When the Jews of ancient Persia were threatened with genocide, they were mercifully rescued by one of their own.

But Queen Esther’s bravery was inspired by her guardian Mordecai, whose challenge was both direct and severe: “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Est 4:14)

Thankfully, Esther did not waver, and this past week’s Purim feast rightly celebrates that great deliverance.

Silence like a cancer

But modern-day Persia (Iran) is still a serious threat to the Jews. And yet, as we are all too aware, global antisemitism now stalks the Jewish nation as a dark, demonic shadow.

It is also most apt that both Simon & Garfunkel are Jewish, and as their song puts it, “silence like a cancer grows"

In God’s perfect timing, however, the new movie Bonhoeffer challenges those, especially Christians, who remain silent at this time on the hot potato of Israel. And appropriately enough, the trailer to the film used Simon and Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence as its theme song. (It is also most apt that both Simon & Garfunkel are Jewish, and as their song puts it, “silence like a cancer grows”).

For when hundreds of synagogues were burnt to the ground and Jewish people were herded off to concentration camps in overcrowded cattle trucks, there was silence among the Christians – apart from a precious few including Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

The German church as a whole – heavily influenced by Reformation leader Martin Luther – responded to such outrage with deafening silence. A church that was supposedly ‘reformed’ from the bad old ways of an institution which denied faith alone as the key to salvation. Of course, on a natural level, believers had reason to fear the reaction of the brutal Nazis if they dared plead mercy for the Jews.

But Jesus clearly taught that his followers should take up their own cross; in other words, that they should be prepared to die for his sake. But they failed miserably and betrayed their Saviour in the process. Except, of course, from the likes of Bonhoeffer, who paid the ultimate price for doing so, executed on a noose for his stand within just a month of the war ending.

Of course, on a natural level, believers had reason to fear the reaction of the brutal Nazis if they dared plead mercy for the Jews.

Passing by

Harrowing yet profoundly challenging, it’s a movie every Christian should see. After Bonhoeffer boldly denounced the Nazis from the pulpit, his adoring mum – so proud of his great courage – said: “You painted a target on your chest which got bigger with every word you spoke.”

The choice facing Esther was stark. If she remained silent, help for Israel would come from another place, but she and her family would perish. This thought is also echoed on a national level by the prophet who wrote: “For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you [Israel] will perish…” (Isaiah 60:12)

But do we today score any better than the German church “passing by on the other side” of the road like the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan?

Whitewashed tombs

Todd Komarnicki, the movie’s Director, who has previously worked with Clint Eastwood, has referred to Bonhoeffer, as one of the greatest heroes of our time.

do we today score any better than the German church “passing by on the other side” of the road like the priest in the parable of the Good Samaritan?

In an interview with Dan Boot of the Church’s Ministry among Jewish people, Todd recalled his favourite two scenes in the movie. The first was when Bonhoeffer used the pulpit to denounce the “whitewashed tombs” (church leaders) who had caved in to the authorities, saying that “no-one has ever hated religion more than Jesus Christ” and that the gospel was a message of love, not power.

He said it was a complicated scene requiring lots of rehearsing but finished with 250 extras spontaneously breaking into applause. “It was a Holy Spirit moment.” 

Darkness disarmed

The other scene came at the end of the film when Bonhoeffer shared bread and wine with his fellow prisoners as well as a Nazi guard who had offered to help him escape and who he clearly loved as a brother in Christ.

Choking back tears, Todd recalled how all the actors then came together to embrace each other, “not for the scene but because of what they’d experienced together”. The darkness was being disarmed with love, he said.

Todd described ... Bonhoeffer as a “Garden of Gethsemane” Christian who understands the requirements of sacrificial love and looks to God to give him the strength to follow it through.

Todd, 59, had resisted the offer of taking on the directorship for some time, but it was his wife Jane who eventually decided they should move to Europe for the project. It was part of “the rescuing work that comes with marriage”, he explained. “It’s liberating to love someone with your whole heart, and to learn every day how to lay down your life and put her first. The Lord tells us after all to love our neighbour as ourselves, and she is my closest neighbour.”

Love story

The gospel (and this movie) is likewise a love story, he said, describing Bonhoeffer as a “Garden of Gethsemane” Christian who understands the requirements of sacrificial love and looks to God to give him the strength to follow it through.

As for our relationship with the Jewish people, Todd said it was “crazy” that Christians should be antisemitic. “There is no Christianity without Judaism. It should be a love story, a kinship as we humbly seek to connect with our Jewish brothers and sisters.”