How do you respond when you’ve been treated unjustly? How do you act when someone betrays your trust? Or when a friend simply falls short of your expectations?
Life forces you to answer these questions with annoying frequency. A distracted driver cuts you off on the highway, endangering your life. In spite of the fact that you have spent years helping others, when your turn comes to need assistance, nobody gives you support. Your boss overlooks your years of faithful service and promotes someone else over you. Your spouse of twenty years walks off with a younger model.
Not fair. But how do you respond?
The new James Bond movie poses this question. Buried in an avalanche of some of the best action scenes I’ve seen in a long time runs this painful theme: how do you respond when those from whom you expected support and help, choose to abandon you instead?
Two men, having been placed in the same position, make two diametrically opposite choices. Mr. Silva, James Bond’s nemesis in Skyfall, has a lot in common with our hero. And yet, the paths of their lives turn out very differently. Silva is a sick man, but you can’t help feeling pity for him. I think that’s what makes this James Bond so good. There’s depth to this screenplay, which places this movie in a category all its own.
It’s odd to use a James Bond movie as an apt metaphor for the Christian life. But there you are! As Christians, our responses always rise out of the love and grace of God. We don’t choose revenge. We don’t get even. We don’t even respond out of duty. We don’t respond because it’s the right thing. Our responses spring out of the reality that God loves us in spite of our bad habits and selfish choices. We do the right thing, yes. But not for the sake of doing the right thing. We do the right thing because that’s how much we love God.
I don’t think I’m going to spoil any secrets when I tell you that Bond chooses to do the right thing. But the root of that choice proves surprising. 007 has a heart. He genuinely cares for a character in the movie – not a romantic attraction or lust. Something more primal. And that love becomes his motivator. I must confess that it’s hard to understand why he loves and protects this particular character, for whom he sacrifices so much. Yet it is that love, which ultimately, shapes his decisions.
By the end of the movie Bond has given up a lot. I think I would be grumpy if I had to give up half that stuff. But what if God were to ask me to sacrifice similar things for Him? Simply for love of Him? What if He were to ask me to bear with betrayal, grief, and material loss? What if there would be no reward, no public apology, no real reimbursement for my loss? Would I still choose to do the right thing?
In the Kingdom of God, our choices always hinge on love. Not reward. Not vindication. Not duty. Just love.
One thing that struck me is how Bond took on the “parental ” role in this film. The love he had and showed to this one particular individual seemed to be unconditional. He cared for and protected this person much like a parent would a child. At the end of the scene that took place in the church I thought to myself “the prodical daughter has come home.”
Okay! I saw it last night so now I could read your post. SUCH a good movie. Love 007 movies. I thought to myself during the scene on the train- I hope my fiction is as creative the stunt coordinator for Bond movies… Enjoyed your post. I thought there were several angles where we could compare our faith to dynamics in the movie. Several elements in Bond’s life were revealed and they were hard- yet those same elements also gave him strength and made him the perfect hero. In our own lives, we may not realize how the hard parts will transform into our strengths and gift us with the exact skill set we need for the future. And talk about appreciating God’s creation: Is Daniel Craig just SO handsome?! :)))
Charise, I agree. I was on the edge of my seat for most of that movie. To be able to write with that degree of tension would lead to the creation of incredible stories. Had to laugh at your last comment, and I’m still grinning as I write this.
Thanks for opening my eyes to a new way of looking at James Bond.
Actually, I’m not a fan of recent James Bond movies. But for sure this particular one has its own depth. No doubt that there are so many fans of it.