Emotions
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show, and been so moved, that you just could not hold back your tears? Or have you ever been in such awe and so full of wonder that you just could not close your mouth? Or have you ever left the theater wishing that the movie was reality because it was just so epic?
What should we make of these emotions?
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a kids show from Nickelodeon. Avatar: The Legend of Korra is its sequel. Both of these shows are very entertaining and have received great reviews. I'm an adult and don't usually tune into Nickelodeon, but my wife and I kept hearing over and over again from our youth group kids just how good Avatar is, so we had to watch it.
As I watched the shows, I noticed something happening in my heart. I longed to watch the episodes more than I longed to read my Bible. My mouth would drop as the plot line twisted and turned. My jaws never dropped while reading the Bible since I knew the stories already.
In one scene, Korra water bent and spiraled up out of the ocean to beat up the bad guys. She was awesome and full of glory. To be honest with myself, I watched that scene with more awe and wonder than when I pondered God's glory from Isaiah 6.
I started thinking about the TV show throughout the day while the verses that I read in my daily quiet times quickly vanished from my mind as soon as I closed my Bible. I found my heart desiring that the world of Avatar to be real -- more intense was that desire than even my care for whether Jesus was real or not. I even found myself moving my hands, like the cartoon characters, wishing that I could air bend.
I know that I am not alone in these desires. Humans have made idols for worship for as long as we have existed. In the past, they were gods of metal in the image of man and beast. In modern times, our gods are human celebrities, dogs, and for some in Japan, virtual celebrities. So it is no wonder that I found myself worshipping Avatar.
Again, what should we make of these emotions? We all have them in one form or another.
Cut It Off
One option was to cut off watching Avatar because it was causing me to sin. I do believe it is appropriate and better to cut off things that cause us to sin (Matthew 5:29). There is a place for that. And I wrestled with God in my heart and was willing to drop the show.
But there is also a place where God redeems normal activities like eating, drinking, and watching TV for his glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). I started to wonder if there was a purpose for my joy in Avatar. Can that joy be redeemed for God's glory?
True Myth
J. R. R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, and C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series, both saw a redeeming purpose in epics. They called it True Myth. They considered God's redemptive story in the Bible the greatest story ever told. God's story is the ultimate story.
We humans create stories. Some are better than others. Good stories always follow the plot line of the ultimate story. There are always elements of good, evil, and redemption. Good stories are good because our hearts intrinsically recognize them as good. God made it that way so that good stories would point us to his ultimate story.
Avatar as a Type of Christ
Avatar is a good story. As I lingered on how Avatar pointed me to the ultimate story, I found my heart, without even trying, redirecting my worshipful emotions of Avatar into deep and true worship of God! My affections were changed and I naturally gave glory to God instead of images made by human hands.
These reflections of how the Avatar is a type of Christ were helpful in drawing me closer to God. I hope they are helpful for you too. Avatar is not Christ, or even Christian, but simply a secular pointer to Christ.
1.) Birth Foretold
The Avatar's birth is known ahead of time since it follows a predictable cycle (air, water, earth, fire, and then all over again). The monks actively sought out the birth of Avatar Aang among the air benders. The White Lotus actively sought out the birth of Avatar Korra among the water tribe. Morpheus actively sought out the existence of the One, Neo, as predicted by the Oracle. The Jedi actively sought out the birth of "the One who would bring balance the Force" as predicted by the prophecy.
Why is it that all these epics require the birth of its hero to be predicted and sought after? Because the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, was predicted by prophets spanning hundreds of years and sought after by the Magi. The point is that Jesus is special, and any hero that is a shadow of Jesus must also be special. My birth was not predicted, and neither was yours. We're not special. Jesus is special.
But Jesus is more special than Avatar Aang, Avatar Korra, Neo, or Anakin. Ponder on how Jesus is greater than these characters and your heart will naturally worship Jesus!
2.) Never Ending Kingdom
The Chinese have always sought a dynasty that would last forever. Yet every dynasty rose and fell. Hitler sought after a kingdom that would last 1,000 years. That didn't work.
All humans have long sought after a savior that would reign on and on. Even Americans think so though we may outwardly deny it. Deep down, we do. If we didn't, we wouldn't care so much about the British Royal family, or keep electing people named Kennedy and Bush.
