Plan for: Thanksgiving | Advent | Christmas

Sermon Illustrations

In the movie Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood plays the part of an aging gunfighter who lost his taste for killing many years before. He and his old partner, played by Morgan Freeman, are lured by the rumor of a bounty of gold being offered for the arrest of some cowboys who had disfigured a young prostitute. Despite some misgivings, they set out to hunt for these men, joined by a young partner who is eager to show he is as good a gunfighter as any man. He ends up shooting a man who was using the outhouse. When they find the men they are hunting, the young man, who had earlier bragged of killing five men, admits after the confrontation that the man he killed was his first. As he sits talking to Eastwood afterward, it is easy to see that the memory of watching the man die is haunting him. He sits with a bottle of whiskey, taking quick drinks to help him face the moment. As he tries to convince himself there was nothing wrong with what he did, Clint simply says, Take a drink, kid. No telling how many times the older gunman had faced the same memories with a bottle. "You take away all he's got.... and all he's ever gonna have." The young man takes a drink, and says, Well, I guess he had it coming for what he did, still trying to justify the killing to himself. Clint just pauses and reflects for a long moment, and finally replies, We all have it coming, kid. This is not a feel good movie. I haven't seen it -- and from the accounts I've heard I don't plan to. My dad, who is a big fan of the genre, bought the movie at a garage sale, watched it and then threw it away. But that one line makes it almost worthwhile. Clint Eastwood turns theologian and utters -- "We all have it coming, kid."

Related Sermon Illustrations

Related Sermons

Browse All Media

Related Media