Have you by any chance ever watched the 2016 film Risen starring Joseph Fiennes? Is it a regular film or is it a faith-based film? Well it's both....and I was so taken by it that I viewed it about five or six times so far. I'm going to give the ending so please do not read on if you do not want to know.
Fiennes is a Roman tribune.....not just a centurion but a tribune.....and that's power. Stephen Boyd played a tribune in Ben Hur.....Richard Burton in The Robe. Fiennes plays Clavius.....a tribune who has his own personal favorite god in Mars....but who through a series of events after the crucifixion....as his career is at stake unless he can find the body of Jesus....finds instead the risen Jesus Christ. Now here is why I'm bringing this up....there may not have been a real Clavius....but there surely has been men of power or wealth....who wanted nothing to do with this Jesus Christ....but who by God's direction were confronted with the truth....and had a life changing decision to make or not to make.The film ends with Clavius walking out into the wilderness....no longer a tribune....with no money....or even a plan of where to go.....only the knowledge that the Son of the Living God....whose his men had crucified....had risen....and called men to Him....and in the case of Clavius.....'orders are in the mail.'
We today need to be confronted with the possibility that we may have been taken in by the enemies of the cross....bewitched if you will. Focusing on this character of Clavius might just cause us to reflect on just what we have given up....or refused to give up....or up till now ignored? Do we merely have what is referred to as a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ....or have we been regenerated....and born again? Is Christ always in our thoughts....either joyously or sorrowfully as when we fall short....or is He rarely spoken of....demonstrating the real value and love that we hold for him?
As tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....I'll suggest another online sermon that you might want to gather your loved ones around to listen to. I listened to it yesterday.....for the second time I think.....just Google....George Whitefield....Marks Of A True Conversion.
