Movie: Seven Pounds ~ The Parable of the Two Redemptions

In Seven Days, God Created the World… and… In Seven Days, I Shattered Mine.

Such was one of the opening refrains from the movie (I know, it was actually six days scholar), Seven Pounds, a rare movie of creaturely storyline and evolving character depth that not only echoes redemption, but screams from the very lifeblood of its cinematic existence, “Save me.”

If you have not already watched the movie, as much as you will no doubt be “transformed” by reading this reflection, please, do yourself a favour, go rent the movie at your local… then come back, I am not going anywhere, and then we will talk… Okay, I will talk and you will listen (it’s in the contract)!

If you are like me who could not wait until one’s birthday to find where Ma and Pa had unsuccessfully hidden one’s presents, and if you keep reading, the surprise is about to be all gone, as we are about to go all Hollywood.

The choice is coming to meet the ends of your titillating eyeballs… here we go…

Let me give somewhat of a thumbnail (I have big thumbs) sketch of the movie under investigation!

Seven Pounds, the story of one man’s pursuit for personal redemption through substitutionary atonement!

We are first introduced to Ben Thomas (Will Smith) making an emergency telephone call, which would ultimately be his final call.  The pursuit that was being brought before our eyes was playing with the clarity of reality, and Ben Thomas, with the will to live life crushed within to without his existence, was about to complete the only act that would simultaneously pay for the crimes of his existence and provide redemption for the “killing fields” of his conscience.

As with those who can’t endure the hard slog of reading progressively through a given book and rush to read the last few pages, desperate to see how things “turn out,” this first scene, which would be echoed in a later scene, would all make sense circa 120 minutes later, at the movies end.

Writer Grant Nieporte provides the context for the portrayal of this complex character, Ben Thomas.  Although it is a fictional account, it is based on a real historical figure.  Nieporte had gone to a cocktail party and there met a gentleman with a profound sadness, which left Nieporte with the overwhelming sense that this gentleman was surely one of the saddest individuals he had ever met.  It was not until later that he found out that this gentleman, some ten years earlier, was responsible for a national tragedy where seven people were lost.

Nieporte affirms the significance of such a meeting…

I thought that was an incredible genesis for a character or story.

It is indeed such an account where the fallen human tragedy that is a prerequisite in living, which is so often trivialised, romanticised and ripped out of the context of the man in the suburbs, is nailed in this flick.

This individual with the broken weight of his world on his shoulders is a rather complex and heavily layered character who, outwardly is playing the part of an IRS agent on mission, but inwardly, no such games take place as this man is literally on a mission, on a crusade.

I will do an injustice in the following phraseology to the depth of storyline, but suffice it-to-say, the storyline involves six sub-characters, who have much depth in and of them self (particularly the part played by Woody Harrelson), with some on the receiving end of Ben’s generosity, while the others unbeknown to them, would soon be.  These acts are not simply wanton acts of generosity, although they are, however, they are so much more.

You see, Ben Thomas has seven lives on his tab to pay, therefore, invoking a quasi eye-for-eye system of justice, Ben has decided he must pay for the lives that he took by giving life to seven people who can not obtain it through their own means… “good” people who are dying to living, but instead, are living to die, most with physical illness, but one with an abusive relationship (one who does not have the “eyes” to see, literally).

However, it is in Ben’s interaction with one character, Emily (Rosario Dawson), where the storyline reaches its powerful, evocative peak, as Ben is faced with a decision to make.

You see, Emily needs a heart transplant.  She is a young (31, I believe), creative and wanting to live young woman who will struggle to find a donor as her match is very rare, which is equally matched by her will to see the goodness of common grace in the land of the living.

While it may sound rather Hollywood, guess who matches who?

Such a situation highlights the planned and deliberate nature of this “quest” for Ben.  This is not some cinematic coincidence that causes you to groan with a sense of “here-we-go-again” contempt.  Ben has not left this to chance and each and every person is chosen for a specific reason, with Emily being no different.

