Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: The Reader (04/15/10)
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TITLE: The Reader (ii) | Previous Challenge Entry
By Alan Hahn
04/16/10 -
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The movie takes place in Berlin Germany. Fifteen year-old Michael Berg falls in love with a woman over twice his age. They frolic and romp and he reads to her. He reads everything to her from Tolstoy to the menu at the local restaurant. He reads to her because she cannot read and she is too proud to admit it.
After a while, Hanna suddenly leaves the city. Michael is heartbroken but eventually carries on with his life only to see her again when he is a law school student. He sees her when she is being tried for crimes she allegedly committed during World War II at a concentration camp. The prosecution even has a document she allegedly wrote that proves her guilt; That is correct- she never wrote it because she cannot write or read but she does not want to tell anyone that she cannot read because she feels the weight of the guilt for working at the camp and she is too proud to admit she cannot read. Michael does not say anything even though he knows she could not have written the document because of his internal conflict.
How many people do we know who are too proud to admit they have a problem? So proud, that they would rather go to hell than admit they are sinners and NEED- not “could use, ” but NEED the atoning sacrifice of our Messiah Jesus Christ. While the physical act of confessing our need for our savior is not hard at all, the humility it takes to do so for some is too much to bear.
Some of these people are good people. They take their turn in line, give polite answers, even donate to charities in a generous manner (unfortunately, in some cases, they give more to “save the whales” than many of us as believers tithe). On the outside, they look like well-adjusted, “got it together” people, and they may even believe they have it all worked out. At some point and in some way, whether subtle or profound, the “God- shaped hole in their hearts” pushes them to confront what they believe about our Messiah.
Our Lord is wonderful to meet us where we are. The “discomfort” he may bring to us are meant for our good to bring us closer to him. For the person who thinks they cannot admit they have “a problem,” God says the only way to freedom and peace is to admit we have a problem. Had Hanna Schmitz admitted to her problem, her trial may have had a different result.
Hanna had another problem- guilt. She worked in a concentration camp where Jews, Catholics, and others were forced to endure inhumane conditions, die in most undignified manner and basically stripped of all humanity. Not because of what they did, but for who they were. She felt that her participation in this meant she deserved negative consequences. Her guilt would not let her take action that may have helped her.
Many of us, in our finite understanding of God and our over-rating of ourselves like to “promote” ourselves to punisher for our sins. Sometimes we all feel the need to atone for an act we have done that we may feel is “beyond God’s ability to forgive.” We may even feel as our responsibility that we must punish ourselves for our sins. Many of us (myself included) do a great job of punishing ourselves for our sins that we truly feel bad about.
God has repeatedly demonstrated that our sin is not beyond His ability to forgive. His forgiveness of Saul and making him the Apostle Paul is a very real and profound demonstration for the rest of us that we are not and cannot get beyond God’s grace. This is the God who would rather go to hell for us than to live in heaven without us.
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