Reno Lauro is a third year M.Div student, filmmaker and poet. He is currently applying to PhD programs in a hope to ponder the mysteries of Theology and the Imagination. He loves pomomusings. This is the second part in his review of the film, “The Motorcycle Diaries.”
——————————————————————————
The Motorcycle Diaries: The Ghost of El Che and Christian Theology Pt.2
The question raised in Pt. 1 of this article is simple: as followers of Jesus of Nazareth, what can a man like Ernesto Che Guevara teach us about our own faith and our own failure of faith. Let’s restate this with emphasis for Christian brothers and sisters who like to “politicize” scripture and theology with slogans and Orwellian newspeak: as followers of Jesus of Nazareth, what can a man like Ernesto Che Guevara teach us about our own faith and our own failure of faith.
Please allow me to digress.
It has been asked recently by a certain Christian brother, “Where is the cross?” This question emerges from concerns that our Christian identity (of salvation through the cross of Christ and in Christ) is being lost to “humanist/leftist politicos” and “Marxist-Hegelian philosophies”. On the surface this seems to be an insightful and sincere question – and it is rightly so the correct question to ask – however the false dichotomy presented between 1) a presently liberating Christ and 2) Christ our paschal lamb is a grotesque error that has cost the faith legitimacy in the modern and now this post-modern age.
At the heart of this scriptural and theological error is a lack of understanding in – the very Reformation doctrine (all irony intended for my Christian brother) – Participatio Christi – Participation in Christ. It is true that Paul and the Reformers use forensic language (legal/courtroom), to access the idea of Christ’s salvific work, however, it is the language of participation in Christ (in his death and resurrection) that they use to describe the way we are to live (Col 3.3, 1 Cor 1.30, et al; John Calvin Institutes Book 3 chp 11, Martin Luther sermons on Rom 6. 3-11 and on Col 3. 1-11). In other words, salvation is not a causal but an ontological change. Salvation is not an exchange of Christ death for our salvation but a change in my very being. We now participate in the life and righteousness of Christ!
This now truly begs the question; what does it mean for believers to participate in the cross and resurrection of Christ?
Enter, the very imperfect figure, Ernesto Che Guevara (anathema to some . . . ).
There is a moment in “The Motorcycle Diaries”, when Che and Granado are sitting among the silent sprites of Machu Picchu – ruins situated on top of the Andes Mts. like a New World Rivendell – that breaks my heart towards God. Granado tells Che that he is going to marry a native woman, have many children, and love the world into change. Che responds, “How can you have a revolution without guns?”
Ernesto, you have a revolution without guns by participating in the creative power and life of Jesus of Nazareth. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, who came to live a human life to show us how to live a life like the divine (a true human life).
Brothers and sisters, we have failed. Why? We have failed because we have forgotten what it is to live a life for others and it takes a Marxist revolutionary to remind us what that life looks like.
The cross of Christ and the resurrection are eschatological events; a new world ruptures forth shaking the very foundations of creation (Matt 27. 50 – 53). This world, as it stands, cannot be the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God requires a revolution and restructuring of the foundations of this world – a revolution of thinking and acting. Che knew this. Towards the end of the film the staff of the leper hospital throws Che a surprise birthday party. The director (Walter Salles Jr.) uses this moment to show the completion of Che’s revolution in thinking and acting. “We are one people of Latin America” he says (please excuse the gross paraphrasing) and “our divisions are man made, divisions intended to oppress”. Che then tells his friend Granado that it isn’t right that the lepers must watch the celebration from “the other side of the river”. In an act of total kenotic love – self emptying to live for others (Phil 2.1-11) – Che risks death to swim to the other side.
What can Ernesto Che Guevara teach us about our faith and our failures of faith? – A revolution of thinking and acting. Living for others, in solidarity with others, being crisis to idolatrous ideas and institutions . . . even if it means our own death.