It's really a simple film. A teen is attacked be a shark while swimming at night. The new sheriff wants to close the beaches, but the greedy town leaders refuse to let him. Their income is derived from tourism. They call the shark attack victim a boating accident victim and hide the attack. Tourist flock to the beaches. A child is killed. The sheriff, a shark expert and a crusty old fisherman head out to sea to catch and kill the shark, who in turn becomes the hunter, taking everything they throw at him, destroying and nearly sinking their boat, eating the sea captain and nearly killing them all before the sheriff finally manages to kill him.
So, what does my watching Jaws have anything to do with recovery or walking with God, and why did I give a brief summary of the movie? Well, the movie became a metaphor for me, which will help me remember an important truth. Since I believe it will help me, I will share it with you. No, the metaphor is not the danger of going back into the waters of our addictions and bondage once we've made it safely to shore.
The metaphor came to mind because of one scene where the sheriff, who is afraid of the water of course, sees the huge shark up close for the first time, freaks out, and begins repeatedly asking if they should return to shore for a bigger boat. I thought yeah, like a bigger boat is going to help. No matter what you do, this is a fishing trip that won't end well. I knew that the first time I saw the film when I was seven or eight. The smartest thing they could have done is turned around, left that killer alone and figured out a way to keep him out of the swimming areas. Put up some No Deep Sea Fishing signs and leave him alone.
But no, if they did that there would be no movie, because there would be no drama, no crisis, no scrambling to live through their stupid decisions. And I realized that what makes the movie frightening for me is not the idea of a huge man-eating shark, it didn't scare me as a boy and it doesn't now. What scared me is realizing how much like the three stooges out on the boat chasing the killer shark that I can be at times.
In Micah 7 there is a passage that tells us that there is no god like our God who forgives our sin and rebellion. He delights in loving us and having compassion on us. He crushes our iniquities and casts our sin into the depths of the sea. If you belong to Him as an adopted child, then your sin is down in the depths of the sea with mine. And we need to put up some No Deep Sea Fishing signs in our mind and leave those suckers alone. We need to put up a fence of grace to keep them out of our swimming areas and stay out of the boats. Don't chase them. Don't pull them up from the depths. Step away from the fishing pole. It won't end well.
When we drag our past and sins up from the depths, it always tries to sink our ship and eat us. That's not our area. We are not at the top of the food chain once we step into the ocean. God put them there to keep us away from each other. You're forgiven/ Now leave those sharks alone. What happens when they come back to the surface as we troll for them, cast out bait and reel them in? Suddenly we doubt our forgiveness, we're in a life and death battle with condemnation, guilt and shame. We're not supposed to be in the same waters with those three. Let them go. They can't come into the shallows of grace and eat us any more. The Lifeguard made sure of that, But if we go in the depths after them, look out. We will live through it, God has promised that once we are His the sharks no longer get to kill us. We have eternal life, but that doesn't mean that they won't get to take a bite or two out of us when we get in the water with them. The pain of our past sins is useless and unnecessary. Our shark tales can be used to help give God glory for saving us and keep others from swimming the depths alone. We don't need to regret our past, and our experience can benefit others. That's the proper use for remembering the sins in those depths. But don't go swimming with them or fishing for them.
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