Isaiah 40:1-5,9-11; Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7; Luke 3:15-16,21-22
There is a movie from 1994 that I have seen at least a half dozen times. I have never been able to figure out what it was about this movie that has so captured my imagination that I am compelled to watch it anytime I stumble upon it when I am channel surfing. The name of the movie is The Shawshank Redemption.
This movie, based on the novel by Stephen King, is the story of Andy Dufresne‘s 20 year incarceration for a crime he did not commit. Set in the 1940s, the tale details the escape of an innocent man: his redemption. After years of chiseling a passageway through the cell walls, Dufresne finally swims through the filthy waters of the prison sewer system and emerges a free man ready to make a new beginning at life. That new beginning is made all the more poignant by the fact that he exchanges his prison garb for a new suit, his former name for a new one and his prison cell for a beautiful new home on a beach in Mexico. In those waters through which he swam, he experienced a “baptism.” King has given us a story that encourages each of us to accept our own struggles, to view the evil and suffering of life as a redemptive passage to a new and holier existence.
As I think of this movie, in the context of today’s feast of the Baptism of the Lord, I finally realize why I have been compelled to watch this movie so many times. The elements of the story are simply an artistic metaphor of our baptismal rites. In the waters of baptism we are washed clean. In our baptism we shed the old clothing of a life without Christ and put on the garment of Christ. In our baptism we are freed from the prison of sin and given the promise of a new life lived in the heavenly kingdom.
And so, the symbols in Shawshank parallel our symbols of baptism. But there is also a deeper lesson to be learned here. Andy Dufresne was convicted of a crime he did not commit. This placed him under the control of a corrupt prison warden in an unjust prison system. By his escape he was freed from the corruption and injustice.
In a like manner, Jesus, an innocent man, was arrested and convicted for a crime he did not commit. The Son of God, who cannot sin, was executed under false pretenses, to pay the price of forgive for our sins. If you think about, we should be the ones who are imprisoned and executed for our sins. The fact that Jesus died for us is a terrible injustice to Him, but he willing did this in order that we would know God’s mercy and forgiveness. He did this as the ultimate act of redemption for the entire world.
In our baptism, we enter into this great act of salvation as we, like Jesus, become beloved sons and daughters of God. This means that we have the responsibility to live our lives as God intends, avoiding sin and choosing instead the ways of holiness. We are also the ones who, like Christ, must be willing to lay our lives on the line when we see corruption and injustice in our world. We must be willing to transform our world, just as we have been transformed through the waters of baptism.
And so today, in the Eucharist let us pray for the grace to turn away from sin and be more like Christ in all we say and do. Let us pray for the courage and strength to eliminate corruption and correct injustices in our world. Let us pray for the grace to transform our world into the an image and reflection of the heaven that awaits us all.
