I am in the midst of watching Steven Spielberg's Munich for the second time. At the risk of running the issues of peace and war and justice into the ground, I am struck by several things in this movie.
1.) Near the very beginning of the movie, Golda Meir (the Israeli Prime Minister in 1972) says to her generals concerning Israel's response to the Olympic hostage crisis, "Every society has to compromise even with its own values."
2.) When one of the Jewish men who is on the response team is interviewing one of the Palestinian supporters of Black September, the Palestinian and his wife insist upon pointing out the evils that have been perpetrated upon the Palestinians by Israel while barely shrugging at the heinous violence done by the terrorists in Munich.
At the heart of such violence is the insistence upon revenge--disguised as justice, of course. I punch you; you punch me right back. The sad thing is that when you punch me back, it doesn't make us even. Because you punched me, I will punch you again. And so on and so forth. The lex talionis ("An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth") always reminds me of the Mafia: a cycle of violence that will not be broken until someone refuses to hit the other back. "An eye for an eye" cannot produce justice, cannot lead to peace. And the first instinct is always to respond in kind.
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'; but I tell you, do not resist an evil man. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him your left cheek also." I had someone tell me a couple of weeks ago that it was 'lunacy' to think that Christ renounced self-defense, for if he did, then God wants his people to be murdered. Yet what did Christ do in going to the Cross but refuse to defend himself? Are his disciples not called to the same cross, the same suffering? God doesn't want his people to be murdered; he wants us to be the firstfruits of the Kingdom that shall be consummated on a day when "they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and will learn war no more." In incarnating that kingdom vision in our troubled times; in refusing to take revenge; in refusing to use evil means against evil men, Christ's disciples may face their Lord's fate. But won't those who are "faithful unto death" be crowned with life?
What shall we say to each other of these things? Shall we trust in the sword and the spear? Shall we finally acknowledge that the kingdom into which we have been translated shall not be destroyed by any craft or weapons of any enemy--nor men nor demons? What shall we say to each other of these things, you and I?
1.) Near the very beginning of the movie, Golda Meir (the Israeli Prime Minister in 1972) says to her generals concerning Israel's response to the Olympic hostage crisis, "Every society has to compromise even with its own values."
2.) When one of the Jewish men who is on the response team is interviewing one of the Palestinian supporters of Black September, the Palestinian and his wife insist upon pointing out the evils that have been perpetrated upon the Palestinians by Israel while barely shrugging at the heinous violence done by the terrorists in Munich.
At the heart of such violence is the insistence upon revenge--disguised as justice, of course. I punch you; you punch me right back. The sad thing is that when you punch me back, it doesn't make us even. Because you punched me, I will punch you again. And so on and so forth. The lex talionis ("An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth") always reminds me of the Mafia: a cycle of violence that will not be broken until someone refuses to hit the other back. "An eye for an eye" cannot produce justice, cannot lead to peace. And the first instinct is always to respond in kind.
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth'; but I tell you, do not resist an evil man. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him your left cheek also." I had someone tell me a couple of weeks ago that it was 'lunacy' to think that Christ renounced self-defense, for if he did, then God wants his people to be murdered. Yet what did Christ do in going to the Cross but refuse to defend himself? Are his disciples not called to the same cross, the same suffering? God doesn't want his people to be murdered; he wants us to be the firstfruits of the Kingdom that shall be consummated on a day when "they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and will learn war no more." In incarnating that kingdom vision in our troubled times; in refusing to take revenge; in refusing to use evil means against evil men, Christ's disciples may face their Lord's fate. But won't those who are "faithful unto death" be crowned with life?
What shall we say to each other of these things? Shall we trust in the sword and the spear? Shall we finally acknowledge that the kingdom into which we have been translated shall not be destroyed by any craft or weapons of any enemy--nor men nor demons? What shall we say to each other of these things, you and I?