The Last Sin Eater

One of our fairly recent Netflix rentals was The Last Sin Eater. I had read the book by Francine Rivers a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I don't think the movie was as good as the book (is it ever?). It was a little cheesy, but it got the story across.

The story is fictional, but based on true old Appalachian rituals brought from immigrants' homelands in Wales and Scotland.

Wikipedia says this: The term sin-eater refers to a person who, through ritual means, would take on by means of food and drink the sins of a deceased person, thus absolving his or her soul and allowing that person to rest in peace. [The sin eater] would be brought to the dying person's bedside, where a relative would place a crust of bread on the breast of the dying and pass a bowl of ale to him over the corpse. After praying or reciting the ritual, he would then drink and remove the bread from the breast and eat it, the act of which would remove the sin from the dying person and take it into himself, (Sound familiar?) [by saying something like:] "I give easement and rest now to thee, dear man. Come not down the lanes or in our meadows. And for thy peace I pawn my own soul. Amen".

A community in the Appalachian mountains designated someone to be their sin eater. That person was forced to live as an outcast because of the superstition that if someone looked upon or touched the sin eater, the evil they carried could be passed onto them.

In the story, a young girl, Cadi, is riddled with guilt and wants to find a way to be absolved from her sin(s). When her grandmother dies, she learns about the sin eater when he comes to the funeral to take her grandmother's sins upon himself. She goes to seek out the sin eater, finding him to be a lonesome outcast. He tries the ritual but she doesn't feel the burden of her sin change.

Through a missionary, Cadi learns about the real sin eater, someone who has already born the price for all of our sins. The entire community is eventually confronted with their pagan ritual and their sin. The "sin eater" is redeemed and released from his isolating torture.

Can you imagine being the person in charge of absolving people of their guilt as they lay dying? How horrible it must feel to think that you are laiden not only with your own sins, but also the sins of an entire community! I'm so thankful that not only do I not have to take on the sins of those around me, I also have a Savior who has freed me from the bonds of my own sins!