Abba' s Justice & The Movie: Blood Diamond

"He is my son. I am his father. I must go find him. Go ahead, shoot me if you want, but I will go find him."

Solomon Vandy in the movie Blood Diamond

In my first three posts, I've put a great deal of emphasis on the loving, good, kind and gentle nature of God. As I was reading through some of the things I've written, I was reminded of my former, fearful way of thinking and I could hear that twisted mindset asking in a most accusing manner, "Ah, but what about the JUSTICE of God? You've forgotten to balance all of this with JUSTICE."

I remember having a dream once, five or six years ago, and I could see a man from my church hunched over the steering wheel of his truck with his head down. I asked him what was wrong and he told me he was really bummed out over some sin he had stumbled into. I tried to reassure him, saying, "It's okay! God is merciful." And he responded in sadness with, "Yes, but He's also just."

Somewhere in our darkened mindsets, we've created an illusion that somehow Abba and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are divided against themselves; that the Justice of God is in contradiction with His mercy. We believe that He is bound up in legality and that sin actually dictates whether or not He can show mercy. In actuality, I think what has happened is that we've taken our own, fallen, legalistic definition of justice and ascribed it to our Divinely, loving Papa, completely forgetting that He is, first and foremost, relational. The only law that He will EVER be bound by is the law of Love. Or do we wish to make Jesus a liar?

Most of us view "justice" as being synonymous with "revenge"; a person getting what they deserve or getting "what's coming to them." But I think it's high time we redefine justice through the lens of the cross, redemption, restoration and the beautiful law of Love. Jesus certainly redefined it in his famous Sermon on the Mount when he begins showing the people the selflessness of Love: You've heard it said 'An eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth' but I say that if someone strikes you on the cheek, turn and offer him the other one also'.
And Jesus certainly isn't one who holds to the philosophy of 'Do as I say, not as I do.' No, he took love and his new definition of justice to the EXTREME!

In the Garden of Gethsemene, knowing that Judas is about to betray him for 30 pieces of silver, Jesus invites him to come and kiss him. 'Do what you came to do', he tells him.
When Peter rises up with the old, twisted view of justice and slices off the ear of one of the men ready to arrest Jesus, Jesus rebukes Peter and heals and restores the man's ear!
He allows the godless Romans to slap him around and mock him and scourge his back 39 times. He never stands up to defend himself against the false charges of blasphemy that are railed against him. He allows the Jews, his chosen people, the people that He delivered from the hand of Pharoah and led into the Promised Land, to sentence him to death by crucifixion. He carries his own cross to Golgotha, the place of the Skull, the place of death, Hades. And he allows them to nail him naked to this tree when he had a legion of 10,000 angels ready to be released at his disposal. As they gamble off his clothing, he, for the first time, utterly identifies with fallen man as he understands the weight of what it is to feel forsaken by the Father...alienated from Him in our minds. (He knows this isn't the reality, which is why he began reciting Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The latter part of the Psalm goes on to confirm that, in fact, God has not turned His face from the afflicted. In truth, Abba Father was right there in Jesus reconciling the world to himself). Then, to finish off this display of love, the great wrath of the Lamb, says, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they're doing." This is a man, our God, bound by nothing but his freedom to love. (God is love. If you need more info about the nature of Love, check out 1 Corinthians 13. It describes our Papa revealed in Jesus perfectly!).

Wow. Are you astonished? I hope so. Jesus loves to amaze us. I feel the Holy Spirit testifying within me, crying "YES!!"

After that it feels like anything else I say will be anticlimactic, but I still have more to share about this great, liberating justice. So getting on to my title: Abba Father's justice in the movie Blood Diamond. I should warn you now that if you've not seen the movie Blood Diamond, these next few paragraphs contain spoilers, so you may wish to stop reading.

Blood Diamond is one of, if not, my favorite movies of all time! I love all of the beautiful, though devastating, shots of different countries in Africa and I love the characters. The story is intriguing and is based on true events. The plot revolves around a guy, Danny Archer, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is your run-of-the-mill, self-centered diamond smuggler. He is so wrapped up in his own fear and he so badly wants to make enough money to leave his country and find a less war-ravaged place to live that he doesn't care what it costs. He is apathetic toward the fact that his diamond trade literally tears families apart and empowers war lords to kidnap children and make them soldiers. Basically, he's a jerk and the viewer feels he deserves to get killed in the crossfire of the war.

He comes into contact with a man, Solomon Vandy, whose son was kidnapped, his wife and daughter are in a refugee camp and he has just escaped the slavery of the war lords. Solomon, driven by love for his son, is forced to partner with Danny. Danny uses Solomon to find a rare diamond that Solomon found and hid during his enslavement. Solomon agrees to help him in hopes that he will find and rescue his son along the way. Over the course of time, this love of the father toward his son begins to bring light into Danny's darkness. He witnesses the power of Solomon's love drive him into great danger as he frees his son, Dia, from the grip of the rebel army, and then breaks through Dia's brain-washed mind as he helps him remember that he's not a ruthless soldier, but a loved little boy that likes to play soccer. By the end of the movie, Danny lays down his own life so that Solomon and Dia can escape. In that moment, when Danny sees and believes the truth and beauty of Love and its exposure of the ignorance of evil, his selfishness is proved to be destroyed and he becomes truly human. His life is redeemed!

