“You showed the difference between humanity and authoritarianism, and that difference is doubt....your characters wrestled with their doubt, and so they retained their humanity. The authoritarian regime has only certainty.” - Jon Stewart thanking Iranian screenwriter / director Jafar Panahi for his Oscar-nominated film It Was Just an Accident (The Daily Show, March 2, 2026).

“Now we see only a reflection in a mirror….” (I Cor. 13: 12a)

A few weeks ago my wife and I attended a showing of the Iranian film, It Was Just an Accident. We have friends who have recently come to Canada from Iran, and it was a gift to glimpse a bit of their reality at the movies. 

Shortly after we saw the film, the war erupted, and as of this writing the conflict continues to accelerate. Iranian screenwriter and director Jafar Panahi is spending a short time in North America and will soon return home (when travel returns to normal) to serve a one-year prison sentence for engaging in propaganda activities against the regime. His interview with Jon Stewart provides a master class in movie-making as a justice-seeking genre. Panahi based the script on his own experiences in an Iranian prison, as well as those of his fellow prisoners. 

The plot of It Was Just an Accident is set in motion when a family returning from a vacation has a minor car accident and stops at a garage for assistance. The mechanic suspects that the driver is the man who tortured him in prison, but he’s not sure, so he discovers where the driver lives and then contacts various other former prisoners for input. The movie unravels through tragi-comic sequences of almost slapstick-like events as this “discernment team” struggles to ascertain their torturer’s identity. The film’s final minute expresses one of the most evocative scenes in a justice-seeking movie I have ever seen.

Jon Stewart brilliantly summarizes the heart of the movie by declaring that to be fully human is to live with doubt, while to be authoritarian is to demand a type of certainty which is dehumanizing. 

Stewart’s insight was new for me; I had never pondered the role of doubt and mystery in seeking justice. We justice-seekers are almost always passionate, and this passion easily leads to becoming very certain about our convictions. 

The longer I sat with Stewart’s observation, the more I noticed its resonance with a biblical view of justice. Inappropriate certainty easily leads to a judgmental spirit, and that spirit in turn easily leads to an assumption that “I am more human than you.” 

For example, the church in Corinth was rife with unholy certainties which declared that (among other things), the rich could partake in communion before the poor and the slaves arrived after their longer working days, and the gift of speaking in tongues was more important than practical gifts like caring for the marginalized. The church had allowed its certainties to become weaponized, declaring that some folks were less human than others. 

Paul slowly works through these unholy certainties one by one in the epistle, and finally concludes, “And now I will show you the most excellent way,” which is the way of agapic love (I Cor. 12:31b). After writing his rhapsodic description of this love, he tells us that this love does not flow from their assumed certainties, but rather from mystery: “Now we see only a reflection in a mirror” (v. 12a). First-century mirrors reflected very poor quality images, leaving a lot of room for doubt and uncertainty. That gap between clarity and uncertainty holds a lot of room for love that holds together the big three: “to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8b). 

I owe a debt of gratitude to Jon Stewart for succinctly articulating the link between seeking justice, holding doubt, and being human. Together they help us to see, as Irenaeus declared in the second century, “The glory of God is seen in humankind fully alive.” 

If you can see the movie, ponder in silence after its final sixty seconds. You will taste something of the power of Irenaeus’ declaration.