The Samurai Gospel
Ever since I was a child, I have
loved watching movies. My brother, Luke, was a film student. He taught me how
to analyse and appreciate films from all around the world. Old Japanese Samurai
movies were particular favourites of mine. Even though I loved these movies, I didn’t
always understand what was going on. I particularly didn’t understand the act
of seppuku. In American culture, nearly all forms of suicide are generally
considered shameful. Sacrificing yourself to save another person’s life is an
exception. I couldn’t understand why a samurai would kill himself, especially
in such a gruesome way. Then someone told me that this was a way for the
samurai to preserve their honour. If a samurai had brought shame to himself or
his master, he was able to commit seppuku in order to save his honour. I
thought about this for a long time. Eventually, I started to understand the
concept of seppuku. It reminds me of how Jesus committed seppuku for us.
Man was
created by God to bring Him glory and honour. In the beginning, man was perfect
and able to do this. However, man decided to honour things other than God,
including himself. Only God is worthy of our honour. In doing this, man was taking
honour away from God. God is the master of the universe and deserves our
highest respect. However, man decided that other things were more important.
Today, all of humanity continues to put other things before God. Daily, we
dishonour Him by following our own desires or the desires of others without
considering what God wants from us. God wants us to put Him first in our lives.
However, many times we choose to put other things like education, relationships,
careers, possessions, hobbies and even our own dreams or goals as a greater
priority and weight in our lives. By doing this, we take honour from God. This
is what sin is like.
Now imagine
that God is a daimyo and you are a samurai in His service. If you showed no
respect towards your daimyo and you began to serve and honour other daimyo, you
would disgrace your true daimyo. You, as a samurai, would become a great disappointment.
The only appropriate action for you would be to commit seppuku in order to
restore your honour. This is an accurate picture of our relationship to God.
Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death…” By honouring other things
rather than God, we are disobeying His commands. This disobedience to God is
severe enough for us to need to commit seppuku. This is a harsh reality for
each of us. However, we still have one hope.
So if God
is our daimyo and we are disrespectful samurai, what can be done other than
commit seppuku? We cannot restore our honour on our own in any other way. What
if I told you that our daimyo loved us so much in spite of our disobedience
that he committed seppuku in order to restore our honour for us? You might be
thinking, “That’s absurd! No daimyo would ever care that much about such a
disrespectful samurai to do that!” The simple fact is, however, that God did
this for us.
God knew
that there was nothing we could do to save ourselves from the consequences of our
disobedience. The only One able to save us is God, Himself. God loves us so
much that he sent His Son, Jesus to save us. He became like us in every way,
except He never put anything before God and showed honour in every way. He
became the highest example of honour we could have known. He was the perfect
samurai. However, we are still unable to follow such an example as Jesus. We can
do nothing but dishonour God. Jesus knew that the only way for us to be saved
from needing to commit seppuku, was for Him to commit seppuku for us. Jesus let
dishonourable men execute Him by hanging Him on a cross. This form of death is
considered to be one of the most painful experiences imaginable. Jesus
committed seppuku so that we could be made honourable again. The story doesn’t
end there, however. We serve a living Saviour, not a dead one. Three days after
Jesus’s death, He came back to life and is now reigning in Heaven.
So what
will we do with this knowledge? Will we continue to honour things other than
God? Or will we give Him our fullest devotion? II Timothy 2:15 tells us, “Do
your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” We must
continue to act honourably in all areas of our life. We must resist the
temptation to go back to our old ways like giving honour to other things in our
lives that are unworthy. I, personally still struggle with devoting myself
completely to Him. However, as I look back on my life, I can see the
progression of change within me. Every day, I strive to be as honourable as
Jesus Christ, our ultimate example. This is an ongoing struggle that we must
face daily in the Christian life. Fortunately for us, we do not have to face it
alone. Philippians 1:6 promises us that “…He who began a good work in you will
carry it on to completion…” God will be with us and will help us to live a life
that honours Him. He is our Master and we are His samurai, whom he loves. He
will not abandon us. We have been restored so that we may please our Master who
has shown Himself to be the only one worthy of our honour.