I think this is a wonderful picture of how the justice of God works. His justice destroys his enemies in the most genius way: by befriending them. His justice restores everything that was lost and stolen by sin. Sin is what He has destroyed; not the ones He loves that have been afflicted by it.

The Apostle Paul, following in the wake of Jesus, said in Romans 12:17-21, "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. 'But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.' Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Upon first reading of those verses, parts can seem harsh if you divorce your interpretation of them from the 1 Corinthians 13 kind of love. So allow me to offer some thoughts.

Firstly, let's talk about feeding your enemies and heaping coals and such. When I used to read this part, I thought, okay, so if there's someone I hate that has greatly offended me, I am to kill him with kindness and one day God'll get him with hellfire! So basically, I'm to act like I like him while anticipating the day that he gets his! I somehow forgot Jesus' putrid distaste for hypocrisy. Jesus wants us to actually love our enemies as he does, not just pretend we love them. And the "heaping burning coals on their head" is really quite beautiful if you think about what it means. Do you remember another time in scripture when burning coals are mentioned? If not, look up Isaiah 6:5-7 and the light will dawn. Isaiah is being commissioned and says, "Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips." Then a seraphim touches his lips with a burning coal and says, "...your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven." The burning coal declared his lips clean without harming him in the process! So if loving enemies heaps burning coals on their HEAD, does this not mean that we're declaring their mind cleansed? That our love awakens them from their confusion and stupor and they realize their value?  That verse is one that Paul is quoting from Proverbs 25, and the end of it actually says that "God will reward you." The reward for feeding and loving our enemies is the destruction of that enemy because friendship is ignited!

And as far as the other parts of that passage that speak of God's wrath and vengeance, well it's revealed right there in that last verse: His wrath overcomes and utterly destroys evil with good! We are instructed not to repay evil for evil, because He never will. The kind of vengeance He repays is destruction of enmity between man and man, and man toward God.

If you're afraid that I'm being too liberal with the scriptures, I'd assure you that I am being most conservative! When you look at the cross and teaching of Jesus, I dare you to come to a different conclusion without changing the very definition of Love! Justice and wrath are not qualities of God that exist apart from his love, but are wholly included and in agreement. I love the way that Baxter Kruger puts it; that His wrath is the divine "No!" to the destruction of His creatures by sin and His eternal "Yes!" to His determined, loving purpose that predestined Man for adoption as sons before the foundation of the world. His purpose will not be thwarted.

If this does not cause you to marvel in gratitude toward the Father, Son and Spirit, please reread those last two sentences until the cobwebs clear and you can see!

To clarify, here's what I'm NOT saying: I'm not suggesting that we stop putting murderers in prison or that women stay in abusive relationships or that we allow heinous crimes like sex trafficking, etc. to go unpunished in the name of forgiveness. As long as even one person remains ignorant of their true identity and God's true identity as revealed in the Gospel and how much they're loved and valued, the world's system of government and law remains necessary and good. They're in place for our protection and peace, as far as they are capable of enforcing it.

But, the world's system of government functions like bandages on a leper. They can attempt to hide the symptoms and the ugliness and they can try to protect others from being harmed, but they can never cure the disease and restore total health. But Jesus' "government" changes minds and reveals hearts of stone as hearts of flesh. Papa's love is the only thing that can bring justice, in it's truest sense, and peace.

The other thing I am NOT saying is that sin has no consequence. Of course it does, and the consequence remains the same no matter the sin: death. Adultery leads to the death of a marriage, slander and gossip lead to the death of trust in a friendship, and on and on. The consequence of sin is as unbending as the law. The word "sin" means to miss the mark that our existence is intended for, so to miss that mark is to decline into nonexistence....death.
BUT, BUT, BUT... the gospel reveals Jesus as bringing life out of death! The consequence of sin was and is no match for his love that is life! Jesus has fully and completely, once for all, dealt with sin and its consequence, so much so that He actually has no more to say on the matter because He remembers them no more!!!! Hallelujah!! If ever you feel you've screwed up beyond all measure, redemption is yours! Your innocence is restored! Even if your circumstances seem contradictory to what I'm saying; if you've been the victim or victimizer of a relationship destroyed by sin, trust Abba's love for you AND within you. As the Spirit leads you in the world of freedom, His glorious victory will be revealed!

God is not out to get you. He's not angry with you or burdened by you or disappointed in you. The only reason that we can administer His kind of justice to others is because He has first administered it to us. It's all His initiative, His heart dream. That is why, deep in your gut, you know that what I'm telling you is true. It's not alien or foreign, but resounds perfectly at home in your chest because it's how He created and designed you: To house His perfect love and live the bliss of expressing it.

So let's get about our joyous business of revealing what is done in Christ as we are free to believe this Good News and become overwhelmed with an urge to share it! No more of this need to "balance" love and grace and forgiveness with some sobering form of "truth" and "justice." It's unnecessary and does much more harm than good! His justice is mercy and compassion, and His truth is love. Grace and peace to you friends!

Isaiah 30:18
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!

Zechariah 7:9
This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.'

Proverbs 28:5
Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.