“Most people meet someone new and try to figure out if they like them or not. Zack meets new people knowing that he already loves them and seeks to figure out why.”
While filmmakers Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz visited a friend at a camp for people with developmental challenges, they encountered a man with Down's Syndrome named Zack. They talk about being completely overwhelmed by his love and confidence in his identity.
When Zack finds out about their vocation, he confidently tells them he will become a movie star. After they gently say to him that very few roles are available to someone with his disability, he tells them they need to write a script with a lead character that is, and he will star in it for them.
The movie, Peanut Butter Falcon, was written, produced, and directed by Tyler and Michael out of that challenge. They wrote the starring role of "Zak" for the real Zack they had been so taken by. His love of everyone captivated them and changed the lives of anyone who encountered him through the film, including actor Shia LaBeouf who credits the experience with helping save his life.
Just great acting, perhaps, but when Zack tells Shia’s character that he is his “best friend” and will “give him all his wishes on his birthday,” he seems genuinely wrecked by the sincerity of the gesture. Acting or not, how could you not be?
Christianity was launched through the life of one man who embodied love and identity in a way the religion of his day had somehow missed in the law they were trying to live out. He so ingratiated everyone with his love that a movement he initiated changed the world.
Unfortunately, most people don't see the Christ that way. The one who came to un-shroud everyone else's faces has become shrouded himself. Obscured through opinion and misrepresentation, wrapped in nationality, denomination, and financial opportunity, the distortion of him barely resembles the real deal. That distorted representation is even being perceived as less attractive today than ever.
An old gospel song describes the authentic version and then asks, "How could you say no to this man?". Indeed. If we stripped away all the fog, distortion, and misunderstanding, we would, like the directors of Peanut Butter Falcon, have an incredibly hard time saying "no" to that kind of love.
Some of the most profoundly loving and kind people I've ever known came from families privileged to live with that sort of love. So rather than seeing the developmentally challenged as a disability, most describe the ability to love others that way as an incredible ability. They seem, like Zack, to approach everyone from the perspective of loving them first and then figuring out why.
A famous religious leader often encourages people to ask the Divine big simple questions and expect big answers. Because of all the misrepresentation and confusion, he sometimes tells us not to ask how "God" might respond but to simply ask what the "voice of love" would say. That would be an excellent place for all of us to seek answers to our biggest questions about ourselves and everything else.
Consider
When you think of God or the Christ, what comes to mind?
Do you see it as love personified?
How would it change the way you lived if you did?