Blog

by Nathan Buck

We finally got to see Black Panther this past weekend and get caught up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The whole movie was well done and there is plenty to appreciate throughout (even seeing Smeagol from Lord of the Rings as a buff bad guy was quirky and fun). But I want to write about one specific scene at the end, as it relates to my previous post. Spoiler alert: if you don't want to know how the movie ends, wait till you see the movie to continue.

The final battle between King T'Challa and his cousin Erik Killmonger is a profound interplay of good vs evil vs history vs healing and hope. When T'Challa learns the truth of how his father handled the rebellion of his uncle and how Erik was abandoned to grow up an orphan in the streets and completely separated from Wakanda, he realizes this was a huge mistake and created a far worse problem. T'Challa is motivated by compassion for Erik, even as he fights to regain his throne from him.

In the final scene between them, T'Challa carries Erik out to see the sunset in Wakanda - a sight Erik's father had told him about. As they kneel together, exhausted from battle and Erik with a spear through his chest, T'Challa says, "Perhaps we can still heal you." This was clearly a reference to the physical wound about to end Erik's life, but also a more profound reference to restoring Erik as a person and as a citizen of Wakanda. It's a palpable moment of grace and compassion, where we see T'Challa's integrity and we are hoping for Erik to accept.

Erik says, "Why, so you can lock me up?" He references the slave trade in Africa, and how many Africans would jump overboard rather than be sold in the Americas as slaves. He says, "They knew death was better than bondage." Then he pulls the spear out of his chest, which was preventing him from bleeding internally. He collapses and dies next to T'Challa.

I was moved deeply by this moment. Grace and healing are offered, but the assumption of consequence and the inability to see a future different than his past prevented Erik from accepting the hope T'Challa offered. The pain, the wounds of the world's tribalism and tyranny, blinded Erik to the potential of a future without those things.

The movies ends with T'Challa making a statement to the UN that Wakanda will no longer be hidden and will help the world with its technology and culture. He says, "We are ONE tribe."

I cannot help but hear the echo of Galatians 3:26-29 as I consider where the movie landed. As Paul writes to the Galatians, he is addressing their divisions and their choices to live according to the desires of the flesh and legalisms of their religious history. Prompted by the influence of Judaisers (religious Jews who tried to force early Christians to keep all of Jewish customs), the church at Galatia was being pressured to not only follow Jesus by grace through faith, but to also live under all the ceremonial and religious practices of Jewish law. Paul reasons with them at length that Jesus' death and resurrection satisfies the religious law and freed them from trying to EARN God's favor through religious works. In this section, Paul is trying to help them see that the distinctiveness of Jewish customs and laws are ultimately meaningless in Jesus. The playing field has been leveled and everyone has opportunity for God's love and grace, through faith in Jesus Christ. And it's not just an issue of race, but of gender, class, and circumstance.

In Jesus, no one is above or below anyone else, and no one has to earn it by being indoctrinated into becoming a different tribe. We have been made into ONE tribe, God's tribe through Jesus Christ. And every follower of Jesus is a citizen of that tribe, regardless of race, age, gender, economic status, etc.

The real question for us in Western culture today is, are we able to see and accept that grace, or are we stuck in the pain and experience of our past? Will we be like Erik and die rather than experience the grace being offered, because we fear there is some bondage or trick behind it? Or are we able to forge a new path together in the opportunities for grace and understanding? Are we committed to being ONE tribe, in the Kingdom of God? Or are we still holding on to our worldly tribalism, demanding our place and expressing our will to power?

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