Why do we give more glory to Michael Jordan than to Lebron James? Because Jordan's reign lasted longer. Michael Jordan has six rings and created a dynasty, where as Lebron James only has one ring. Yet even Jordan's reign came to an end.
The Avatar is awesome because his reign goes on and on. We want to worship a king who lasts forever. Ponder on Jesus! He will truly reign forever with an iron scepter! He will come back and be the true king. There will be no more need for elections when he comes back.
3.) Bridge Between Worlds
The Avatar is the bridge between the spiritual world and the physical world. The One, from the Matrix, is the bridge between the machine world and the human world.
We create stories with a "bridger" because we intrinsically know that we do not have access to God. We need a mediator. The ultimate mediator is Jesus!
4.) Young and Forced to Learn
The Avatar has to remaster the bending of the four elements every lifetime. Neo had to learn how to manipulate the Matrix. Why do we want to see our heroes learn?
Because Jesus learned. He humbled himself by becoming a man, and learned through suffering (Hebrews 5:8). It is very weird, but we want to see our heroes make progress. We don't want to just see them effective from day one. We want them to try and fail so that they can understand our frailties. Otherwise, our heroes are unrelatable. We can relate to Jesus because he suffered from the same needs we have. We can relate to Jesus because he became one of us.
5.) Trinitarian
There really is no good illustration that accurately portrays the Trinity except the Trinity: three distinct persons of one essence in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three are equally God and one, yet distinct persons. Every illustration breaks down somewhere. The Avatar is not a perfect illustration of the Trinity either, but it is exceptionally close to the Christian Trinitarian view.
The background of the Avatar is the Eastern world view of reincarnation. Every Avatar reincarnates and becomes the next Avatar. They are all one. Yet the show differs very from the traditional Eastern view of reincarnation because each of the previous Avatars, though one with the current Avatar, also has his own distinct spirit.
Roku is often referred to as the spirit of Roku and distinct from Aang. Aang is often referred to as as the spirit of Aang and distinct from Korra. Yet Aang, in the last episode of the first series, recalled all the previous Avatars and communed with them because they were all in him. So they are one and yet distinct.
Avatar gives me the closest example of the Trinity outside of the Trinity.
The previous Avatar represents the Father. Note how Aang communed with Roku and how Korra communed with Aang. Isn't that how Jesus communed with the Father?
The Avatar represents the Son. He is the incarnation in the physical world and bridges us between worlds. He is also called to save the world. When the Avatar reaches the Avatar State, his eyes light up and his feet are like bronze. Is that not a picture of Jesus in Revelation 2:18?
The Avatar State represents the Holy Spirit. When in the Avatar State, he is clothed with power and does amazing things.
The Trinitarian view of Avatar really effected me spiritually. In the same way that Aang had to learn to commune with Roku and learn the Avatar State, so I too must learn to commune with the Father and appreciate the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of me. I've always been taught, that once you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives within you. Whoopie. Most of us nod in Sunday School and it does not move us. Seeing the Avatar State in Aang moved my heart to value the Holy Spirit who lives in me. And that State is offered to every Christian!
6.) Savior of the World
Every epic has heroes and villains. The villains have to be very bad or the story is boring. They are constantly making the world worse and seem to have the upper hand.
Consider the Joker from the second installment of the Dark Knight. That movie was so epic because the Joker was so evil. If he was cute or nice, then Batman would get less glory. It is precisely because he was so evil that Batman got the glory in battling the Joker.
The same evil existed in Amon when he took away Korra's bending. Or the Emperor when he fried Luke. Or Voldemort when he killed Harry Potter. Or the Phoenix King when he attacked Aang.
But at the last possible minute, the hero saves the day. That is why we cheer for them.
Is that not the case for Jesus? The crucifixion of Christ was the climax of evil in this world. The bad guys seemed to have won the day, but it was in that very act that Christ saved us from our moral and mortal dilemma. We are saved from the punishment of our sin and saved to have new resurrected bodies like him!
There is a reason that we cheered when Korra was able to defeat Amon after Amon defeated her by taking away her bending, or why we cheered when Voldemort was defeated after he killed Harry Potter. They point us to Jesus! Evil is vanquished at the climax of evil by the savior of the world.
7.) Restores the World
Amon was a very wicked villain. I was quite scared and bothered by him every time he took away a bender's bending away. It just felt so wrong. At the last episode of season 1 of Avatar Korra, my heart lept with joy when Korra restored Chief Bei Fong's bending. Korra was restoring the world to what it was like before Amon had messed it up.
