Dedicated to fellow Avatar geeks out there. Apologies if you haven’t seen Avatar (not the movie, the TV series. Avatar the Last Airbender) – your life is lacking and you really should watch it. I’m writing this because its interesting, not trying to reinforce Bible stuff on it, everything is in my humble opinion. Its just some stuff that I noticed while watching, and I noticed too many coincidences… also, SPOIL ALERT,
There are a lot of biblical parallels between Zuko and Iroh. In short, Zuko is like a picture of humanity and Iroh is an image of Christ. The author might’ve not intended for this to occur, but it did. Here are some examples:
“There’s no honor for me without the Avatar.”
“Zuko. [sighs] Even if you did capture the Avatar, I’m not so sure it would solve our problems.”
– Zuko and Iroh
This is so obviously Zuko’s catch phrase. He longs to capture the Ang in return for his father’s approval. But when he finally did capture Aang and regained his status, he felt incredibly empty and confused. HOW IS THIS NOT A PICTURE OF HUMANITY? We seek things to fulfill our lives (e.g. money, love, success) but when we finally get there we realize that those things never actually fill the hole inside (maybe I’ll do a study on the “God-shaped hole” sometime). Many people have mid-life crisis when they have a good paying job, family, home and everything. Jim Carrey got it all figured out – he said, “I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it’s not the answer”
“You sound like my nephew. Always thinking you need to do things on your own without anyone’s support.There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you, help you.”
– Iroh
This quote was from Iroh’s conversation with Toph, and it summarises a common modern phenomenon. People are more “independant” now, they rely on themselves and there’s obviously less sense of community compared to 50 years ago. And it also highlights a common attitude people (especially atheists) have towards religions: I don’t need god/gods, I can do everything by myself. Hmmmm… while independence is a good thing to have, but this kind of independence is not very healthy. For example, people that commit suicide because they realise they just can’t “life” anymore. This is a clear example that we can’t do everything by ourselves, and when we realise that we feel desperate like there’s no way out. Uncle Iroh is right on: what if I tell you, you don’t have to do everything by yourself? What if I tell you you can rely on a God that loves you? “There is nothing wrong with letting people who love you, help you”, right? Philippines 4:12, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
“How can you forgive me so easily? I thought you would be furious with me!”
“[crying] I was never angry with you. I was sad, because I was afraid you’d lost your way.”
“I did lose my way.”
” But you found it again. And you did it by yourself. And I am so happy you found your way here.”– Zuko and Iroh
I am not ashamed to tell you that I cried when Zuko and Iroh reunited after their separation. This conversation is simply illustrates the essence of repentance in a beautiful way. Iroh is not obliged to forgive Zuko, even Zuko acknowledges that he doesn’t deserve to be forgiven. But Iroh forgave him. In fact Iroh even went as far as saying that he was “never angry”. This demonstrate one of God’s very important quality: while He is just and He hates sin, He loves us. One of the very hot topics right now is the discussion around religion and homosexuality (one day I will write something on that), Christians seems to be categorized into two extremes, either encouraging homosexuality to the extent of employing practicing homosexuals in leadership positions to going around the country bashing gays. None of the approaches are appropriate, neither does it line up with the Bible’s teaching. In any case, including homosexuality, God loves the person and will forgive them upon their repentance (in the case of homosexuality, it does not necessarily mean that they have to be straight, but they do have to give up practicing homosexuality. Like how a thief have to stop stealing if they want to be a Christian) and God is never angry with them, He’s wrath are towards the sins that they are committing. God will forgive anyone who repents like how Iroh forgive Zuko, because He loves us so much. Even if you were the only person in the world Jesus would still come and die for you. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
“Your critical decision – what you did beneath that lake. It was such a conflict with your image of yourself that you are now at war within your own mind and body.”
“What’s that mean?”
“You are going through a metamorphosis, my nephew. It will not be a pleasant experience but when you come out of it. You will be the beautiful prince you were always meant to be.”– Iroh to Zuko
Personally I find this to be a very fitting illustration for every new Christian, especially in the sense of “new in Christ”. For me, becoming a Christian is so much more than just a religious belief, but rather a change in life style, and some of those changes are does stir up conflict within me . To become a Christian means we do have to consciously choose to give up whatever the Bible considers unrighteous, and some of these decisions can be very difficult. As Iroh puts it, you are literally “at war within your own body and mind” – we struggles to let go of our old identity, or “dying to self” . Identity in Christ is one of those phrases that I think we tend to overuse without really understanding what it means. Personally I have being to multiple youth groups where they happen to be talking about “identity in Christ”, but after a nights’ study I still don’t fully understand the concept. So here’s my take on the matter. We all have our own perceptions of ourselves, for example I may perceive myself as awkward and ugly. These perceptions that I have underlays my emotion and impacts my behaviour to an extent. Now, these beliefs are not necessarily true but they feel very real to me. This is what I understand as “identity”. Now, identity in Christ is similar in that way but instead of how you perceive yourself, it’s how God perceives you. Some examples are you are precious, you are loved, you are special, you are able and you are forgiven. When the Bible says ” if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.” (2 Corinthians 5:17), I would interpret it as us having to replace our old identity (how we perceive ourselves) with the new identity (how God perceives us). So in my example, although I can feel awkward or ugly, but despite how real they feel, they are not necessarily the truth. And this is difficult, like Iroh said, it’s a “conflict with your image of yourself” but at the same time, it’s very necessary. Again, like Iroh said, “You are going through a metamorphosis, my nephew. It will not be a pleasant experience but when you come out of it. You will be the beautiful prince you were always meant to be.”
“So… now you’re following him [Zuko]?”
“I know he doesn’t want me around right now but if he need me, I’ll be there.”
“Your nephew is very lucky, even if he doesn’t know it.”– Iroh and Toph
These lines are fantastic in so many ways, which is why I am ending on this quote. As we’ve established earlier, Iroh is an image of Christ and Zuko is humanity. This in so many ways tells the story of our lives: we rebelled, lost our way, sinned, rejected God, did so many other things – but God has never left us. He was always there. I could pull out the good ol’ “footprint in the sand” story, but I won’t. I’m going to share a bit of my life instead. For many a times in my life I went out of my way to reject Christianity, and I did not believe God was present, or that He cared about me. I did hold a certain resentment towards God and blamed Him for things that were happening, which is actually quite common. But now that I look back in hindsight, I do see God present in every little way. In short, everything that happened in my life was leading up to this point right now, where I’m chilling on my bed and writing to you. I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. And this is how I know that God was always present in my life, because if any little thing was different, I won’t be where I am at today. Like He promised in Deuteronomy 31:6, He never left me nor forsake me. And finally I would like to end with Daniel 9:9, “For the Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we rebelled against him.”
– Alicia S.
The Naked Bible 