Consider this a Spoiler warning: The movie’s climax falls hard on a captured Rodrigues as he’s forced to make an impossible choice, Captured he’s told to step on a fumie—an image of Jesus—and renounce his faith. If he does so, several people being tortured to death before his eyes will be saved. If he doesn’t, they’ll expire after several days of misery. Rodrigues weeps, screams in spiritual agony.
And then Christ breaks His silence.
What Jesus says in that moment, like everything else about the movie, is challenging. But it reminds us of something else most of us have sung at one point in time.
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me. …
Little ones to Him belong
They are weak but He is strong.
We like to pretend that we’re strong. We pride ourselves on the strength of our faith and convictions. But how strong are we really? How strong would we be if we were given Rodrigues’ choice? What would we do?
In the end our strength, our hope, our future is dependent on Christ. We are weak. That’s why He died for us. That’s why He forgives us. He knows.
Silence is not a fun movie. It’s not an easy movie to watch. It challenges us to think about the nature of faith and its place in both the world and our lives, but what inspiration it offers, it distributes by the thimble.
But I wish most of my friends would see it, just to give me someone to spend hours talking about it. It’s that sort of movie. And if that sort of movie isn’t Oscar worthy, I’m not sure what is.
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