Saturday is ‘Guardian Day’ for me and invariably a look at the regular ‘Q&A’ in the magazine. This is where celebrities are asked a series of questions designed to give us some insight into their lives. If you are ever asked to participate you will need to be prepared for this one: ‘What is your guiltiest pleasure?‘ Last week the ‘presenter’ Rylan Clark-Neal responded: ‘Going home, taking my makeup off and watching reruns of Birds Of A Feather.’ I think I could pass on both of those but we all have them those pleasures that perhaps we would rather keep to ourselves. Until recently for me there may have been two in a tie: Rocky movies and Stephen King novels. Since I confessed to the Rocky movies in a sermon just before my time off I no longer feel guilty about those. That’s how it works isn’t it? Get it off you chest! But the Stephen King novels remain. ‘Guilty pleasure’ largely because of the way they are perceived. He is known as a ‘horror’ writer and certainly in the early days that is how he made his name. But the number of serious writing awards he has received apart from his undoubted popularity is testimony to the quality of his work. It’s not what you would call ‘high’ literature but in the course of a novel he can provide some useful insight into the deficiences of modern society and manages also to convey a sense of warmth in his characters.
One of his most recent recent novels is The Outsider. I would not even think of giving you the whole plot since you’ll be dying to get to Waterstones after this blog. But at the heart of the story there are two men who have been charged with horrendous crimes which they did not commit and which in the State they live carry a capital sentence. This has become a recurring theme in literature and film. It comes up time and time again in the work of film director Alfred Hitchcock, notably in The Wrong Man, the true story of Manny Balestrero who is identified as the man who twice robbed an insurance agency at gunpoint even though he has alibis for both occasions. The resulting legal case has a destructive effect on his and his families lives which is painful to watch.
We can take this further back into Scripture. Psalm 35 is one of the most heart-rending of all the Psalms. David is faced with false accusations from people who were his friends in the past and who he cared for: ‘Ruthless witnesses come forward ; they question me on things I know nothing about.’ (verse 11) ‘They do not speak peaceably, but devise false accusations against those who live quietly in the land.’ (verse 20). Again David in Psalm 69 complains to God:
‘Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head;
many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me.
I am forced to restore what I did not steal.’ (verse 4).
This points forward to Jesus. When he was arrested false accusations were brought against him which even Pontius Pilate found difficult to sustain and actually led him to pronounce Jesus innocent. (John 19: 6). Innocent in law but at a higher level not known to Pilate innocent before God since Jesus was ‘without sin.’ (Hebrews 4: 15) And yet this is the One who was called upon to pay the price for the world’s sin through His death on the Cross. He was the Wrong Man but the only Man who could make that sufficient sacrifice.
This has been a problem for many people. How is it possible for an innocent to take the blame for the worlds sin? Is there not an injustice there that undermines the whole concept? In response we can start at a human level. It is not unknown for people innocent of misdemeanor to step forward and take the blame in order to protect others. Maximilian Kolbe was a Fransciscan priest imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp where he continued against the odds to exercise a ministry to the suffering. There was an escape attempt and the camp commander ordered that ten men be starved to death in an underground bunker. One of those cried out for mercy for the sake of his wife and children. Kolbe stepped forward to take his place. After two weeks Kolbe was still alive and had to be killed by an injection of carbolic acid.
It is not a perfect example since the reprieved man was not guilty of any misdemeanor but in Kolbe we see something in the human psyche that is willing to place oneself in the firing line so that another might be spared suffering. Take this to a higher level where an offering was needed to pay the price of sin which could only be made by the Son of God. He absorbed the condemnation we deserve so that we could have peace with God and live according to the values of His Kingdom. The Wrong Man made the choice that made us righteous in the eyes of God:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! (Romans 5: 6-8)
The questions will continue and that is only right. We grow as we grapple with the deep things of our faith and the coming Easter season will give us opportunity so to do. In the end though I come up against the heart of our faith which in a way is unfathomable but can be most simply expressed:
‘It is a thing most wonderful,
Almost too wonderful to be,
That God’s own Son should come from heaven,
And die to save a child like me.’
