Madness!

When I was growing up I remember watching the 1957 movie The Bridge on The River Kwai. Despite its length, there were a few scenes I remember quit vividly. The English prisoners whistling that song, Sir Alec Guinness falling and exploding the very bridge he built. Then, at the very end there was one prisoner who spoke a word, twice. It summed up the entire movie.

"Madness! Madness!"

But probably the most telling line came from the star of the movie, Alec Guinness. When he realized that he had, in his stubborn English pride, actually aided and abetted the enemy, he uttered these words . . .

"What have I done?"

In the Biblical story of The Rich Man and Lazarus there is a similar moment for the rich man, when he realizes the error of his ways. Unfortunately it was after his death. He pleads with Abraham to send Lazarus to him to give him some water, and to raise Lazarus from the dead that he might warn his brothers. Notice how the rich man thought of himself first? Then his brother?

Abraham replies to the rich man with words that we all should heed today because they were very prophetic in nature. Remember, it was Jesus that was telling this story.

“‘No, father Abraham,’ he (the rich man) said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

And then this . . .

31 “He (Abraham) said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’” - Luke 16:30-31

Oh, my. Jesus rose from the dead. And still people don't listen to Him.

Have we truly repented from our sins? Is there some moment from our past that we need to repent of today? We do NOT want to be having an Alec Guinness moment in hell when we ask ourselves, "What have I done?"

The Rich Man and Lazarus
The Bridge On The River Kwia Ending