Eating sins

In the movie, “The Last Sin Eater,” 10 year-old Cadi painfully begs the village sin eater to take away her awful pain now. “I can’t wait until I die. I can’t live this way.”

The sin eater is a man selected to absorb the sins. As folks die, the sin eater performs a simple but provoking ceremony at the funeral. He eats an offering of bread and wine that is symbolically imbued with the sins of the dead person. In doing so, he takes their sin on himself. His is the agony of hell, however, for he has no way to shed those sins. Although the legends paint him as a red-eyed demon who must be avoided at any cost – no one is allowed to touch, or even look at, him- Cadi dares do both, driven by her own internal agony over her own sin.

The freedom that Cadi craves doesn’t come from the sin eater, who compassionately tried to help but finds his ceremony holds no healing for Cadi. When a missionary visits the area, he grasps the folklore of the sin eater and explains things to Cadi: she need not be in agony until death, for there was an Ancient Sin Eater who has already taken her sin on himself.

This man of God grasped two things. First, he explained Jesus’ redemptive work in terms that Cadi understood. She knew the sin eater notion and she rejoiced to know that there was a perfect, one-time-only sin eater who was not destroyed by the sins he absorbed. He had already eaten her sins. The work was done.

Second, the missionary understood that change only happens when the pain of staying the same is too great. For Cadi, the agony of her secret (I don’t want to give away too much) drove her to desperate means. The pain of staying the same pushed her to a new exploration and, eventually, understanding.

Cadi found freedom. This Perfect Sin Eater was also the Truth in her life.

Those who carry the story of the Ancient Sin Eater as well. We need to remember, as the missionary did, that we must tell the story relevantly and we must be alert for those in such pain that they are frantic for Truth.

“Jesus said, ‘…Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’"

John 8:31-32