Black Widow

In Black Widow, Natasha Romanov goes on a journey of redemption through dealing with her past. She reunites with the family that she has known since childhood. This redemptive process started taking place when she first joined SHIELD before the events of Iron Man 2, the film where she was introduced. At this time, she blows up the building where the man who forced her to be raised into an assassin, Dreykov, was in at the moment. His daughter also happened to be present. Natasha had always resented that Dreykov’s daughter had to be collateral damage. Back to present day in the film, she is reunited with her sister who tells her that Dreykov is, in fact, not dead as Natasha had previously believed. In the process of trying to take the Red Room down, the place where they were both raised to be assassins, they end up fighting someone who has the keen ability to mimic 1:1 the combat moves that they watch known as Taskmaster. Towards the end of the film, Natasha is face-to-face with Dreykov with Taskmaster in the room. He has Taskmaster take off a helmet revealing them to be none other than Dreykov’s daughter herself. Upon realizing this, Nat immediately tries apologizing to her for blowing her up knowing that, as he had control of herself and her sister in some form, he had control of her as well.

Oftentimes we can find it hard to forgive someone for a wrong that they’ve done to us, especially when that wrong was an ongoing thing like it was a lifestyle for them with a long history. Sometimes we find ourselves in Natasha’s situation and realize that we have done someone else wrong in which case we are quick to ask for forgiveness. In the Bible, Jacob, the son of Isaac, asks his brother, Esau, for his birthright in exchange for some stew to which Esau agrees. This eventually stirs resentment amongst them for many years (Genesis 25:29-34). Later on in life, when they both were married with many children, the two brothers reunite. In this reunion, Jacob asks Esau for his forgiveness and Esau responds with love for his brother (Genesis 33).

Both Jacob and Natasha had realized that they had done something horribly wrong and earnestly ask for forgiveness. Both Dreykov’s daughter and Esau accepted the apologies. In both instances, these acts of humility on both parties redeemed the relationship between them. It is important to remember that forgiveness is a matter of the heart. Don’t wait until the party who has done you wrong asks for it. The point of forgiveness is not to help the forgiven be redeemed so much as it is about the one wronged being set free from resentment and hate. After all, it is what Christ did for us on the cross. He forgave us even when we didn't ask for it.

Have you wronged someone else before? Will you genuinely repent to them personally and ask for forgiveness? Has someone else wronged you? Will you genuinely and personally forgive them even if they don’t regret that wrong? Have you accepted Christ’s forgiveness for your sins? Will you do that today?