Illustration from "The Guardian"

Several months ago Michelle and I were sitting in the theater watching a movie starring Kevin Costner called “The Guardian”. I remember coming out and saying to Michelle, “Wow. I’ve got an illustration for my Easter sermon.”

The movie is about a Coast Guard rescue diver named Ben Randle, played by Costner. He’s one of the one’s that are brought out when the sea capsizes boats. They fly him in a helicopter to the site, and he jumps into the water while a basket is lowered for him to place survivors in.

After a sequence of events he’s been assigned to teach others to be rescue divers. And this is where he meets Fischer, a student of his who breaks all his records. One day when bragging about this, someone else points out that there’s one record that he’ll never break.

There was a medical ship that caught on fire. People were burning in their beds. And Randle got all of them out except one when the ship started to go down, sinking into the sea. He reaches out and grabs the last guy by the fingertips. As they are being lifted up, the wench breaks, and they’re stuck.

He looked at the guy and said to him, “I won’t let go.”

It was a twenty minute trip to safety, but Randle never let go. He dislocated his shoulder and tore every tendon in his hand. But he never let go.

Well, to fast forward to the end of the movie, we see that Fischer has graduated and is stationed up on the Bering Strait. He’s sent out to rescue what looks to be a commercial fishing boat. He gets the crew to safety, but is told that the captain is still below deck and that he’s pinned down. Not willing to leave the captain, he goes in after him.

As he goes below, a wave crashes and the door shuts behind him and becomes jammed. He’s trapped. The captain lives for a short time, but soon succumbs when he’s hit with some debris. And Fischer is there all alone…just waiting to die…or to be rescued.

Randle is then called on to go and rescue his former student. Randle is lowered down to the boat and goes inside to find Fischer and brings him out. They hook onto the cable and are lifted out. But halfway up the cable starts unraveling. Randle begins to unhook himself because he knows that the cable won’t take the weight of the two of them. Fischer screams to him, asking what he’s doing. But Randle just unhooks and begins to fall.

Now you’d think that he would simply fall into the ocean. But in true Hollywood fashion, Fischer reaches out and grabs his arm, reminiscent of the story he was told about his mentor. And just like the story, his arm slides until he’s got Randle’s fingertips.

He yells out, “I won’t let go.” And Randle responds, “I know.”

So Randle reaches up and unties his glove so that his hand will slip right out. It was about an 80-90 feet drop. And at that distance, it would be like falling on concrete.

As the movie is coming to an end, you hear Fischer’s voice saying that there was a huge search and rescue effort the next day, but the body was never found. It’s said that Randle survived and is on some beach fishing today. But Fischer says he found out the truth a couple weeks later.

He was rescuing a single man when the man claimed that someone else was there helping him. He said that the other person told him that he’d hold on till help arrived and that he’d never let go.

There’s a legend of a man who lives beneath the sea. He’s called a fisher of men…a last hope for all those who’ve been left behind. He's called "the Guardian".

There’s another legend…of another man who’s called a fisher of men...the true hope for those who’ve been left behind. This man doesn’t live under the sea. He lives in the hearts of all who’ve invited him to come. He's called by different names; Savior, Messiah, Christ, King, Lord. I just call Him Jesus.

Jesus came to save us. And for those who are willing to be saved, He’ll never let go. On Good Friday we remembered his death. But even that couldn’t stop him. He still tells us that if we’ll come to him everything will be alright. And he’ll never let go.