Reaping Day - Not Just a Hunger Games Thing

My amazing wife Beth and I spent this past weekend in South Haven thanks to the amazing and wonderful volunteers and parents at gracespring! While we were there we FINALLY saw The Hunger Games. If you're not familiar with The Hunger Games, here's a three line synopsis:

The Capitol rules the world and requires each of the 12 districts to select (usually at random) and send a 12-18 year old boy and girl to The Capital each year for a competition to the death to determine a champion (This happens on The Reaping Day). The reason for this is remind each of those districts about when they revolted against the capitol. This first movie/book follows Katniss Everdeen as she is sent to compete in this gruesome competition. 

During the first few minutes of the movie, Katniss does something self-less, loving, and shocking. On this Reaping Day, Katniss's sister, Prim, is selected from all the girls in the district. This was the moment for me when the movie sucked me in and I realized that this 12 year old girl was going to be killed for the entertain of others. After a few moments, as Prim is walking up to take her place on the stairs of the city government building, we hear someone cry out. 


"NO! I volunteer! I volunteer!"


Katniss is pushing her way through guards crying out.


I nearly lost it right there in the theater.


I was so overwhelmed with thankfulness.


My mind immediately rushed to the judgement day when we all stand before God and have to give an account of what we have done. All of our cheating, lying, stealing, gossiping, lusting, unfaithfulness, hate, resentment, bitterness, disobedience...it'll all be there. Out in the open and brought against us. The Bible says in Romans that, "the wages of sin is death..." We deserve it, our sin makes us an automatic selection for death.

Then, from the other side of the judgement hall (I picture it as a hall, you can picture it however you'd like), those who have put their faith and trust in Christ will hear something like,

"NO! NO! I volunteered! I volunteered! I paid for that sin!" 


Jesus paid it all.


That verse in Romans finishes by saying, "...but the gift of God is eternal life."


Just like Prim, we have no hope. Our sin convicts us as hopeless. Until, just like Katniss did on behalf of Prim, Christ steps in for us, the only one who could, to save us from the death our sin deserves. A gift that was voluntarily given. 


During this Easter week, if you are a believer in Christ, thank Him over and over again for His gift of death and His power of resurrection. 


If you're not a believer in Christ, I challenge you to ask the question, who am I relying on for life after this one? Who do I trust to save me that also has the power to do so? 


As always, feel free to email me with any personal comments or questions you may have. I have a new email assigned specifically for this blog, petebehindthetweet@gmail.com, I would love to hear from you!