Perfectly Poisoned

Aside from all the swordplay, my favorite scene in The Princess Bride is the scene where the Man in Black enters into a battle of wits with Vincini. Vincini is the mastermind behind the kidnapping of the princess. He accepts the Man in Black's challenge. The Man in Black hands a small container to his adversary and has him smell it. Vincini says "I smell nothing". "What you do not smell" responds the Man in Black, "is iocanine powder. It is orderless, tasteless, dissolves instantly in water and is among the more deadly poisons known to man".

I'll save you my quoting of the rest of the scene. Suffice to say, iocaine was the perfect poison. You can't smell, see it or taste it but its there. It could be placed in my wine or yours or both as see in the movie. As I have been thinking about the message I plan to preach this Sunday this seemed like a great illustration to lead into it.

We find in Genisis that God has created a garden, a perfect place for His perfect creation. There's just one thing you needed to be careful of, don't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That fruit is poisioned so to speak. Eve speaking to the serpant about the fruit says that "It is pleasing to the eye" and there seemed to be nothing forboding about the fruit other than God's command not to eat it.

This poision was perfect. Even with a warning from God it appears that Adam and Eve neither one saw what was coming. This poision was so perfect that it affected them all the way down to their DNA, which has been passed down to each generation right to us today.

We are fallen, broken, shattered in some way. We are a pale reflection of what we were ever intended to be. Sin has so taken us that there is not one area of life that is not affected by it. We are poisioned, perfectly poisioned.

There is an antidote though that can save us from certain death. But society, including some Christians, has tried to treat the symptoms that arise from our being perfectly poisioned instead of showing and helping to administer the antidote.

Whare are some ways you see those around you trying to treat the symptoms instead of offering the complete cure. What happens when we only treat the symptoms of our perfectly poisioned state?