Isn't that what Jesus will do when he returns? He will come back and restore the world. He will make all things new. The current world order of death and decay will be no more!
8.) Team Player
The best heroes save the day, but they never save the day alone. I just watched the latest Amazing Spider Man in a theater yesterday. I wasn't really moved by the movie until I saw the construction workers help an injured Spider Man. They all aligned their cranes to make a straight path for Spider Man to go and attack the Lizard.
Neither Avatar Aang nor Avatar Korra could save the world without the help of the rest of Team Avatar. And even Luke needed Han Solo and Chewie.
Why do we want our heroes to need help? Because even Jesus needed help. I do not mean that Jesus is not self sufficient. He is. He made the whole world and by him everything is held together. He could command waves and multiple food. But even Jesus was supported in his ministry by women who worked and paid for his ministry (Luke 8:3). Even Jesus wanted his friends to pray with him at the garden of Gethsemane and was ministered to by angels in the wilderness.
The heroes of our stories save the world, but they never do it alone because Jesus doesn't do it that way. If he did, we would simply be watchers. But as God has ordained it, we are more than watchers, we are participants in his epic fight. We fight by laying down our lives, by picking up our cross to follow him, not because he needs us, but because he has saved us for that very purpose and our participation ultimately brings him more glory.
9.) Master of All Elements
Even though the heroes of our stories rely on others, they are still uniquely gifted. The Avatar is the master of all elements while others are just the master of one. Morpheus and Trinity could bend the rules of the Matrix, but only Neo could uniquely break the rules. Harry Potter had many magician friends, but only he alone could defeat Voldemort.
So in the same way, Jesus, though he uses our help, is absolutely unique. Though he asks us to pick up our cross and follow him, only he could die on the cross as a payment for sins for all who would believe in him. Only he could master all the elements and truly save the world.
Emotions
So what should we do with our emotions? When you watch a movie and you are moved, ask yourself why you are moved. Then ponder and meditate on those thoughts, and see that whatever the reason for your heart's affections, know that those same reasons apply far more in Christ, and let your affections move toward worship of the true meta Hero, Jesus Christ.
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show, and been so moved, that you just could not hold back your tears? Or have you ever been in such awe and so full of wonder that you just could not close your mouth? Or have you ever left the theater wishing that the movie was reality because it was just so epic?
What should we make of these emotions?
Avatar: The Last Airbender is a kids show from Nickelodeon. Avatar: The Legend of Korra is its sequel. Both of these shows are very entertaining and have received great reviews. I'm an adult and don't usually tune into Nickelodeon, but my wife and I kept hearing over and over again from our youth group kids just how good Avatar is, so we had to watch it.
As I watched the shows, I noticed something happening in my heart. I longed to watch the episodes more than I longed to read my Bible. My mouth would drop as the plot line twisted and turned. My jaws never dropped while reading the Bible since I knew the stories already.
In one scene, Korra water bent and spiraled up out of the ocean to beat up the bad guys. She was awesome and full of glory. To be honest with myself, I watched that scene with more awe and wonder than when I pondered God's glory from Isaiah 6.
I started thinking about the TV show throughout the day while the verses that I read in my daily quiet times quickly vanished from my mind as soon as I closed my Bible. I found my heart desiring that the world of Avatar to be real -- more intense was that desire than even my care for whether Jesus was real or not. I even found myself moving my hands, like the cartoon characters, wishing that I could air bend.
I know that I am not alone in these desires. Humans have made idols for worship for as long as we have existed. In the past, they were gods of metal in the image of man and beast. In modern times, our gods are human celebrities, dogs, and for some in Japan, virtual celebrities. So it is no wonder that I found myself worshipping Avatar.
Again, what should we make of these emotions? We all have them in one form or another.
Cut It Off
One option was to cut off watching Avatar because it was causing me to sin. I do believe it is appropriate and better to cut off things that cause us to sin (Matthew 5:29). There is a place for that. And I wrestled with God in my heart and was willing to drop the show.
But there is also a place where God redeems normal activities like eating, drinking, and watching TV for his glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). I started to wonder if there was a purpose for my joy in Avatar. Can that joy be redeemed for God's glory?
True Myth
J. R. R. Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, and C. S. Lewis, author of the Narnia series, both saw a redeeming purpose in epics. They called it True Myth. They considered God's redemptive story in the Bible the greatest story ever told. God's story is the ultimate story.
