Lesson from a French Film

I went to see a film at the Jewish Film Festival held at the Roper Theatre. It was a French film entitled “The Raffle.”  French Jews were taken from their homes into a stadium waiting mass deportation to a concentration camp. It is told from the perspective of children, so we see their innocence and unsuspecting attitudes. In one scene before the round-up, a priest walks past the playground where the children are playing — he, like them, is wearing a Jewish star.
One boys says, “Hello Father.”
The man returns the greeting and walks on.
Another boy wants to know why he called the priest “Father.”

“That’s what he is called,” the boy answers.  And then he says something that I think was the most powerful line of the play: “His God is Jewish you know, and if he were here right now, he would be wearing a yellow star like us.”
That’s what we would have done to him had he lived and come pre-WWII. If when he did come we condemned him to die with thieves, would we not have condemned him to die with his own people? I guess the most powerful point is that he would have wanted to. He would have had it no other way — even if they would not have received Him.

“He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11)

The priest willingly wore the star — at his own peril, of course — in protest of what the French government was doing and to stand with the Jewish people. As we stand with God and seek to follow His heart, we will be asked to stand with His people as well. You know the truth is We Are Required to Stand With His People!

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile” (Romans 1:16)

“There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.” (Romans 2:9)

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