Schindler's List

Sunday, Schindler's List was on Showtime.  It started at 9pm, and although I thought I remembered it was a LONG movie, Jim and I started watching it.

In life, Oskar Schindler was not a saint - he cheated on his wife, he drank excessively and he spied for the Abwehr while living in Czechoslovakia.  As a German Industrialist, and member of the Nazi party during WW2, Schindler initially saw the plight of the Jews living in the ghettos of Krakow as a way to make money, employing them to work in a enamelware factory.  

However, every saint was once a sinner, and God often uses those the world might condemn for His own purposes.

For as time went on Oskar grew to care about his Jewish workers and helping them became a way for Schindler to fight against what he viewed to be disastrous and brutal policies emanating from Adolf Hitler and the SS. 

As I watched the movie, the Bible book of Esther - and the phrase her Uncle Mordecai utters as she goes to plead for the life of the Jewish people to her husband, the king kept coming to mind:

"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?" - Esther 4:14

(I don't know why - but in my mind the last sentence usually sounds like this: "And who knows but that you may have BEEN BORN for such a time as this...")  In life, God has a holy purpose for each and every one of us.  These days - I feel like a lot of things are NOT as they should be - yet maybe because of fear, those who know this to be true do not speak up for what is right.

A German preacher named Martin Niemoller once said these words:

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.  Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.  Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me."

Proverbs 31:8-9 counsels us: "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.  Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

The world is full of people who are marginalized and are seen as "less than".  As Christians we cannot turn a blind eye.  Like Oskar Schindler, we must DO SOMETHING - even to the point where we risk our own convenience and safety.