What I learned about compassion from the movie “Saw”

I only saw this movie recently back in June. There was a time, when I was a younger man, that I would have enjoyed such a movie. Of course, in those days I spent more time stoned than I did sober, so anything that invoked intense emotion (mostly pain) that wasn’t at my expense was welcomed being that I was so emotionally numb. 

I don’t want to give away the entire plot of the movie, but in essence, a series of people were caught in an intricate web set for them by an evil mastermind who went by the name of “Jigsaw”. By the circumstances that Jigsaw set out for the people, they made a series of choices which caused them in some way to behave in very inhumane or even evil ways.  It seems the pull for preservation, whether self or familial, is greater than that of nobility. 

For some reason this made me think that the circumstances of life, though not as extreme, condensed, or masterfully manipulated, are not much different than that of “Saw”.

Circumstance causes us to act and react. Environment has instilled in us how we ought to react to negative and positive stimuli. 

People in the everyday rigors of life are in some fashion enslaved to the circumstances which demand response. 

So consider this: When the person on the highway cuts you off (and it might just be me by the way) his behavior communicates that he is responding poorly to some sort of negativity around him. His behavior is communicating far less “Screw you” and far more “I am overwhelmed, angry, and have lost control.”

When someone is rude to you, seek to understand the behavior as being more about their inability to, in a healthy fashion, not project their frustrations on others. 

We look for this in children, knowing that a sudden change in their behavior tells us that something is not right. Why is it that we cannot look at the behavior of those around us and approach it with the same attitude of understanding and compassion? 

I believe this to be a core teaching of my faith. That while we were helpless, caught in the cycle of abuse and brokenness, God ended the cycle through his son Jesus. 

Every wrong, every trespass, and every sin we perpetrated against one another demands a payment. When someone wrongs us, we spend our time making others pay for our wounds, and so we wound those that are closest to us. In so doing, we ensure that this cycle continues. 

I believe that Jesus, the Son of God, took upon himself the payment that such deeds deserve. He paid the penalty in his death, and demonstrates victory over sin by rising again from the dead. In so doing, we who follow Jesus, offer forgiveness to those who hurt us and love to those who hate us.

So the next time someone gives you the finger, tells you where you can go and what you can do to yourself, or hurts you at the deepest level, remember that the wounds that motivate their actions can be healed, wrongs can be righted, and that which is broken can be put back together.