LAYING DOWN WEAPONS OF WAR

Forty years ago, I watched the movie, The Mission, as preparation for spending two yeares serving my own mission in the Amazon region of Brazil. Needless to say, it had a profound impact on me. This 1986 film opens with a powerful scene where a Jesuit priest is tied to a large wooden cross by Guarani warriors high above the Iguazu Falls. They push the cross (with the priest tied to it) into the fast-moving river. The cross floats downstream, picks up speed, and is swept over the edge of the massive waterfall. The priest is violently pummeled and battered by the thundering water and rocks as he and the cross tumble down the falls to his death. 

Needless to say, I was glad I returned home safely after my two year service. 

This past week I watched this segment from the movie. I felt it was worth sharing.  Just a little back story about this scene. The main character is Rodrigo Mendoza, who is a hardened former slave-trader and mercenary whose hands are stained with violence. Most devastatingly, he killed his own brother in a jealous rage. As an act of radical atonement, he has chosen the harshest possible penance: to carry every instrument of his old life up the near-vertical cliffs and thundering waterfalls of Iguazu Falls.Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui91q7Y9xPk

Symbolic summary: 

Tied to his waist by thick rope is a massive, bulging net crammed with weapons of war—swords, breastplates, helmets, shields, and the tools of conquest and enslavement. These are not lightweight props. They are heavy, clanging, awkward objects that constantly snag on rocks, roots, and undergrowth. With every step upward, the bundle drags him backward and downward. 

Symbolically, the weapons represent:

• His violent past and the blood on his hands.
• The weight of unrepented sin — guilt, pride, and the dehumanizing life he once led.
• The chains of the old self that refuse to let go easily.

The physical dragging downward is the perfect visual metaphor for how sin and guilt operate on the soul: they don’t just slow you down — they actively pull you back, threaten to make you fall, and make redemption feel almost impossible. Every time the net catches and yanks him, it is sin’s gravitational pull trying to reclaim him. Every time he slips and has to claw his way forward again, it is the soul’s struggle against its own fallen nature.

The Jesuits Priest accompanying him are moved to pity and try (at one point) to cut the rope and free him. Mendoza refuses. He re-ties the burden himself and continues. This is not masochism for its own sake; it is a deliberate, chosen participation in suffering — a physical enactment of the biblical truth that the yoke of sin is crushing, while true repentance demands we carry the full weight until grace intervenes.  

At the summit, the very indigenous people Mendoza once captured and sold into slavery confront him. 

One raises a knife to his throat… and then, in an act of astonishing mercy, cuts the rope instead. The weapons of war plunge into the roaring river below and disappear. The dragging burden is finally released — not by Mendoza’s strength, but by the forgiveness of those he had wronged.

The image of the man bent double, dragged down by the very weapons he once wielded, is one of cinema’s most powerful visual metaphors for the burden of sin and the cost of redemption. It shows that the things we once used to dominate others can become the very things that nearly destroy us — until mercy, not our own effort, finally cuts us free. 

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Sidenote: 

A few weeks ago, there was a small gathering of men where a couple of men presented some thoughts. Here is a brief summary: 

 Groups often become trapped trying to prove who is correct rather than humbly approaching God together for revelation. People must first recognize their own weaknesses and seek God's mercy before expecting divine answers.

 Many religious and social movements fail because they insist on complete agreement rather than cooperation on shared goals. They seek converts to have people be on their side versus seeking for allies. Seeking converts require complete agreement on every issue. Seeking allies means working together where common ground exists despite disagreements.

It was suggested that people often begin with divisive issues rather than starting with common faith in Christ. Communities should first establish shared devotion to Christ and then work through disagreements afterward.

A statement attributed to Joseph Smith that said  organizations often fail because they do not sit in disagreement long enough to separate "gold from dross."

"Joseph Smith arose to give some instructions to the council & especially to the committee. He commenced by showing, that the reason why men always failed to establish important measures was, because in their organization they never could agree to disagree long enough to select the pure gold from the dross by the process of investigation.”  The Joseph Smith Papers, Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846 (the relevant document is “Minutes and Discourse, 4 April 1844”).

 Rather than rushing to a resolution, it is often better to clearly state positions, thoughtfully reason through differences, seek understanding through persuasion rather than coercion, and allow time for greater clarity and understanding to emerge.

Just as organizations must work through conflict constructively, husbands and wives should seek revelation together. Neither spouse should seek to dominate the other. Instead, they should first identify and build upon their common ground, bringing only unresolved differences before God in humility and faith, seeking His guidance.

The central message is that Zion, unity, and divine guidance cannot be achieved through force, majority votes alone, or an insistence on proving who is right. They require humility, patience, honest communication, mutual respect, strong families, and a sincere collective desire to seek and follow God's will together.