I watched Luther tonight (the movie that came out last year) and I think I liked it more this time around. Very good and very well written (a little compressed in terms of the history but hey – you can only do so much in two hours).

 

I have a few quotes which I like quite a bit from the movie:

 

"We preach well that which we need to learn the most" (there are two edges to this quote).

 

Luther struggles early on in his ministerial vocation with the concept of a loving God. He sees only a God a judgement and wrath. An unapproachable and angry God. Luther’s mentor offers some advice –

 

He says "It is not God who is angry with you but rather you who are angry with God"

 

He then advises Luther that if he wishes to experience the grace and compassion of God he must look to the cross and to Christ. He gives Luther a crucifix on a chain and says to him to pray to Christ and say –

 

"I am yours. Save me."

 

This becomes Luther’s refrain throughout the film. We hear it again and again – "I am yours. Save me." At one point Luther is enraged after a young boy commits suicide and tradition forbids his buriel in the churchyard. Luther takes a shovel and angrily digs the grave himself as the sextant stands by and warns him against it. Luther places the body of the boy in the grave as the parents stand by crying and watching. He then takes the crucifix from around his neck places it on the boy’s chest and says in a short determined prayer to God – "He is yours. Save him".

 

The next Sunday in church as he is preaching he relates the story of a person who succumbs and is killed by the evil of a thief who waylays him on the road. Luther asks the congregation how much different is the young boy who is seduced by Satan to the point that he succumbs to despair and is robbed of his life by suicide. Is he not deserving of the same grace?

 

I like the words "I am yours. Save me." It is a breath prayer that can be said throughout the day:

 

I am yours. Save me; I am yours. Save me; I am yours. Save me…