Ender’s Game – Graff’s Vicarious Sacrifice

For a few minutes there, it actually occurred to me to wonder what kind of a man would heal a broken child of some of his hurt, just so he could throw him back into battle again. A little private moral dilemma. Please overlook it. I was tired.” – Colonel Hyrum Graff

When all of humanity hangs in the balance, is there any price too great to pay? When billions of people stand on the brink of destruction, would you not give anything to save them?

What if the only thing you had to give was a child?

Colonel Hyrum Graff, superintendent of the International Fleet’s Battle School, knew that the only hope for humanity was a boy genius with all the right characteristics – supreme intellect, tactical ruthlessness, empathy, and tenacious self-preservation. Graff would need to take these qualities and hone them to prepare the most effective space commander humanity had ever seen.

To do so, he would need to take young Ender, at six years old, manipulate him, force isolation upon him, and push him to the breaking point. What he would do to Ender would nearly kill him, and would mentally and emotionally scar him for life. Yet, he felt it was his only option. And so, he willingly sacrificed Ender for the good of humanity.

Ender’s Game raises significant questions about the nature of sacrifice. Graff is convinced that Ender is the only hope for humanity. He sincerely believes this with all his heart. He knows that he himself could never take Ender’s place. He even says as much at one point, that if he had to face the pressure he himself would be putting on Ender, he would break under it. Yet, with seared conscience he lays Ender on the altar.

He pushes Ender through the ranks at Battle School faster than any student before him, he alienates him from the other students and leaves him to deal with vicious bullies all on his own, and manipulates him again and again. All so that Ender will, in Graff’s words, “reach the peak of his potential.”

In other words, he is playing the “ends justify the means” card.

Contrast Graff’s actions with those of our Heavenly Father. He sent his Son to be the sacrifice for sins, and yes, on the surface, perhaps that doesn’t look all that different. However, peek a little closer and the difference cannot be more apparent. Jesus knew full well what he was going to face. Jesus knew full well the sacrifice he was making. No one was pulling his strings, manipulating him, pushing him against his will. He willingly paid the cost, though it cost him everything, even his very life. And in so doing saved us all.

Jesus’ Father gave him up into that situation not out of seared conscience and last resort, but out of his love and as part of a plan that he had planned and promised since Genesis .

Here are the http://pharma-bi.com/2009/08/using-tableau-to-picture-survey-data/ generic levitra online main points about how they work. tadalafil generic india This in turn leads to the relaxation of the muscles around. This not only makes the life of men and women bitter, may lead to the court for the complete separation from each other. http://pharma-bi.com/category/analytics/page/3/ viagra 100mg generika Tips on brand viagra the Maintenance of Testicle If one’s testicle is not maintained well, it may cause some diseases like testitis. Graff proves far less noble, keeping Ender in the dark much of the way, intentionally deceiving him at times, all to force him to do what he feels must be done. Graff’s associate, Major Anderson, calls him a monster at one point – an epithet Graff accepts – and the title is earned. Ironically, by the end it becomes clear that much of what Graff did was unnecessary, and that had he left Ender to live a peaceful life, humanity might have survived anyway.

Our Savior Jesus had to be sacrificed, there was no maybe or distant possibility about the destruction and damnation awaiting mankind, if God did not act, man was doomed.

Jesus was there when the first promise of a Savior was made to Adam and Eve, and therefore he was a full participant in the plan to save humanity from certain destruction and damnation. God had no political reasons for sacrificing his own beloved son; he did it to restore us to himself. We had been separated from him by the warfare brought on by our enemies – the devil and our sinful flesh. God overcame them by the sacrifice of his son, a sacrifice his son knowingly and willingly made:

Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
    by taking the very nature of a servant,
    being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
    he humbled himself
    by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8)

What is Ender’s Game all about anyway? 

In Ender’s Game, the earth has narrowly survived an alien invasion. To prevent our possible extinction, we enlist a new type of soldier to train for combat in the zero-gravity environment of space – children. Ender Wiggin is six when a military general selects him for special training at Battleschool. As the novel progresses, Ender grows to the age of thirteen, dealing with vicious bullies, cruel commanding officers, and challenging environments, while learning that the fate of the entire human race may be in his hands.

This is the second entry in a series on Ender’s Game, which will be out in theaters in November 2013. Check out part one Ender’s Sin.