I recently watched the rebuild series of Eva (which is a set of movies that is re-telling the story of the old anime from 1996). The Eva 1.0 was solid, no new plot but it reminds me of the younger me when I watched it for the very first time. Eva 2.0 is on another whole level, with the freshness of a new plot, flashy animation, and breathtaking scenes made me like this show even more. I watched it during the Christmas holidays by myself (a bluray DVD that I bought like almost 1 year ago), and there were a couple of scenes that I actually yelled out of the dramatic pinnacles from the plot. It is an anime masterpiece.
Evas are basically a biological robot that are piloted to fight against some indestructible monsters called angels. And there are 3 main characters that pilot the Evas, and each of them are faced with this question "why do you pilot the Eva?", and this is kinda their response:
- Shinji: my dad wants me to even though I hate it.
- Azuka: I want to show I am the best pilot.
- Rei: no reason particularly, this is the way it has been.
This particular question actually made me think of a more personal question, "why do I follow Jesus?". After living as a Christian for many years it is easy to let the Christian activities become a routine and forget the reason of why I am pursuing God if I don't reflect frequently on the marvelous goodness of the gospel.
In the case of Rei, she is like the brainwashed type who doesn't know exactly why is piloting the Eva because she has been doing so for long, and she doesn't question it at all. She represents people who often fallen to routine. These are people who have been in church for a while, and get involved in gatherings and activities without much thought since it is a routine.
Asuka is about showing off, people who value their success because they can get recognition from others. She represents people who get involve in many ministries, but often it is done because it gives them an image of better people, and they get praised.
Shinji is the guy who dislike what he does but wants approval from his dad. So he represents people who are constantly doing things because their performance will get the approval from parents, and he finds his value in their approval. This is like people who goes to church because their parents go and kinda force them to go, but really they don't want to go.
In the summer of 2010, CCF emphasized in "taking ownership of your faith". We as Christians understand that we are saved by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9), but we are also made to do good works (Ephesians 2:10) and to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us to will and act accordingly to His good purpose (Philippians 2:12-13). It is true that it is God who initiates, but we are to respond to His calling consciously to live in the way that is pleasing to Him.
Christianity is not about a set of rules that makes us morally superior, it is not a set of rituals that we do frequently, it is not about pleasing others, it is not about working to earn, but it is about Jesus who loves us first and showed us how to live, died for our transgressions on the cross, conquered death on the third day, and whoever have faith in Him will live eternally with Him. We follow Jesus not because we are forced to, but because we are humbled by His grace and we are transformed to desire to follow Him. We must take ownership of our faith, and make a conscious decision to pursue God.
Further reading: The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.
ps. At the end of the film, Shinji's character developed and he takes a conscious decision to want to pilot the Eva.
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