However, as their connection will grow,  so does their relationship… this is love, actually (there is a reasonably circumspect lust, I mean love scene)… Could she be the answer that he did not believe he could find, or he did not believe he deserved?

Well… Yes, possibly… Ben even allows himself such a moment of belief… but, with Emily’s condition, she needs some one’s heart… She will need Ben’s heart.

After having this painful reality confirmed, Ben heads back to his cheap motel room, and prepares… we are once again presented with that first scene, with that final call… if only… Ben would live out his plan and die the death that would give Emily her life-beat, and allow some six others to live a life less ordinary.

Moving?  Compelling?  Assuredly!

As I have said, such a rendition, does not do justice to the depth in each of the characters and overall storyline, so please go and watch the movie… and men, don’t be afraid to cry, because when you cry for Ben, can I suggest that you are really crying for the picture of Christ and fallen humanity that he simultaneously represents.

Before we get to our ultimate destination with this piece, I found it interesting as I looked at some bonus material, how there was a resonance of biblical conceptions spoken about by those involved with the picture…

The editor Hughes Winborne said the following…

What makes this film special is the poetry of the sacrifice of the heart, you see it, this is what he sacrificed, this is what he gave to her so she could live.

Take the pronoun “he” as a reference to Christ and one could be excused for thinking this was some “sermonic” quotation.

Will Smith also said the following about the movie…

The story where someone experiences a trauma and is able to continue in a way that is redemptive is a very classic, powerful storyline and I think Seven Pounds has all of the elements.

Given our Judeo-Christian heritage, where does such a redemptive storyline resonate from?  Who could possibly have come up with such a concept that would reverberate so foundationally, fundamentally and comprehensively within our cultural context?

I think you know the answer!

The writer, being even more explicit with his association, affirmed the following about Ben, the main character…

Even going back to biblical times, the tax collector is the last guy you want to break bread with, the last person you want to invite in your house, so a guy who loathes himself is a great identity to take on that of a tax collector, and I think it is befitting of how he thinks about himself.

While these examples may be illuminating, it is in the storyline that we see the two themes coursing through the narrative,  two redemption’s running like a red cord.

(1) the positive, successful example of substitutionary, redemptive atonement on behalf of the Seven.

(2) the failed, personal self-salvation project by Ben on his own behalf, trying to pay the price for his sins, seeking redemption.

Let me explain…

The seven character’s were in a “lost” position in and of themselves.  They needed someone to save them from without, as they could not complete such a transaction from within themselves.  This reached its zenith with Emily where Ben literally gave her his heart, with the very thing that was giving him life, would now be the cause of giving her life… for such a reality to eventuate, a life for life exchange must indeed taken place.  Such was the case that it was either Ben’s life or Emily’s life, and Ben chose to give his heart for hers, thereby executing a divine exchange, the most divine this side of Christ, anyway.

In such an example, Ben very imperfectly plays a Christ-like substitutionary- atonement-redeemer-role where there is both a role reversal and a divine exchange between the redeemed and Christ, where the cost of the curse of the broken heart was taken on by Ben, when the cost of our cursed sin-stained reality, both positionally and practically, is taken on by Christ, and literally carried to cross, where we bear it no more.

For all intense and purposes, Ben had taken Emily’s heart to the grave – exchanged, and Emily had taken Ben’s heart from the grave to newness of life!!!

However, while such beauty should not be obscured, unlike Christ’s perfect redemption song, for Ben, the redemption of others was simultaneously a redemption of self, because Ben was really seeking to save the only truly “lost” person in the storyline, which was himself.

For the others there was still hope, there salvation could be prospective, while for Ben, his “lostness” was absolutely reflective and there was no such hope!

Sadly, and erroneously, Ben blinded by his darkness, the darkness, pursued the default redemption position without Christ!

It wasn’t just that Ben wanted his life to matter after all that he had been through.  He had given up on any hope of achieving this in the land of the living.  Hope was drowning and Ben was resigned to seeking redemption in his death.  For a moment, there was the thought that redemption could possibly be found through a life of living with Emily, however, with the knowledge of her desperate physical condition, all hope was all-but-gone, it would only be in the giving of his own life that he perceived that redemption would be gained through a final sacrifice, his self-sacrifice.

