The Mission

Portuguese Official Hontar: We must work in the world, your eminence. The world is thus.
Papal Ambassador Altamirano: No, Señor Hontar. Thus have we made the world... thus have I made it.
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Last night I stayed up very late to watch a movie that my pastor recommended to me. It was the 1986 film, The Mission. This movie stars Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons. The basic plot revolves around the work of the Jesuits in South America during the middle of the 18th century.

Two forces were competing on that continent in that era. The Catholic church was working to establish missions amongst the native populations in order to preach the gospel, educate, and "civilize" the tribes. On the other hand, the Portuguese were in league with the passive Spainsh to round up these local peoples and sell them into slavery so that the plantations would gain even more financial reward.

At the heart of the movie is the story of one Jesuit priest (Jeremy Irons) who risks his life to bring faith and culture to a certain tribe living "above the falls." He is initially opposed by a slavetrading mercenary (Robert DeNiro). However, as the plot progresses we see DeNiro kill his brother in a fit of rage and subsequently seek penance from the priest, who has came back to town for a visit.

Irons character forces a hard physical labor on DeNiro and an even harder spiritual task. Both men climb back up to the Indians and DeNiro falls prostrate before the very people he used to capture and sell. Eventually, DeNiro is fully accepted by the tribe and even inducted into the Jesuit order.

The story then takes a new turn as a papal emissary arrives to judge whether the missions should be allowed to remain in the area and by default whether the Indians can continue to live peacefully in the asylum provided by the church OR if they will be forced into the jungle again and into Portuguese hands.

This official from the Holy See proceeds to weigh his options and he decides that closing the missions and pulling support from the Indians is the only way to protect the future role of the Jesuit order in South America against the political power of slavetrading Portuguese influence that seeks the complete removal of the church.

When this decision is announced the film again takes a new turn. Both Irons and DeNiro refuse to go back with the Pope's messenger and are apparently excommunicated. They stay with the tribe and pledge to assist in the preparation for the coming military attack. While Irons holds fast to his cloth and displays a pacifist attitude to the end, the DeNiro character renounces his vows and teaches the local warriors the art of fighting.

At the end of the movie I felt as if I had seen several movies in one. There is a faith based drama that pulls on the heart, a political intrigue that gets at the nerves, and an action sequence that pumps the heart pretty quickly. After watching the movie I saw (4) major themes that I wanted to elaborate on and explore.

1 - REDEMPTION THRU GRACE

The first thing we gather from the movie is the potential for a man to be cleansed from his sins by the grace of the one he has offended. DeNiros's character is a vile man who captures the tribes-people, treats them brutally, and then sells them like property to the highest bidder. His rage is exhibited in a deadly way when he murders his brother out of jealousy.

However, after the murder it is the weight of his conscience that leads him to the sanctuary of the church and the gentle hand of Jeremy Irons. In love, Irons agrees to give DeNiro a harsh penance - more for DeNiro's psychological well-being then for any spiritual need I think. As DeNiro drags all of his old armor and weapons up the pathless trek to the top of the falls we see a foreshadowing of the true difficulty he is about to deal with.

At the top of the falls, DeNiro is forced to face the tribespeople, those very individuals who have missing relatives at DeNiro's hand. Knelt before them and crying we see a brokenness in DeNiro that is accepted by the Indians in mercy.

This was a great picture to me of the grace that God gives us. It is he who we have chiefly offended (Psalm 51) and it is his forgiveness that we need. Yet he, like the Indians with DeNiro, is under no obligation to have mercy on us. We have done wrong and we deserve the punishment we get. DeNiro deserved to be held in captivity, if not killed for his actions towards those natives. Yet, God has been gracious and loving and he has orchestrated a plan in which his mercy is given to us as we (like DeNiro) fall before him broken in repentance.

2 - UNREACHED PEOPLES

The historical context of this film was all about the role of the Catholic church in seeking to set up missions and convert the Indian tribes to the worship of the true God who has revealed himself in Christ. Some liberal pluralists have a lot of angst over this type of proselyting. However, as a Christian I must be aware that I have the medicine (in the gospel) that a sick people need. For me not to want to see them come to faith is actually the unloving act. Also, unlike some religions, Christianity is not a faith that (by its doctrine) ever teaches compulsory belief OR heavy tax/ execution. Brining the good news to unreached peoples is a gentle, if dangerous thing to do which preserves the native's own choice.

What many of us don't realize today is that we live in a world that is full of many people groups which are still unreached OR barely reached. The current number is that 40% of the people in this world have never heard of the grace of Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. In some ways I wish that I felt the call for long-term overseas mission work. It is a noble endeavor for the Kingdom. More information on these unreached peoples can be found at ( http://www.joshuaproject.net/).

3 - POLITICS & RELIGION

Another aspect of this movie is the portrayal of the danger that comes when the state and the church are intermixed to any substantial degree. History bears out the truth that as Chrisitianity became more and more affiliated with the government (after the 300s), the faith was compromised for secular gains. This is in large measure the problem with Catholicism. Crusades, Inquisitions, Witch Hunts, etc... These things are not the logical outworking of the teachings of Christ or of the Scripture, they are misguided and evil actions that use religion as a mask to hide their true political intentions.

In The Mission, we see the messenger from the Vatican come on the scene to judge the future of the missions inside a political framework. Ultimately, he decides to cut them off and give the Portugese free reign. He tries to justify his decision by saying that it was necessary to keep the Jesuits from being expelled (writ large). However, by the end of the movie he is remorseful at his decision - see the quote at top of the post.

Why? Why does he feel guilty in the end about his actions? Because he knows, like all of us, that real objective right and wrong exist and that God has revealed them to us. He knows that abandoning the tribes people was a death sentence and that it was ultimately a political and not a moral decision. He wishes he had the courage to have made the correct decision. If only many of our politicians today were at least so remorseful - hardly.

The great thing about Protestant denominations and the nation of America is that they are designed to keep the state from picking one brand of faith and then claiming it as the national belief. It is by the proper separation of church and state that we can hope to avoid situations like the one shown in the movie.

4 - FIGHT OR STAND FIRM?

The last thing I took away from the movie was the contrasting views of the two Jesuits played by Irons and DeNiro, as the army advanced on the native village. Irons character held the belief that God is love and that violence, even against evil, was not in keeping with faith. DeNiro saw himself as a righteous agent of God's protective wrath. He felt that fighting an immoral army that was intent on killing innocent believers was a duty for the sake of truth.

I was torn watching these two men face the end in such starkly different ways. As a former Marine, I have a tendency to keep a gun by my bed and to be ready to throw down as needed. Yet, when I observe the early church, I see complete non-violent martyrdom at the hands of Rome (which largely accounted for the flourishment of Christianity).

I am still unclear as to the proper response for a believer to have in the face of direct, unjust, aggression. I know that the Romans 13 tells us that government has authority to wield the sword to keep citizens safe, but I wonder if that applies to the individual on a daily basis.

CONCLUSION

At the end of the day, I want to highly recommend this movie to anyone who has even remote interest in the subject matter it deals with. You will be engaged by the plot and the performances and you will come out a wiser person.

PS - There is a lot of non-sexual tribal nudity (of all kinds), so be careful with the kids around.