Freedom Costs: Reflections on Sinners and the Words of Howard Thurman
(No Spoilers)
I’m a matinee person. I like going to the movies in the early afternoon, surrounded by the older, quieter crowd. Sometimes, I’m the only one in the theater. My go-to spot is a small, locally owned cinema with six stadium-style screens, fresh popcorn, and a cozy feel that reminds me of why I love the movies in the first place.
But when Ryan Coogler says a film must be watched in IMAX, you listen. That’s the prince of cinema talking. So I stepped out of my usual rhythm and into something bigger — literally. Sinners became my first IMAX experience. And I’m glad it was. The visuals? Breathtaking. Immersive. Transporting. If you haven’t seen it, pause here. Go watch. Then come back. This reflection will still be here waiting for you.
After the credits rolled, I walked into the thick warmth of a 85-degree Charlotte afternoon, climbed into my car, and sat in the stillness. I turned on the AC but didn’t drive off. Instead, I reached for my iPad — I never leave home without it — and started journaling.
Sometimes I create my own prompts to guide what I write. That day, the questions came fast and heavy:
“If salvation is freedom, then why does religion feel so restricted and exclusive?”
“What is freedom, really?”
I wrote my answers — private ones — but the theme was clear: freedom and how I’ve come to understand it. Those thoughts led me straight to Howard Thurman.
If you don’t know Thurman, I like to think of him as a spiritual teacher for those of us who live at the intersections — of faith and doubt, spirit and struggle. His work isn’t always front and center, but I return to it often because it helps me make sense of the world through a deeply spiritual lens. He reminds me of our responsibility as spiritual beings in the world — not apart from it.
In his sermon Freedom and Suffering, Thurman offers a framework that felt like it was written to accompany Sinners. He speaks of freedom not as the absence of chains, but as the presence of choice — the ability to make decisions that shape your life from the inside out. But with that kind of freedom comes suffering. It’s not optional. When you’re free, you have to live with what your choices reveal about you — and what they cost.
That’s what Sinners captures so powerfully. Michael B. Jordan’s character(s) appears free. He walks and talks like a man in control. But internally, he’s imprisoned — by guilt, by memory, by the silence he’s kept for too long. Thurman helps us see that true freedom only begins when a person chooses to face the truth of who they are, especially when it hurts. Especially when it costs.
Thurman said that suffering is the price of freedom, not its opposite. And when you think about it, that’s what makes freedom so sacred. It’s not given cheaply. It’s earned through self-confrontation, through the shedding of illusion, through the decision to walk toward wholeness no matter how jagged the path.
In Sinners, suffering isn’t just consequence — it’s crucible. Jordan’s character(s) is refined by pain. Their emotional, spiritual, and relational struggles peel away everything performative. It pushes both characters toward a question in very different ways - Thurman once posed so clearly: What kind of man are you trying to become?
It’s a conversion story, but not in the traditional sense. No altar call. No tidy bow. It’s messier than that — it’s a soul wrestling with God and self. And it’s through that wrestle that the character edges closer to freedom.
Thurman’s Freedom and Suffering sermon unlocks a deeper reading of Sinners. The movie isn’t just about sin or guilt — it’s a parable about liberation. A visual meditation on what it really means to be free. And Thurman reminds us: liberation doesn’t come by avoiding pain. It comes by walking through it with eyes wide open, heart open, and faith that wholeness is still possible on the other side.
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