Revenge is a beautiful yet shallow temptation; something not foreign to contemporary media. Luke Skywalker spends the entirety of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi attempting to avenge his parents, only to find out that his own father was his enemy all along, leading to grief, confusion, and anger. In Out of the Furnace, Christian Bale’s character successfully avenges his brothers’ death, yet instead of finding comfort with the pull of the trigger, he remains as empty as before. Shakespeare also picks up on this theme with plays such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. With these examples in mind, the question needs to be asked: if revenge never satisfies, why do we feel the need to try time and time again? The answer is that until a proper view of justice is developed, a justice defined by restoration and healing rather than retribution, pain and suffering will inevitably increase, allowing the myth of redemptive violence to continue its destructive work within society, and this is most eloquently demonstrated by looking at Jesus Christ.
