:: 'Sermon Illustrations' Index ::
Standing In ::
Another illustration for substitutionary atonement.
Source: Perspective Vol8 No4 ©Perspective 2001
I recently read an interesting article in the SMH (Sunday Life 17/Sept 2000), all about movie stand-ins. They’re the people who replace movie stars in scenes that are dangerous or just uncomfortable. Like Glenn Duhigg, an ex-lawyer who worked as the stand-in for Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2. Glenn reckoned, “It sounds very glamorous saying you’re the stand-in for Tom Cruise but I don’t think many people realise the long hours and constant demands that deflate your ego very quickly. The days are long. Whatever scene Tom was in, I would be the one standing there, being him for sometimes for ages as the crew set up the shot – getting the lighting just right and the props just so. I’d be standing there for hours out in the weather, getting drenched in the rain or sun stroke out in the heat. And then Tom would just walk on the set from his air-conditioned caravan or out of his beautiful sports car once the scene was ready.” As one of the other stand-ins said, “I realised very quickly the difference between being a star and being a stand-in.” But you see on the cross, Jesus Christ was our stand-in. He endured the discomfort, the pain, the punishment from God, all in our place. He accepted God anger on himself instead of us.
He was our stand-in. Amazing that he would do that, because really he’s the important one. You wouldn’t expect Tom Cruise to stand-in for that bloke Glenn Duhigg. No, no Tom’s the important one! And yet, even though Jesus is the important one, a divine king come to earth, yet he stood in for us.
Bryson Smith