We humans create stories. Some are better than others. Good stories always follow the plot line of the ultimate story. There are always elements of good, evil, and redemption. Good stories are good because our hearts intrinsically recognize them as good. God made it that way so that good stories would point us to his ultimate story.
Avatar as a Type of Christ
Avatar is a good story. As I lingered on how Avatar pointed me to the ultimate story, I found my heart, without even trying, redirecting my worshipful emotions of Avatar into deep and true worship of God! My affections were changed and I naturally gave glory to God instead of images made by human hands.
These reflections of how the Avatar is a type of Christ were helpful in drawing me closer to God. I hope they are helpful for you too. Avatar is not Christ, or even Christian, but simply a secular pointer to Christ.
1.) Birth Foretold
The Avatar's birth is known ahead of time since it follows a predictable cycle (air, water, earth, fire, and then all over again). The monks actively sought out the birth of Avatar Aang among the air benders. The White Lotus actively sought out the birth of Avatar Korra among the water tribe. Morpheus actively sought out the existence of the One, Neo, as predicted by the Oracle. The Jedi actively sought out the birth of "the One who would bring balance the Force" as predicted by the prophecy.
Why is it that all these epics require the birth of its hero to be predicted and sought after? Because the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, was predicted by prophets spanning hundreds of years and sought after by the Magi. The point is that Jesus is special, and any hero that is a shadow of Jesus must also be special. My birth was not predicted, and neither was yours. We're not special. Jesus is special.
But Jesus is more special than Avatar Aang, Avatar Korra, Neo, or Anakin. Ponder on how Jesus is greater than these characters and your heart will naturally worship Jesus!
2.) Never Ending Kingdom
The Chinese have always sought a dynasty that would last forever. Yet every dynasty rose and fell. Hitler sought after a kingdom that would last 1,000 years. That didn't work.
All humans have long sought after a savior that would reign on and on. Even Americans think so though we may outwardly deny it. Deep down, we do. If we didn't, we wouldn't care so much about the British Royal family, or keep electing people named Kennedy and Bush.
Why do we give more glory to Michael Jordan than to Lebron James? Because Jordan's reign lasted longer. Michael Jordan has six rings and created a dynasty, where as Lebron James only has one ring. Yet even Jordan's reign came to an end.
The Avatar is awesome because his reign goes on and on. We want to worship a king who lasts forever. Ponder on Jesus! He will truly reign forever with an iron scepter! He will come back and be the true king. There will be no more need for elections when he comes back.
3.) Bridge Between Worlds
The Avatar is the bridge between the spiritual world and the physical world. The One, from the Matrix, is the bridge between the machine world and the human world.
We create stories with a "bridger" because we intrinsically know that we do not have access to God. We need a mediator. The ultimate mediator is Jesus!
4.) Young and Forced to Learn
The Avatar has to remaster the bending of the four elements every lifetime. Neo had to learn how to manipulate the Matrix. Why do we want to see our heroes learn?
Because Jesus learned. He humbled himself by becoming a man, and learned through suffering (Hebrews 5:8). It is very weird, but we want to see our heroes make progress. We don't want to just see them effective from day one. We want them to try and fail so that they can understand our frailties. Otherwise, our heroes are unrelatable. We can relate to Jesus because he suffered from the same needs we have. We can relate to Jesus because he became one of us.
5.) Trinitarian
There really is no good illustration that accurately portrays the Trinity except the Trinity: three distinct persons of one essence in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. All three are equally God and one, yet distinct persons. Every illustration breaks down somewhere. The Avatar is not a perfect illustration of the Trinity either, but it is exceptionally close to the Christian Trinitarian view.
The background of the Avatar is the Eastern world view of reincarnation. Every Avatar reincarnates and becomes the next Avatar. They are all one. Yet the show differs very from the traditional Eastern view of reincarnation because each of the previous Avatars, though one with the current Avatar, also has his own distinct spirit.
Roku is often referred to as the spirit of Roku and distinct from Aang. Aang is often referred to as as the spirit of Aang and distinct from Korra. Yet Aang, in the last episode of the first series, recalled all the previous Avatars and communed with them because they were all in him. So they are one and yet distinct.
Avatar gives me the closest example of the Trinity outside of the Trinity.
The previous Avatar represents the Father. Note how Aang communed with Roku and how Korra communed with Aang. Isn't that how Jesus communed with the Father?
