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Topic: Resurrection
Scripture: Romans 7:24-25
Source: “Final Escape,” Episode 8, Season 1, 1985 (Remake of the original from 21 February 1964)
Author: Illustration Exchange
The famed TV producer of the eerie and bizarre, Alfred Hitchcock, hosted his own hit TV show of a generation ago. One episode in 1987 (a remake of the original 1964 story) told the tale of a murderous woman who, once condemned to prison, vowed she’d never be held captive and would surely find a way out.
She studied her surroundings and soon took note of a gravedigger, whose job it was to cart away deceased inmates for burial in the plots just beyond the prison confines. He was old and moved slowly, as his eyesight was badly impaired by cataracts. She approached him one day to bribe him into helping her escape.
Her plan was simple: When the death bell tolled, heralding the death of another inmate, she would make her way to the morgue and climb into the coffin with the deceased. He (the gravedigger) would then wheel the coffin to the plot, bury it in a shallow grave, then come back after dark to release her. All this in exchange for the money to have the cataract surgery to restore his sight. The old man agreed, and together they waited for their opportunity.
Time passed, when suddenly the woman heard the death toll. To her ears, it was the sound of freedom bells chiming. The scheme went just as planned. She waited an appropriate amount of time, slinked her way to the basement, and slipped quietly into the morgue. She felt her way through the dark room to the coffin laid out on the cart. Opening the lid, she crawled inside and pulled the lid shut.
Soon she felt the cart moving. She could almost taste her freedom. Moments later she felt the thud as the coffin was lowered into the ground. She heard the dirt as it hit the lid. Then silence. She waited in anticipation. Minutes turned to hours with no relief. Panicked, she struck a match, surveying the situation. To her utter horror, she discovered that she was face to face with … the gravedigger!
Application:
Hitchcock’s murderous inmate had foolishly placed her life in the hands of an unreliable deliverer–one with no more power over the grave than she.
So, in whose trust have you placed your hope of deliverance? Buddha? Mohammed? Above all else, make sure that when you strike your match your deliverer isn’t in the grave with you!
“Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).
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