Our Kite Runner

I recently finished The Kite Runner, a gripping piece of fiction about two boys who grow up in Pre-Taliban Afghanistan. Besides grabbing and possessing your thoughts and emotions, Khaled Hosseini, the author, gives you a feel for the background for the present Afghani conflict and a window into various issues. For instance, he reveals the underside of racism and tribalism that underlies modern Afghanistan…one boy is from a privileged tribe, the other is from a hated, abused, slave class. The fact that they are best friends and playmates, unknowingly sharing more than just their country and family estate, evokes echoes of America’s racist past and present.

The core of the story, however, revolves around the relationship between the two boys: the kite flyer and the kite runner (who chases down the prized kites cut loose by his friend) and the guilt that the privileged boy carries into adulthood over standing silently by in the shadows while talibanistic thugs rape his loyal and faithful friend.

The guilt from his inaction grinds through his transition into adulthood and climaxes in an opportunity to “be good again.” The opportunity presents itself in the form of returning to Afghanistan to rescue the orphan son of his childhood friend, now in the clutches of a Taliban warlord. In the process he is beaten into a near lifeless pulp by the warlord and in the beating feels so healed from the guilt and shame of his childhood cowardice that he laughs in the midst of the beating.

This posed for me a question: Is physical suffering really a way to atone for our sins? Is taking a beating really a way to find redemption and freedom from guilt? It was for Ali, the character in the Kite Runner. And, certainly it feels that way for many who suffer in the physical wasteland of drug, alcohol, and other addictions. Sometimes the addiction is a way to drown the pain of guilt and shame. Sometimes it is a sick, sadistic, self-punishment by those who feel that they are worthless because of their guilt and shame. Sometimes people feel they deserve the self-abuse, and it is a way to “pay” for their guilt. Certainly, when our daughter went through her 10 year battle with an eating disorder, self-punishment was one peel of the onion in her addiction. Often children who feel guilt will push for a beating as a way to make themselves feel better…to pay for being bad!

But, do we need to punish ourselves or face punishment to find forgiveness, as the Kite Runner puts it, “to be good again.” Do we need to hurt to pay for our sins? For Ali, the payment for his sins nearly killed him. And, except for a dramatic rescue (which I will leave to your reading) it would have killed him. Do we need to die for our sins? How can we be good again if we die? Does self-punishment really remove guilt?

The Bible is clear that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Guilt, shame, internal pain…all are parts of this death…but God neither wants us to stay in that pain nor pay to escape it…because we can’t pay for it ourselves. Jesus is the one who took our punishment, so we could go free. The Bible is clear…1 John 1:7 the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Heb. 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

In fact, Jesus is our Kite Runner…the one who rescues us, saying, for you, a thousand times over.