It seems that the movie ‘The Green Mile’ is on some TV
channel every night. Well, at least once
a week. As I flip channels looking for an Andy Griffith rerun I often see ‘The
Green Mile’ is playing on some channel.
Don’t you love it? I grew up with
three channels, one was ETV so that didn’t really count, and now we can get 500
channels but there is rarely anything as good to watch as an Andy Griffith
rerun that I enjoyed watching when I was Opie’s age.
Anyway, back to ‘The Green Mile’. If you are one of the 8 or 9 people in North
America who have not seen it yet I will not spoil the movie but I need to give
a little background to make my point.
The movie is about Death Row guards at a penitentiary, in the 1930's, who
have a moral dilemma with their job when they discover one of their prisoners,
a wrongly convicted murderer, appears to have supernatural gifts. John Coffey seems to have an awareness of the
evil in the world and the power to ‘take it back’, his way of describing his
ability to reverse the evil and bring supernatural healing in some cases. The guards begin to see his innocence and
experience his special abilities and do not wish to place him in the electric
chair. In one of the most poignant
scenes the head warden, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks), who sees the prisoner, John
Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan), as a gift from God discusses his predicament as
he will soon have to give the order to execute John Coffey in the electric
chair. He tells John he fears facing God
in judgement “after killing one of His
true miracles.” John proceeds to
comfort Paul telling him he is ready to leave this world with the following
statement; “I'm tired, boss. Tired of
being on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the rain. I'm tired of never having a
buddy to be with, to tell me where we's going to, coming from or why. Mostly,
I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel
and hear in the world every day. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of
glass in my head, all the time. Can you understand?"
While I don’t pretend to have John Coffey’s constant
awareness of all the evil in the world, I can identify with being “tired of people being ugly to each other.” I was taught, at an early age not to act
ugly to other people. One did not have to grow up in the South to be taught
manners but our culture seems to have forgotten how to be civil with one
another. I remember growing up in a small
town where we would eagerly throw up a hand and wave, even if we didn’t know
who the other person was. It was just a
way to be nice and friendly to one another.
Now it seems that it is just as easy for some to throw up a hand at
someone but the gesture is not a friendly wave…I don’t think I need to say more. I think you know what I am talking about.
I used to enjoy watching the news to stay informed on local
and national events. Now it seems that
all they want to show is people who are fussing, and arguing to make certain
their side wins over the other side forgetting they were elected to come
together and do things jointly to help the nation as a whole.
As a pastor and Director of Missions I have had much
experience over the years with church conflict whether trying to bring people into unity in
the church I served or as a moderator when churches were so divided they needed
outside help. I am continually amazed
how people professing to follow the same Jesus can so quickly become angrily divided. I had a conversation with a friend in a
church that was struggling with such division who expressed “seeing some good points being made by both
sides.” I reminded them that once we
develop sides, there are no good points.
God did not intend ANY
of us to be divided…especially those who claim to be His children.
Every human is a unique creation. Psalm 139 tells us that we are “fearfully
and wonderfully made”. We are
meant to bring our uniqueness together to aid one another in a harmonious
fashion to make life better for all. An
orchestra has many different instruments.
If each tries to make their own noise independently it becomes an awful
racket however, when they come together following the same page of notes
beautiful harmonious music is the result.
So it should be with us. Each of
our differences can help someone else if we will see one another as part of the
same family working together in harmony.
The longest recorded prayer of Jesus is found in John
17. Jesus prayed this prayer just a few
hours before he willingly gave his life as the supreme sacrifice of love for
us. He prayed first for Himself. He had seen the horror of public crucifixion. He then prayed for his disciples. They had their previous life to follow
him. They had depended on him for
guidance for these years and soon he would not be with them. He knew they would have initial difficulty
without his physical presence. Then he
prayed for us. Yes that’s right he
prayed for you and me 2000
years ago! After praying for his
disciples he prayed the following; “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray
also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them
may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in
us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20-21) That’s us. We came to believe through the message of the disciples. He doesn’t pray for us to get our doctrine or
music preferences together but to be “one”.
We are to be ‘one’ just as Jesus and the Father are one. Wow! That means no matter what our
differences may be we are to be united with one another in a supernatural
spiritual harmony as was Jesus (who was God in flesh) and the Father in Heaven!
If this prayer of Jesus is to be answered, it is up to us to
‘stop being ugly with each other’. We can be different in our race, gender,
politics, sports loyalties, philosophy, economic status, etc. but we can never
be divided or divisive if we want the world to know the love of God. Only when people see different races, gender,
political, religious, economic and philosophical backgrounds and beliefs living
and interacting together in harmony and unity will they know that God sent His
love to this world.
So just as all the pain John Coffey feels and hears every
day in the world like ‘pieces of glass in his head’, the lack of love and
harmony among mankind breaks the heart of Jesus and destroys the prayerful desire
of our Lord in his final few hours on this planet. Therefore, starting today, make every effort
to find unity with everyone you encounter.
Not only will that make your day better it will make the world better as,
through such unity, “the world may believe that you have sent me.”
