I recently re-watched the first John Wick movie. It is a movie about a retired assassin who is brought back into unrestrained killing because of a simple act of a thoughtless person who killed his dog. The unconscionable act put an insurmountable force into action, causing death: a personal comparison based on the movie, John Wick #1

Sinners don’t consider their sins as important because they feel good, satisfy some selfish desire, or simply do not seem that big a deal, like killing a dog in the movie or insulting/degrading another person we esteem lightly in our normal world: gossip, criticism, verbal cruelty, blaming, etc. I don’t think I have enough time or courage to list my unloving thoughts, ideas, and/or actions. I have a bad case of humanity, which I’ve had since birth.

Yet, those seemingly inconsequential acts set in motion the violence between the kingdom of earth and the kingdom of heaven. Heavenly laws have been put in place throughout all of creation. Broken laws put the law’s punishment/outcome into operation. The laws and resulting outcomes are the insurmountable forces built into all of creation. They will not be denied. Punishment is already assigned. It is just a matter of time until the sinner (the dog killer) meets the full force of the law, the juggernaut John Wick. It is all in motion since the beginning of time.

Our interactions with life and others, choices, place us where we are. Our nature, broken as it is, breaks the law, no matter how unimportant it may seem to us. Our opinion of importance or value is broken because of human selfishness, which is the largest breach of the law possible (Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” Proverbs 18:1 ESV). Until we learn to love, we will break the law written by the God of love who created all things. The law points to our brokenness and warns of the punishment which stalks us as it works to fulfill all the law of creation until all things are settled and finished.

Punishment must be fulfilled. It is the only way to quench the fire started by the broken law. It is the balance of creation. God doesn’t have to be a punisher. If we jump off the cliff, the rocks are waiting at the bottom – our choice, our outcome. God is in fact the rescuer, constantly trying to talk us out of our bad choices and working to keep us from creating inevitable outcomes. Reading scripture proves that God has given chance after chance and way after way for humanity to learn the cause and effect of decisions, and He has given so many chances for humanity to recover from the lawlessness it chooses.

God went the ultimate distance for us, allowing his perfect Son to fulfill all punishment for all creation. This leaves us in a perfect place to make one choice which will turn away the punishment, which is due, death. John Wick can be stopped despite the movie’s contention.

The movie makes it hard to believe that anything could stop death/John Wick from coming. Life can be just as convincing. However, we do have an alternative. At the end, the dog killer screamed, just before he died, “It was just a dog.” No repentance. No regret for his decision. We can repent. It is an alternative. A change of heart for the harm of the bad decision(s) is/are absolutely possible. It is the choice that Jesus was right in what He said and did, paired to the willingness to allow Jesus to be God of life instead of the self.

I spent so much of my life running from Jesus, which resulted in increasing sorrows. Now I am learning to run to Him. I am constantly surprised that life is so much easier and better when I face issues, let Jesus guide me through them instead of taking the solutions on myself. Avoiding Jesus provides fertile soil for the sorrows to grow in size. Taking the easy way our really means facing the issue and coming to Jesus. The hard way is the way around, the way which avoids accountability to Jesus. I have cause more suffering to myself than Jesus would have ever allowed if I had only put myself in His care.

“But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8: 10-17 ESV