SPOILER ALERT … If you haven’t seen the movie Seven Pounds with Will Smith and plan on seeing it, then stop reading my post because I plan to spoil it big-time for you. Still with me? Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Before I go on, just because I refer to a movie does not mean that I endorse that movie. In the movie Seven Pounds, the main character is severely conflicted over an accident he caused killing seven people; one of which was his precious wife. Throughout the movie, Ben Thomas–the main character played by Will Smith–believes he can correct all that wrong by giving “pounds of flesh,” so to speak, for the horrendous pain and suffering his apparent selfishness and self-centered actions caused that one night. He finds unfortunate yet well deserving people to which he can donate bone morrow, a kidney, his eyes and even his heart. He meets a gifted blind piano player to whom he wants to give his eyes and a beautiful young lady in desperate need of a heart. He pretended to be an IRS agent interviewing people for delinquent taxes but instead “borrowed” his brothers identity and credentials to search the IRS computers to find some of these deserving people. A lot of the story revolves around the young lady to get his heart. At first she wins his heart in love and then gets his physical heart in an operation. When no other solution can be found, he kills himself by being stung by a rare jelly fish. This movie is officially SPOILED!
Although I did not like certain parts of the movie on moral grounds, it was one of those movies that makes you sit back and think about the importance of family, life, happiness, disability, the cost of mistakes, and even the lengths one might go to set things straight. Emotions swell at the climatic moment of the movie when Ben makes the ultimate sacrifice of giving his life for people he barely knows or even that one person he had come to love. My wife and I talked about the roller-coaster of emotions brought on by the movie and I mentioned the awesome sacrifice he was willing to make even for people he did not know all that well. She then reminded me of a very important point I had seemingly overlooked; he did it only for people that deserved it. What a difference between what Ben Thomas did in Seven Pounds and what Jesus Christ did for us when he gave his life for us on the cross. It is almost as if the Apostle Paul had prophetically previewed the movie when he wrote to the Romans, “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” If God would have looked down and chosen only the good and well deserving of His son’s death, then, I dare say, none of us would have been worthy and there would have been no sacrifice. Ben Thomas’ girl, Emily Posa, is dying without any hope unless Ben gives his own heart to her. He does and she lives. We are dying in sin unless God makes a way. He does and we live. How did we win God’s heart? We didn’t do a thing but He loved us anyway.
P.S. If that spoiler was not good enough for you, then check out http://www.themoviespoiler.com/Spoilers/sevenpounds.html.
