Arthur Christmas

Since it's that time of the year, a lot of the movies I'll be discussing these days are Christmas ones. But to shake things up I'll still discuss non-Christmas movies here and there too.



from https://www.deviantart.com/john-sulu/art/Merry-Christmas-722132984

I watched the film Arthur Christmas for the first time yesterday, and to be honest, I wasn't anticipating a funny, creative movie. But a funny and creative movie it was!

I was expecting your typical animated Christmas family film with furry animals, funny voices, cheesy comedy, and an extremely overdone plot with extremely cliché themes. But this movie had some really funny moments, a unique-enough plot, and not a single annoying talking animal! I really enjoyed it and would actually like to see it again next year.

One of the things that I admired most about the movie, though, was its messages about grace, faith, and works.

from youtube.com

Grace

At the very beginning of the movie, Santa and his elves are doing their work delivering gifts to houses. The sequence shows a lot of high-tech equipment that they use for everything from descending to the houses, communicating with each other, to...scanning whether children are naughty or nice.

Yes, the elves would actually scan the children while they were sleeping to see if they qualified as naughty or nice, deserving or undeserving of their gifts. As this happened, I was thinking about how appalling it is that this jolly Santa in everyone's stories only gives these wonderful gifts to the children who have been good enough.

This is nothing new; everyone familiar with Santa knows how this works.

I just couldn't help but hate that so many people would want to teach their kids this: that if they were too naughty, too bad, then they'd just have to have a Christmas with no presents. Santa would be disappointed in them and withhold all that he would otherwise be giving them.

I was thinking about all of this when something in the movie gave me a huge surprise. It was amazing.

from blueray.com

As an elf scanned one sleeping child, the device blinked red and showed "naughty" as the result. The elf appeared saddened by this, then after looking at the kid, scanned himself so that the device would read nice instead.

What a great picture of grace! What a great illustration of the gospel! and such a simple one that even children watching can understand. Even though the child was "naughty" and thereby didn't deserve gifts from Santa, the elf's goodness replaced it, and the child could receive those gifts after all. As we are also all "naughty," doing what is wrong so often even when there are times when we try to do what is right, God still gives us Himself, the greatest gift we could ever want. That's the gospel. If we've been saved by Jesus, then even in our naughtiness, Jesus is scanned instead of us, and He is 100% good.

Wow. I was really glad that happened.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in His divine forbearance He had passed over former sins. -Romans 3:21-25 (ESV)

from pinterest.com

Faith

Something that I've learned recently is that it's OK to have faith but still have questions. It's actually an essential part of faith. As Martin Luther King Junior put it,

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase."

Or in other words, faith is not knowing for sure, but trusting in God and who He is and what promises He's made to us. (He is good, wants good for us, won't abandon us...)

So I've learned that it's OK to believe in God but still want to know more. In fact, it's even more than OK; seeking God and a closer relationship with Him is an important part of our walk with Him.

We'll never totally understand God and His ways (see Isaiah 55:8-9), but the Bible also informs us that we should "ask", "seek", and "knock" (Matthew 7:7). So telling God honestly that we have questions is, you could say, encouraged.

In this children's animated movie, there is a profoundly simple yet affecting illustration of this.

During the movie's exposition, viewers are presented a little girl's letter to Santa. In it, she talks about how her friends dispute the reality of the Santa legend, saying Santa would burn up if he went around the world fast enough to get to every child's house. Yet even though she has plenty of questions for Santa, questions getting at the fundamental elements of what he is and what he does, she still has faith. She writes in the letter: "I think you are real, but how do you do it?"

In this way, she's showing a faith that still has questions, a faith that's seeking to know more. A faith that shows she trusts that Santa is who he is, and not someone who would burn up reindeer.

With this illustration of course, I'm not trying to say that it's worth it to put your faith in Santa. There's a better "Santa" who really can see and know all of us, be anywhere and everywhere, and He actually has the capacity to love and care about each and every one of us (which this Santa doesn't, but I'll spare you the spoilers).

from http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t4-G-o_ont8/maxresdefault.jpg

Works

(Ok, sorry, this one actually does involve a bit of a spoiler. I hope that's alright.)

One of the bigger themes of this movie is also a big one in Christianity, which perhaps viewers of this movie pick up on along with Arthur.

As Arthur and his companions go on their crazy adventure to deliver a gift to a child, he is in it with his whole heart. He deeply cares for their cause and and is willing to do anything to complete it. He finds out along the way, though, when times get tough, that not everyone in that sleigh with him is in the same boat.

That is to say, his grandsanta (love that name) is only on this mission with him because he wants to prove how good he is.

He's in it for his own glory, not for the cause of bringing the gift to the child. Arthur is heartbroken when he finds out and tries to explain that it is not right to act in such a way and not how they should be completing this task.

The grandsanta replies with something to the effect of, "Well what do my motives matter as long as I get the gift to the kid?" But Arthur knows that the motives really do matter.

This is yet another great illustration that has parallels to our real lives. Things fall apart when we try to "live the Christian life," doing good works, without placing our faith in God and relying on Him as the source of our righteousness and love for others. After all, "we love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

We may obey God's laws and serve others ("good works"), but the action is empty unless it is one of actual love.

And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 

-I Corinthians 13:2 (ESV)

Are we doing the good things we do as a show to make ourselves look or feel like we're good? Or are we doing it as an act of loving our God and Savior with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, all while knowing that only by His grace are we any good at all. Do we do what we do grudgingly or with great joy and out of the love that God puts in our hearts for Himself and other people?

"Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." - Matthew 22:36-40

These are important questions to ask, and ones I've had to wrestle with. But through this, God has renewed me time and time again, giving me more and more love for Him and for others.

So Arthur in this movie is the example of one who braves a long and difficult task as a way of showing love for another person, the child, and genuinely wanting good for her, even at his own expense; he wants her to experience the gifts that Santa can give and to believe in him.

Likewise, we as Christians can joyfully, lovingly, selflessly serve others, by the grace of God alone, so that they may see the love of God through our own illustration of it and be introduced to Him.


So, ya, it's a pretty great movie. It is definitely a great one for discussion and one I'd be excited to show my kids one day. Even though not every aspect of the film would make a positive Biblical lesson, it still does give a lot, more than I've even talked about here. And without giving any more spoilers, I'll just say also that the entire plot holds a great, wonderful allusion to Matthew 18:10-14, the Parable of the Lost Sheep. Good stuff :)

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Please feel free to add to the discussion in the comments below. Also, if you have any movie suggestions for me, let me know!

Arthur Christmas. Dir. Sarah Smith and Barry Cook. Perf. James McAvoy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy. Sony Pictures Animation, 2011. Netflix.