End Of The Spear
On Saturday, I when to Victor’s place to watch a movie on DVD with my other discipleship group members. The movie is a christian film named End of The Spear. “It is based on a true story of a group of Christian missionaries in Ecuador who set out to reach the Wadani tribe (a violent Ecuadorian tribe defined by revenge killing). When the 5 men from this group are speared to death by Mincayani and others in the tribe, the wives and children of those men move into the Wadani tribe to teach them about God.” I took this from some plot summary. Although personally for me, movies are more of a sort of entertainment, certain thoughts couldn’t help up flash in my mind after this movie. As it was based on a true story, I tend to perceive the drama and action as very realistic and true-to-life, especially the part when the missionaries got speared to death by the Wadani people. Not so much because they were speared to death, but more so, they did not retaliate or could not retaliate. When the son of missionary, Nate, asked him if he would fire his guns if the Wadani people attacked, shaking his head he replied in this manner, “They are not ready for heaven yet.” He had an eternal purpose in mind, that if he killed any of those Wadani people, they would end up eternally in hell. Hence, he had made up his mind to lose his life rather than retaliate from any attacks. Eventually, that was what happened to him and the others. They lost their lives refusing to fire their weapons at the attackers. This could paint 2 different pictures in people’s mind. In the world, this would be foolishness or extreme weakness. They all had guns. All they needed to do was to fire shots and they would have lived. But all they did was fire the guns into the air and took the spearing from the Wadanis. This is the first picture: Foolishness and Weakness. But if these men were foolish, wouldn’t Jesus Christ be the most foolish of all? He gave his life up to his enemies without retaliation, like a lamb that was going to be slained. Moreover, he wasn’t just man, he was God. Would that make God foolish? I recall a bible verse in 1 Corinthians 1:21: “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” As christians we ought to be “foolish” or being christians, we are already “foolish”, having believed a “foolish” message in the first place. But God is well-pleased in this “foolishness” that we can be sure of. For this “foolishness”,that the world reckons, isn’t true foolishness. On the contrary, it is the wisdom of God. For the passage continues in 1 Corinthians 1:25, 27 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” “But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.” This men who gave their lives for the Wadani people had the foolishness and weakness of God. They did things that this world regarded as the foolish and weak, not retaliating to an attack, even to the point of our death. But in doing so, the wise and strong in the world is shamed. I was asking myself, would I have the courage to do what they did. No, I won’t. To do what they could do needed true strength. This is second and true picture painted: Wisdom and Strength. They walked the path that Jesus walked, giving up their lives as sacrifices for the sake of the lost. The true story ended, bearing much fruit, just as Jesus’s death did. The wives and children of those men move into the Wadani tribe and lived amongst them. By Wadani tradition, the children would avenge the father by killing the murderers. But instead, the family of the missionaries cared for them, providing medical support and logistics, even through a tough period of a polio outbreak in the Wadani tribe. That surprised the killers and convinced them thoroughly of God. It was love, grace and mercy that brought the Wadani tribe into faith in Jesus Christ, because evil was returned with good. What a explicit example of the passage in Matthew 5:39 that says: “Do not resist him who is evil; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” The missionaries and their families did just that. I imagined myself in the same situation as them. I wouldn’t have possibly done the same thing as they did. They lived as Jesus had lived and died as Jesus had died. Theirs was the sign of true discipleship, following in the footsteps of the master. What a great reminder this is about the calling of God to follow him!
