I just watched a movie that I have to blog about. It was both entertaining and thought provoking. You are probably going to laugh when I tell you what it was, so I'm not going to tell you quite yet. And if you haven't seen it, go to the bottom of this post and look at the name before you read any further, because I WILL spoil it with the next several paragraphs.
Here's your chance to miss the spoiler...
So, the premise of the story is that a thief steals a very decent man's identity. The man is a hard-working family man who seems to have a pretty good moral compass. I don't know if he's a Christian, but based on what happens in the movie I would say he might be a Jesus follower. The thief, however, had been abandoned as a child, in and out of foster care all her life, and had no moral compass at all. Long story short, the man goes to get the thief and bring her back to his city to turn her in to the police and wipe his slate clean. On the journey back, he finds compassion for her and decides not to turn her in.
The thief sees something different in this man. She is changed by him. She longs to be loved by him. She takes advantage of his kindness. And then she realizes he is not going to turn her in. She starts to see the damage she has done to his life. She begins to see herself truly as a thief and realizes she needs to own up to what she has done. So she turns herself in.
When the man sees her confessing to the police, he asks her why she didn't run. She said, "I knew you could never turn me in, so I did it myself." And then she thanks him.
This is not even the best part.
She goes to jail. Blah-de-blah. But then, the man and his family visit her in jail regularly. They adopt her into their family. They share their lives with the one who ruined theirs'. They love her for who she is, not for what she has (or hasn't) done.
Are you kidding me? I was crying by the end of this, people. I mean, Jesus, much?
Who loves their enemies? Who adopts abandoned people with criminal records? Who loves expecting nothing in return? Who doesn't want the criminal to get what he/she deserves?
I mean, for real. I wanted to do prison ministry by the end of this movie. I was affected by this ridiculous movie (which I'm about to reveal). Like, soul-moving affected.
If you haven't figured it out yet, the movie was Identity Thief with Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy. Go ahead, laugh. But seriously watch it, with a gospel perspective. *Note: I am not endorsing this as a Christian movie. These are just my thoughts on a movie.
If you think I'm ridiculous and reading into another stupid movie, that's fine. But please read this last paragraph. Jesus has done this for us, you guys. He sees that we are criminals and that we've sinned against him, but instead of turning us in--because that would be the just thing to do--he takes our punishment on himself. And then to top it all off, he adopts us into his family. He makes all of us orphans his own and loves us just as we are, expecting nothing in return. And he calls us to live like this--to give grace to those who wrong us, to love the unloveable, to sacrifice our reputations to hang out with the criminals and the sinners, etc. He calls us to be like him. This is amazing. And because I love Jesus and love things that remind me of him, I love this movie.
The next time you see a stupid movie, don't just write it off. Who knows, maybe there's an arrow pointing to Jesus somewhere in it?
