There’s a scene early in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” where a character named Red, played by Morgan Freeman, sits before a parole board that is reviewing his case to consider whether he should be released from prison.
PAROLE BOARD MEMBER: We see by your file you’ve served twenty years of a life sentence. Do you feel you’ve been rehabilitated?
RED: Yes, sir, absolutely. I’ve learned my lesson. I can honestly say I’m a changed man. I’m no longer a danger to society. That’s the God’s honest truth. No doubt about it.
The next scene shows Red’s prison file as a rubber stamp in a man’s fist impresses the word “REJECTED” in bright red letters.
The movie goes on for about an hour and it is ten years later and the act is replayed.
PAROLE BOARD MEMBER: We see by your file you’ve served thirty years of a life sentence. Do you feel you’ve been rehabilitated?
RED: Yes sir, without a doubt. I can say I’m a changed man. No danger to society, that’s the God’s honest truth. Absolutely rehabilitated.
Once again, the rubber stamp impresses his prison file with the word, “REJECTED”.
The movie goes on again and ten years later Red sits before the Parole Board again.
PAROLE BOARD MEMBER: Your file says you’ve served forty years of a life sentence. Do you feel you’ve been rehabilitated?
Red doesn’t answer. He just stares off into the distance.
After a few seconds, the man says, “Shall I repeat the question?”
RED: “I heard you. Rehabilitated. Let’s see now. You know, come to think of it, I have no idea what that means. I know what you think it means. Me, I think it’s a made-up word, a politician’s word. A word so young fellas like you can wear a suit and tie and have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?
Not a day goes by I don’t feel regret, and not because I’m in here or because you think I should. I look back on myself the way I was…stupid kid who did that terrible crime… I wish I could talk sense to him. Tell him how things are. But I can’t. That kid’s long gone, this old man is all that’s left, and I have to live with that.
Rehabilitated? That’s just a made-up word, so you just go on ahead and stamp that form there, sonny, and stop wasting my time. Truth is, I don’t really care.
[Some language has been cleaned up here]
The parole board just stares, and again we see the stamp dropping onto Red’s prison file. It is lifted away to reveal the word, “APPROVED” in bright red letters.
That is the way I think of myself. I am not a role model. There may be a few things about me now that are worth emulating, but that is only due to the unimaginably wonderful Grace of God. The fact of the matter is that I am an ex-convict of sorts. A sinner who has cleaned up his act – or, more precisely, has had his act cleaned up for him.
I have done things in my life that I am too embarrassed to admit to anyone on earth. I’ve confessed my actions to God and begged his forgiveness. I never physically hurt anybody, but if law enforcement or my friends and family knew of some of the things I’ve done… Well… I’m certain that my life would have been very different than it is and it is quite possible that I may have ended up before a parole board just like Red did in this movie.
I know what Red means by wanting to talk sense to that stupid kid. I think back to the way I was and I want reach out my hand to him, put my hand on his shoulder in a very loving way and bash his head into the nearest brick wall to knock some sense into him. I want to tell him how things are.
The difference between me and Red is that the very first time I knelt before the only righteous judge in the universe and confessed my crime; He stamped my file, “APPROVED.”
Thanks to the finished work of Jesus on the cross, I know redemption!
Praise God!
