A question for you: "What needs to be cut off in your life?"
As I re-run this movie in my head over and over, I can't help but think of the words of Jesus: "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell." (Matthew 5:30) That young man in the movie realized that his very life was on the line, and therefore he went to the most extreme measures necessary to remedy the situation. If we, as the young outdoorsman did, started to realize what is at stake, I believe we'd start to be much more extreme in dealing with our sin. Our very lives are on the line, and yet we play around as if it's some sort of game, like it's ok that we continue on in our rebellion; day after day drinking poison and death. Jesus says, "Get serious about about your sin! Deal with it! Rid yourself of it! Cut your arm off if you have to, because sin left unchecked could mean that you are on a path to eternal hell! Get off the path to death!"
Powerful stuff.
I thank Danny Boyle for making such great art, art that speaks, and sways, and sticks in our mind and hearts. I pray that I would allow that art, and the words of Jesus, to drive me to deal with my sin as it truly is: Death, Cancer, and a Dastardly Rock!
A question for you: "What needs to be cut off in your life?"
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