For those who haven’t seen the movie (it is 17 years old!), Toy Story is a tale about the secret lives of Andy’s toys. Whenever Andy leaves, a whole unknown toy world comes to life. This is a world of staff meetings, checker games, friends, and Plastic corrosion awareness meetings. Andy’s favorite toy is Woody, an old pull-string cowboy. Woody enjoys a charmed life of love and personal prestige. Yet in one day he loses all of this as Andy is given a new Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger toy for his birthday. Woody is a character that has lost his place in life. Buzz has supplanted him as Andy’s favorite toy and Woody is discarded to the toy chest. But Buzz is oblivious of the benefits of being Andy’s favorite toy. He thinks that he is a real space ranger who needs to return to the mother ship.
There’s so much to say about this movie: it touches the deep issues of loss, preaching and the nature of evil. But I want to highlight specifically the relationship between Andy and his toys as the pure Gospel message.
As demonstrated so clearly by Woody and Buzz, the toys derive their value externally through the love and attention of Andy. The most important thing in Woody’s world is the place he holds in Andy’s heart as his favorite toy. But as Buzz Lightyear’s delusions demonstrate, Woody and Buzz are just toys. Woody isn’t really a cowboy and Buzz really isn’t a space ranger; Woody can’t round up cattle and Buzz can’t fly.
When Buzz is confronted by the shocking reality that he is a toy, he is thrown into despair. He says, “I’m not a space ranger. I’m just a toy, a stupid little insignificant toy.” Yet Wood (the preacher) urges him saying, “Being a toy is a whole lot better than being a space ranger. . . Look, over in that house is a kid who thinks that you are the greatest. . . you are his toy.” Buzz looks down on the sole of his boot and sees “Andy” written on permanent marker. Immediately, Buzz springs into action. He is saved from his despair through the assurance that he belongs to, and is loved by, Andy.
In the same way, our value is only found through being loved by God. As Luther said in the Heidelberg Disputation, “Rather than seeking its own good, the love of God flows forth and bestows good. Therefore sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive… This is the love of the cross, born of the cross which turns in the direction where it does not find good which it may enjoy, but where it may confer good upon the bad and needy person.”
COMMENTS
9 responses to “The Gospel According to Pixar: Toy Story”
Leave a Reply
I'm confused. Is this satire?
The problem with trying to tie the gospel to something like this is that it does not accurately portray the message.
It's fine and dandy that Andy loves his toys so much, but he does nothing but whine when they go missing. The Lord is our Shepard. When His sheep are astray, He goes out and finds them. He saves them himself. It is not one of His loved ones doing the saving, while He is completely unaware of what is going on.
Surely you can see the issues you open the gospel up to when you try to preach it through man's creation. The Gospel is sufficient on it's own, IMHO. It does not need Pixar's help to make it relate-able.
My apologies if I missed the point completely.
~Timm
Timm,
I don't think Todd was meaning this as satire, but rather as another lens to see ourselves through when we realize how utterly sinful we are.
When we are able to admit that we are not in control and not the super heroes we try to be, then we are able to say "I am not God, I am just a sinner;" just as Buzz says "I'm not a space ranger. I'm just a toy, a stupid little insignificant toy."
But the Grace in this reality is that we are able to fully understand God's favor and love towards us. Just as Wood says "Being a toy is a whole lot better than being a space ranger. . . Look, over in that house is a kid who thinks that you are the greatest. . . you are his toy," we come to know that we are God's, we belong to Him, and He thinks we are the greatest despite our shortcomings.
Somehow, by understanding that God loves us and has marked us as His own (just as Andy wrote his name on Buzz), we spontaneously spring into action and are saved from despair. I think Todd hit it dead on in relating this to Luther's quote.
While I agree with you that the Gospel can stand on its own, I believe that we should always try to seek and see how the Gospel message is portrayed and lived out within the context of the things that surround our everyday lives (i.e. music, movies, culture, etc.).
-CEJ
Timm,
You didn't miss the point. I'm afraid that it isn't satire. I mean every word of it, and here's why:
As one Lutheran systematic theologian said, "What the gospel is all about is understood not only by others but also by ourselves as theologians only when we come into contact with the world of those people for whom the gospel is meant, and whose world, though not ours, is yet our world for the sake of Jesus. The deepest and most hidden difficulties of understanding which arise for us as theologians owe to the fact that we do our theology in the wrong place"
What I understand this to mean today is that it is important to use popular culture (its longings, questions, and hopes) as a way of communicating and translating the faith to the world.
You're right to point out that every analogy leaks, and not every part of Toy Story represents the Gospel. You're also right that the problem is not one of relate-ability, certainly the proclamation of the Gospel touches the deepest parts of the human heart. Instead the problem is one of intelligibility. In a culture that never takes its cues from the church, we must speak of what sin, righteousness, justification, homoousious, and imputation mean using the language of pop-culture.
Todd,
I'm sorry if I'm coming off as mean. I don't want to.
I'm all for using analogies when they make sense. I just don't think this makes sense. Maybe I would feel better if you weren't calling it the Gospel, being that it is nothing close to the Gospel.
Woody and Buzz save themselves. That is actually completely contrary to the Gospel. Andy represents nothing more than an ignorant god who feels bad that he lost his toys but has given up on them.
I'm sorry, but I believe that if you want to get through to people, you should do it the way that the Bible describes. Use the law to speak to bypass their intellect and speak to their conscience. Once they realize they are sinners, they will reach out to God and HE will do the saving.
The message of the true Gospel is clear. To even try to compare it to Toy Story does nothing more than raise confusion and questions. Woody and buzz do not accurately reflect lost sinners who have been found. Andy does not accurately reflect the attitude of God towards His children.
~Timm
Maybe I should have better explained this in the post… Broadly speaking the plot of Toy Story isn't about how two toys left the house and found their way back, but that these two enemy toys are reconciled to each other- Woody through the confession that he is jealous of Buzz, and Buzz through the assurance of his worth through the love of Andy. It's not so much that Woody, Buzz and Andy fit neatly into typological roles, but that Pixar has created a world where one's righteousness (identity, value, meaning, purpose, etc) is derived externally through the love of the one who calls you his own.
If you want to use L/G categories, it's possible to say that Woody preaches the law to Buzz for the first half of the movie "You're just a toy" – this leads Buzz to despair and resignation. Buzz is lost and Woody then reassures him of his value is found through the message of Andy's external love.
Alright Todd. I like your point about the toys being defined by the love of their owner. That's a good analogy.
I suppose the only big problem I have is the use of the word, "Gospel," in the title of the post. The story doesn't reflect the Gospel at all IMHO.
Good thoughts on God's love though. Thanks!
~Timm
Todd,
Thank you so much for your wonderful post; I am especially excited about the possibilities it opens up for discussions with kids about the gospel. As a youth minister, I am always looking for these neat ways to help kids understand the good news of Jesus, the gospel- which is all about the reality and fullness of God's love… so many thanks to you for sharing!
Wonderful word picture from Luther, Todd…I cannot remember reading it before, but the image of the cross as a compass which seeks out the bad in order to lavish the good is powerful, to say the least.
Timm,
I think I agree with you that sometimes we can stretch finding the gospel within the culture to the breaking point. We must be careful not to equate the gospel message itself with some points of contact found within the culture.