Chihiro finds herself stuck in a place she doesn’t understand. The only way to save herself and her family is to completely let go of the selfishness of being 10. She has to become a servant, to put herself last, and rely on the kindness of strangers. Some of you may know the legendary animated film Spirited Away. However, I also suspect that many of you have never seen the Oscar-winning highest grossing Japanese film ever. The quick version is that it is somewhat of a Wizard of Oz type of film. A young woman finds herself in another world of strange happenings and must make it through a hero’s journey to return to her world.
The reaction of the disciples today is not very unusual if also regrettable. When we are fearful we retreat or rally, sometimes both at the same time. The reaction to hearing Jesus saying again that he will die cruelly at the hands of the powers that be, well, the disciples reaction is to have a bit of a to do about who gets to be in charge. It is a backseat argument if ever there was one. Jesus’ response is in some ways saying that their reaction is childish, but they are only human. What is even more interesting and easy to miss is what Jesus is saying about himself when he says whoever receives a child receives me.
We live in on this side of the Victorian era where childhood became idealized. We live in an era of scientific advancement and at least a theoretical community commitment to those who are ill. In the Hellenistic world that Jesus lived in children were regarded as we would well - a squirrel. Not really dangerous but known to carry disease and the kind of thing that you wouldn’t invite into your home unless you had to. If you have spent any time around children you know that the assessment of germiness wasn’t wrong.
Now there absolutely were people who deeply loved their children - we are made to let the darling override the ick. And as ever there were folks who considered them a means to secure a legacy, and let us not sugar coat - there was much worse. One of the things that caused Judea to stand out among the regions of the Roman Empire was that it had a more celebratory attitude toward child bearing. God said to be fruitful and multiplying - and they did. But children in the immediate culture Jesus was living in, children were still not regarded as angelic sugar cute darlings - at all. If this was set today, when Jesus puts the child in the middle of the room, if this was today everyone would have been reaching for the hand sanitizer!
So when Jesus says to welcome the little children and welcome him as a child, sweep all the Victorian images off of your screen. See him say welcome the stray cats and stink spirits in my name. Jesus says welcome me as you would the lowest germiest messiest most vulnerable category of everyday human life. He puts himself in the place of the last the least and the lost.
Spirited Away is easily one of my five favorite films. I have shown it in ministry something like once a year since about 2003. Yet - I've been trying for years to figure out why exactly the film resonates so deeply with my Christian faith. The connections are not as a matter of obviousness as they are in Narnia, or Middle Earth, or even Hogwarts. Given that it happens in a bathhouse, there's plenty of accidental baptismal imagery. Yet I have had an itch in the back of my heart for a while that it wasn't just that. However, this week, it was thinking about the movie in a relationship with this Gospel lesson that helped me sort out some of the parallels a bit more.
The whole film could be seen as a parable about our lesson today. About the dangers of selfishness and the redemption made possible through selflessness. The main character Chihiro is stuck in a bathhouse for spirits that have become contaminated by human sin. But it is in this bathhouse where she - the human child is considered to be a contaminant. And in our little segment of Mark today it is the human fear and the greediness that gets in the way of the most devoted followers of fully following Jesus. Anxiety and selfishness is the muck from which many of the characters of Spirited Away and the disciples need cleansing from.
And it is a child - a contaminant - in this movie and in Jesus’ words - that is the way of salvation. It is their resolve and it is their innocence that squashes evil and rescues even those who dismiss them. Chihiro’s success had nothing to do with 1st or best or cute. It has nothing to do with what she knows or understands. The thing about childhood and 10 year olds is yes: there can be plenty of selfish behavior - it may be developmentally necessary. But I have also known children to be deep with bravery and unquestioning commitment to others.
We seem to have begun to learn one part of Jesus’ lesson - the part where children are not considered a bothersome contaminant. But we still have a long way to go to welcome and believe the words of every child. The other two lessons Jesus offers today we still run away from. I feel right at home in the disciples selfish fussing about who gets to be in charge, trying to fix the unfixable because we are scared. And the part where losing everything is winning - it pushes all the materialistic anxiety buttons we have.
So I wonder if Jesus’ question for us is which kind of childish are you going to be? Selfish or selfless.
September 23, 2018
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