The words are famous, even though they were never said at all.
“Play it again, Sam.”
The movie is Casablanca, and Humphrey Bogart as Rick gives us a line that although misquoted has become an icon in American culture. Thirty years later it became the title of a 1969 Broadway play and a 1972 movie.
The use of that misquoted phrase didn’t stop there. It became a song by Manchester Orchestra, a musical number for solo viola, a branding label for Superior Software, and an international record label.
When something’s good, it becomes a linchpin around which other ideas develop. We want to “play it again,” and in doing so, it becomes bigger than anyone imagined it might.
The biggest thing in the Christian faith is the crucifixion. It was the culmination of Christ’s earthly life. For him to die on the cross was the ultimate sacrifice that brought salvation to the world, and in that process, to you and me. That painful, horrific, and absolutely necessary travesty of human justice was vital to God’s plan, and it allowed his work to be completed on the earth.
Yet, this is not a famous scene we want to replay or relive.
Hebrews 6:4-6 tells us to be careful, or we will do exactly that.
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.”
If we have taken on the righteousness of Christ, and have become attired in the cloak of his death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb, and we cast Jesus off to return to the world, this verse tells us we have replayed the crucifixion before the entire world with the intent of mocking his sacrifice.
We have crucified him once again.
Bogart’s iconic phrase in Casablanca is worth playing again. Christ’s crucifixion on the cross? That’s someplace we don’t want to go. Sometimes once is enough. When we come to him and accept him as our Lord, let’s stick it out. There’s no need to lift him up to bleed and suffer an agonizing death yet another time.
When we accept Christ in our lives, we make his death on the cross worth it each and every time.
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