Seven Pounds and Sacrifice

Note: Anyone who has not seen the movie “Seven Pounds” and does not want key plot points to be spoiled should stop reading.

The movie “Seven Pounds” is about sacrifice. The movie reaches its climax as the main character, Ben Thomas (played by Will Smith), literally sacrifices himself to provide for others. The whole movie leads to this point of self-sacrifice as Ben, posing as an IRS agent to gain access, interviews people to see how he can (or if he should) provide for them. Throughout the movie Ben gives parts of himself to help others. He gives his beach house to a victim of spousal abuse and her two children so they can start a new life. He gives a youth hockey coach his kidney. He donates bone marrow to a child. We learn at towards the end of the movie that he had previously donated lung tissue to his brother and part of his liver to an older female social worker. And in his final sacrifice he commits suicide in order to give a blind man his eyes and his romantic interest his heart.

This movie has obvious religious parallels with characters receiving “gifts” (the term Ben uses in the movie) that give them new life. The final two gifts especially emphasize this as a blind man receives sight (Matt 11:5) and a woman is literally given a new heart (Ezek 36:26). Obviously, Ben Thomas is meant to be seen as a Christ figure. When giving his beach house to the woman and her children he writes in a letter that she must not reveal to anyone how she got the house, reminiscent of Jesus often instructing those on whom he performed miracles to “tell no one” (Luke 8:56). However, the sacrifice shown in “Seven Pounds” falls short when compared to Christ’s sacrifice.

First, the “gifts” Ben gives are only given to those who deserve them. Ben interviews a patient at an elderly care home to find out if the owner of that home is a good man. He also tests the blind man by insulting him to see how he would react. When it turned out that the owner was abusing his patients he deemed him not worthy of his gift. He chose to give his eyes to the blind man because he was “good man…slow to anger.” This is an obvious contrast to Christ’s sacrifice. Christ was a sacrifice for us “while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5:8), while Ben would only sacrifice himself for those who deserved it (Rom. 5:7 seems to fit him).

Secondly, Ben’s motivation for his sacrifice differs vastly from Christ’s. Ben was motivated by guilt and his need for atonement. His suicide was as much about his need for redemption as it was about helping others find new life. The movie reveals through flashbacks how Ben had caused a car accident that killed seven people including his wife, and it is from this guilt that Ben feels the need to sacrifice himself for others. He feels the need to save seven lives to make up for the seven lives he took in his accident. This is a far cry from Christ’s motivation. Christ was motivated by love (John 3:16) not guilt.

The movie obviously wants us to look fondly upon Ben Thomas’ willingness to (literally) give himself for others. However, his sacrifice is merely a sad attempt at someone attempting to redeem himself. Ben never understood that redemption can come, but not from his sacrifice. Ben’s unwillingness to sacrifice for those who were not worthy to receive his gift should make us thankful that God has no such requirement for His gift. As a Christ figure, Ben fails. Hopefully, however, his failure will only cause us to look with more awe on the amazing sacrifice Christ made.