However, in seeking to provide redemption through saving others, what Ben was really after, what Ben was really trying to accomplish was the salvation of himself.  Ultimately, Ben wanted to redeem himself and make his life righteous.  Ultimately and finally, Ben’s focus was centered on self, with the seven others, extras in his desire to make right.

Christ’s redemptive role pictured no such reality.  Willingly taking on the (fallen-less) humiliations of humanity, Christ came on a pursuit, not for his own benefit, not to satisfy some fault within Himself, but for the Glory of the Father and for the joy of our salvation.  He didn’t need to make much of His existence, He already had everything, because everything was found in Him, through Him, and would ultimately come to Him.

If such is the case, why on earth would He come for such individuals like Ben, like you, and like me?

Can I suggest that the purity of His love, commitment and redemptive service was exemplified in the selfless perspective that compelled Him to come and when death seemed to much for Him to bear in Gethsemane, this compelled Him to die.  Not only to die, but to die a death that we deserved, to die a death in our stead… Driscoll and Breshears are right, it is death by Love!

Which part does Ben play for you?

Whether you realise it, or even accept it, you literally long for redemption, and unless it is found in another (Christ), it is one of the most perverse kinds of suicide cults ever to afflict the curse.

Whether it is sought through work, sport, fame, family, achievement, or a host of other realities, humanity seeks to make his life worth SOMETHING.  Take the pursuit of redemption away from him and he is devastated, cut down, broken in pieces, as his worth is gone, dashed to pieces on the unforgiving rocks of broken dreams, as what made him can do so no longer… redemption lost.

Ben may have had terminal brokenness of the soul, but a young woman (not in the movie) Rachel has terminal brokenness of the body, and if the sovereignty of God should pursue this reality, the grave will be the residence for her shell.

But like the soon-to-be butterfly, this is not the end of the story, with her beauty in Christ to know no end.  If the worth of life is calculated by what man completes under the sun, then Rachel’s’ existence is surely to mourned.

What can she make of a life, seemingly, cut short in her prime?

However, the reason that death is not dying is because Rachel is correct in her understanding that her redemption is not dependent on her pursuit under the sun, but it has everything to do with His pursuit of her life under the Son, and when life is tallied and taken into account, her passport will say “redeemed”… “price paid in full”… because redemption is not a degree of recognition in light of man’s attainment, it is, however,  a receipt of payment by Christ’s all-sufficient sacrifice.  It is not to be found in Ben, Emily or Rachel, which is the ultimate reason why all Emily could do was cry at the end of the movie, and while there will be much tears for Rachel, they will merely be the first scene in an eternity worth dying for… worth His dying for!

She will be in the presence of Glory!

In closing, if what I have affirmed about mankind’s restless search for the redemption is as endemic as I have stated, as exemplified by Ben’s search to redeem, to absolve himself, what should our response be as those who have been forever redeemed by the blood of the lamb?

Such a question befits brokenness!

Surely, if nothing else, passive indifference should be as far away from us as the East is indeed from the West, and we should be well and truly tuned into how humanity seeks to destroy itself when it truly believes it is finding itself.

For this to happen we must be more discerning of our culture, more committed and bold in speaking the truth in love, more zealous for the redemption that has brought us Home and truly believe out our beliefs that man is lost and there is only one way out, so that in this day, in our cities where there is little refuge and no rest, there will be growing numbers of made legal aliens like you and me… redemption song is playing, this is no time for silence!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Until Next Time

I am Jonny King

P.S. If you have already watched Seven Pounds, go and either watch or listen to Rachel and see/ hear a woman who is convinced that redemption is found in Another, in an event described as follows

On March 4, 2009, Rachel had an opportunity to share about her hope in the midst of terminal cancer. What began as a small talk to her church women’s group became an event attended by over 600 women and was an experience that left many with a desire to discover more about Rachel’s journey and faith.

You will find it here