Christmas at the Movies

Jolie and I went to see Munich on Christmas night (after all, it was Hanukkah, too). Spielberg did a nice job making an entertaining movie that also had a pronounced-yet-subversive anti-violence position. I was most interested in a small scene where one of the Jewish “assassins” loses his stomach for all the violence, saying that true Judaism doesn’t try to retaliate every time they are attacked and that “righteousness was everything.” He felt that if he lost his righteousness, he would lose his own soul.

This is curious to me, as I don’t associate Jewish righteousness with peacefulness, but rather with the Old Testament cries of vengeance and justice, and the current expression of Israeli nationalism. It was refreshing to hear this character (reflecting Spielberg’s own position, I would gather) casting a core value of Judaism in a manner much more in line with Jesus’ vision for the Jews. It certainly struck me as a very New Testament-friendly version of righteousness, and it also gave me pause to realize that most of the world wouldn’t associate Christian righteousness with Jesus’ Way either!

Having been an avid learner of the concept of righteousness in recent years, I am re-challenged to live up to its biblical ideology, especially in the light of Jesus. Righteousness is an active living for others, an incarnate gesture of validation for the dignity of others, and a collaborative demonstration, with God, of His true nature as a lover of the hurting and oppressed. Shouldn’t I, as a follower of Jesus, feel the same connection between righteousness and my soul’s salvation?