The Avatar represents the Son. He is the incarnation in the physical world and bridges us between worlds. He is also called to save the world. When the Avatar reaches the Avatar State, his eyes light up and his feet are like bronze. Is that not a picture of Jesus in Revelation 2:18?
The Avatar State represents the Holy Spirit. When in the Avatar State, he is clothed with power and does amazing things.
The Trinitarian view of Avatar really effected me spiritually. In the same way that Aang had to learn to commune with Roku and learn the Avatar State, so I too must learn to commune with the Father and appreciate the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of me. I've always been taught, that once you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives within you. Whoopie. Most of us nod in Sunday School and it does not move us. Seeing the Avatar State in Aang moved my heart to value the Holy Spirit who lives in me. And that State is offered to every Christian!
6.) Savior of the World
Every epic has heroes and villains. The villains have to be very bad or the story is boring. They are constantly making the world worse and seem to have the upper hand.
Consider the Joker from the second installment of the Dark Knight. That movie was so epic because the Joker was so evil. If he was cute or nice, then Batman would get less glory. It is precisely because he was so evil that Batman got the glory in battling the Joker.
The same evil existed in Amon when he took away Korra's bending. Or the Emperor when he fried Luke. Or Voldemort when he killed Harry Potter. Or the Phoenix King when he attacked Aang.
But at the last possible minute, the hero saves the day. That is why we cheer for them.
Is that not the case for Jesus? The crucifixion of Christ was the climax of evil in this world. The bad guys seemed to have won the day, but it was in that very act that Christ saved us from our moral and mortal dilemma. We are saved from the punishment of our sin and saved to have new resurrected bodies like him!
There is a reason that we cheered when Korra was able to defeat Amon after Amon defeated her by taking away her bending, or why we cheered when Voldemort was defeated after he killed Harry Potter. They point us to Jesus! Evil is vanquished at the climax of evil by the savior of the world.
7.) Restores the World
Amon was a very wicked villain. I was quite scared and bothered by him every time he took away a bender's bending away. It just felt so wrong. At the last episode of season 1 of Avatar Korra, my heart lept with joy when Korra restored Chief Bei Fong's bending. Korra was restoring the world to what it was like before Amon had messed it up.
Isn't that what Jesus will do when he returns? He will come back and restore the world. He will make all things new. The current world order of death and decay will be no more!
8.) Team Player
The best heroes save the day, but they never save the day alone. I just watched the latest Amazing Spider Man in a theater yesterday. I wasn't really moved by the movie until I saw the construction workers help an injured Spider Man. They all aligned their cranes to make a straight path for Spider Man to go and attack the Lizard.
Neither Avatar Aang nor Avatar Korra could save the world without the help of the rest of Team Avatar. And even Luke needed Han Solo and Chewie.
Why do we want our heroes to need help? Because even Jesus needed help. I do not mean that Jesus is not self sufficient. He is. He made the whole world and by him everything is held together. He could command waves and multiple food. But even Jesus was supported in his ministry by women who worked and paid for his ministry (Luke 8:3). Even Jesus wanted his friends to pray with him at the garden of Gethsemane and was ministered to by angels in the wilderness.
The heroes of our stories save the world, but they never do it alone because Jesus doesn't do it that way. If he did, we would simply be watchers. But as God has ordained it, we are more than watchers, we are participants in his epic fight. We fight by laying down our lives, by picking up our cross to follow him, not because he needs us, but because he has saved us for that very purpose and our participation ultimately brings him more glory.
9.) Master of All Elements
Even though the heroes of our stories rely on others, they are still uniquely gifted. The Avatar is the master of all elements while others are just the master of one. Morpheus and Trinity could bend the rules of the Matrix, but only Neo could uniquely break the rules. Harry Potter had many magician friends, but only he alone could defeat Voldemort.
So in the same way, Jesus, though he uses our help, is absolutely unique. Though he asks us to pick up our cross and follow him, only he could die on the cross as a payment for sins for all who would believe in him. Only he could master all the elements and truly save the world.
Emotions
So what should we do with our emotions? When you watch a movie and you are moved, ask yourself why you are moved. Then ponder and meditate on those thoughts, and see that whatever the reason for your heart's affections, know that those same reasons apply far more in Christ, and let your affections move toward worship of the true meta Hero, Jesus Christ.
