"The Stoning of Soraya M." is a movie I will not soon forget. As you can probably guess from the title this is a movie about the story of a woman who was stoned to death after being falsely accused of adultery. The stoning scene of the movie is not for the faint of heart. Several times throughout the scene I had to turn away, close my eyes, and pray to God for a heart that understands what this movie means to me. A movie like this brings a lot of emotions to the surface. This woman was betrayed by almost everyone she knew. Her husband, her sons, even her own father all threw stones at her.
I know the men in my life and that they would never do such a thing. I will never be put in Soraya's position, but that does not mean this movie should leave me with no effect. There are real women going through exactly what this movie depicts. Some situations are better and others are worse. Here I sit in my comfortable living room with hundreds of people who love and care for me, and I wonder: Why was I borne into such privilege? I have never wanted to be seen as a radical. I have never had the courage to really take a stand against an atrocity like this. I can't say that after watching this movie I will change, but I can say that it made me pause and think. I pray that someday it would be revealed to me how I can allow God to have it change my life. I pray that I would be proactive and not sit back like the mayor of the town in this movie simply waiting for God to give me a "sign."
This movie also reminded me of John 8:1-11 and the story of Jesus and the crowd who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery. Every time I have heard a pastor preach on this passage they say great things, and they do their best to describe to the congregation what a stoning would have been like. Unfortunately without seeing this event I don't think we can ever grasp the horror of it. Without seeing the hate on the faces of the people throwing the stones and the blood dripping down the face of the woman being stoned I don't see how we could ever understand what Jesus was doing in this passage. This movie brought to life for me a portion of Scripture I could never grasp before, and I am sure I do not fully understand it now.
This has been a sober post. It is not that I want to be discouraging but simply that I think this is something worth talking about. At the very least I think it is something that each of us needs to spend time thinking about. I have no idea where God will take me in this world, but what I do know is I long to have the courage (by His grace) to bring the joy of the good news and fight for justice wherever that may be.
I will end with a quote by Timothy Keller, one of my favorite authors, from his book The Reason for God. On page 15 he says this: "What is religion then? It is a set of beliefs that explain what life is all about, who we are, and the most important things that human beings should spend their time doing." So what is my religion? What is your religion?
Disclaimer: It is not in any way my intent to single out or critique any particular religion in this post. The truth is that a handful of people who associate themselves with every major religion have in the past and continue to participate in atrocious acts just like this one. My goal here is to ask of myself what my true religion is. What do I really believe in? NOT to point the finger at any other religion
ReplyDeleteWow! I don't know if I could watch this movie, but I could see how it would really bring to life that story in the Bible.
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