It was three days only....one showing a day....the new Christian film....Johnny Cash: The Redemption Of An American Icon. I saw it tonight.....by myself....well with about thirteen other people in the audience. They certainly chose the right word....Redemption....for that was Johnny Cash's life. It was a glorious salvation....(which is what everyone's should be....anyone who has had the blessing of hitting rock bottom anyway).....after he found himself suicidal deep down in Marion County, Tennessee's Nickajack Cave.
'Rock Bottom' does not necessarily mean that a person has to sustain calamity of some sort. Rock bottom implies that one has been falling....and the falling part is over because there is nowhere lower to fall. This was my life forty years ago. Some people break their fall before they hit rock bottom. Good for them....for it saves a lot of pain. It is when one has no idea that they are falling....or have fallen....where the calamity occurs....and they are lost forever! How can one rejoice in salvation if they do not know that from which they were saved? If one believes he has no debt....how can one rejoice in that debt being paid? If one does not know that he has fallen....how can he be rightly thankful for having been risen?
So redemption is wonderfully represented in the film....in the life of Johnny Cash....but there are some shoals in this beautiful scene. We run into these shoals often with celebrity Christians of today. They are married....they divorce....maybe in the midst of a passionate relationship with the person that they will marry next. The church ho-hims it....the celebrity pauses in their career for maybe a year....and then they are back on the road....as popular as ever.
There is a quote from the Man In Black in the film that addresses this. When asked about his past and his conscience....he replies in his slow drawl....."Well I figure if God forgave me.....then I might as well forgive myself"....insinuating that he had struggled with this for a long time. There it is....and there is the mercy of God on display....but there is a difference with Johnny Cash and the many other celebrities today who divorced....who now believe that they have the spouse that God wants them to have....end of story....write a book and tell how good God is.
All this relates to David....for he was the celebrity 'Christian' at the time....and Bathsheba was the new wife. David was forgiven....and we can all praise God for His mercies....no one more than me....but David suffered for his past....and so did Johnny Cash. His new faith was not flaunted for other Christians to see....but worn on his sleeve in his concerts and all his other works....and there were repercussions. Johnny Cash died at 71....he looked closer to 90....but what a legacy he left us....not in his music....but in the glories of God's redeeming a people as slow to learn as we are!
Note: Are you in need of preaching on our Savior today? You might simply Google....John Piper...Son of God, Son of Man, King of Israel. It's today's Sermon of the Day on his website.
Also: They didn't highlight this song in the film....but if you have never heard it....it is indicative of Johnny Cash in his later years. Google....Johnny Cash...The Man Comes Around.
