Last weekend, the “Motorcycle Diaries” started in our cinemas. It’s a movie about the young Che Guevara and his adventures while traveling around South America. The tagline to this movie is “Let the world change you… and you can change the world”. Did Che change the world? I would say no. Other people did, like someone who lived two thousand years ago and also travelled around a lot did. His name was Jesus and I thought it would be interesting to compare this two people.
What do these two men have in common? Well, they are icons/heroes to a lot of us. Some have the infamous “Che-face” as a T-shirt, coffee mug, or sticker, others show their admiration for Jesus by having a cross around their neck. Che was a doctor; Jesus was a carpenter and prophet. Both where executed, Jesus nailed to the cross and Che shot with a gun. Both where killed because of for what they stood up for.
A lot of people think of Che as some kind of savior, just like Jesus, but I think these two men couldn’t be any more different. Where Che used force and even killed people to reach his goals Jesus used the power of words. That’s why I think the words of Jesus will stay, and even in two thousand years, people will still think about him and what he said, whereas Che will long be forgotten.
It’s easier to reach your goals when you use force, but only in short terms. Che (and Castro) maybe freed Cuba from a corrupt regime, but if you look at Cuba today, it could not be any further from freedom.
Jesus changed much more, just by using words.