“Daddy … I’ve seen you cry.  You cried once and I saw it.”   

Now, I am not holding myself up as an example of how much a man should cry in front of his kids.  Frankly, I was surprised that I had only done it once.  But, my tears opened up an opportunity to talk with my kids about an important matter.

What was this stand-out tearful event that lodged itself in my daughter’s memory?  I cried over a movie.  Yes, a movie.  And not even a popular one, it was a cartoon with an important message.  The movie was the Iron Giant, a cartoon about a huge metal-eating iron robot that crashes into the earth.  Though the robot can’t talk, he has plenty of personality and a young boy named Hogarth befriends him, helping him to find all kinds of tasty scrap metal to eat.

The first hour of the movie focuses on the robot: he is naïve, caring, and endearing.  He can have fun, he goes out of his way to help people, but he really needs to hide away so people don’t try to destroy him.

Eventually, he is discovered by the United States Army and, in perfect cartoon form, they try to blow him up.  Well, the iron giant experiences a sudden metamorphosis.  Instead of being a tame and cuddly giant, he turns into a deadly tank and airplane-vaporizing machine.  He just can’t help it; it is his nature to destroy anyone attacking him.

The boy Hogarth is able to convince the tin heart of the iron man to stop destroying the army, and the army relents, bringing back the safe and friendly giant.  But one opportunistic member government worker wants to prove himself.  He figures out a way to send a nuclear missile to hit the giant.  The problem is that the giant is standing in the middle of a small town full of townspeople, the US Army, and Hogarth.  If the bomb hits, the giant will be killed but so will many other innocent people.

So the Iron Giant makes a quick decision.  The missile cannot be diverted (this was the 1950’s), so he will fly into outer space and blow up the bomb himself.  The townspeople will be safe.  He dies in the place of the townspeople and he dies in place of Hogarth.  The movie isn’t over at this point, but you’ll have to see the movie to see how it ends. 

So, back to my tears.  I was crying because this was such a clear picture of what Christ had done for me.  I deserved punishment, but Jesus took my punishment when he died upon the cross.  He took the missile of God’s wrath so I did not have to.  Admittedly, it was hard to see the iron giant die.  I wanted him to find a way out.  But there was no way out.  Somebody had to die, either the giant or the entire town.

When the giant died, Liam and Grace were bawling and so was I.  The tears lasted a while, replaced with tears of joy in the happy ending (can you say "resurrection"?).  When it was done, I had a wonderful 10 minutes to connect the Iron Giant with the story of Jesus' sacrifice.  I explained to my kids how "while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).  I was able to present the message of the gospel in a way my kids had never seen before.   

Still, I felt a bit guilty about my tears.  I am not always so equally convicted and moved when I read the gospel.  The reality of what Jesus did should move me more than it does.

Let me tell you another story of something I learned during our Cherokee mission trip.  The Cherokee people put on a play called Unto These Hills telling the story of the Cherokee people from their early beginnings until now. 

One of the most significant events in the history of the Cherokee is called the “Trail of Tears”.  The Trail of Tears refers to the time where the United States government, under President Andrew Jackson, forcibly removed the Native people out of their homeland into lands in the West.  The Cherokee people were forced to walk from the Smoky Mountains in North Carolina to Oklahoma.  Seventeen thousand Cherokee Indians began the journey in 1838.  Four thousand Indians died along the way of cold, starvation, and disease.  It was a painful example of how my own beloved country has, at times, acted totally out of accord with its own principles.  It is a dark dark time in our nation’s history.

Still, some Cherokee tried to avoid expulsion.  Many of them hid away in the Smoky Mountains.  They were declared outlaws.  Some families became US citizens to avoid the Removal.  But none of this mattered to the soldiers or our government; they forced the vast majority of Cherokee out of their land. 

Tsali was a well respected leader in the Cherokee nation.  When the soldiers went to his family to remove them from their land, Tsali and his children showed them their citizenship papers which made them immune to removal.  Since they lived on communal Indian land, their rights were ignored and they were forced to journey to Oklahoma.

Tsali had a large family living with him, sons and daughters, their spouses, and many grandchildren.  The women were already ill and could not make the journey.  His oldest sons objected to the soldiers, and a scuffle broke out when the soldiers forcibly grabbed one of the women.  During the scuffle, a gun fired off and a United States soldier was killed.  Tsali knew his family would be severely punished for this accident, so he took his entire family to hide in the Smoky Mountains.
 
The government declared Tsali a fugitive and an outlaw.  Though they hunted him, they could not find him.  Finally, they made a deal with the remaining Cherokee tribe members.  If Tsali turned himself into the army, they said, all the Cherokee hiding in the mountains would be pardoned and allowed to stay in North Carolina.  But, the promise came with a warning; the army had already judged Tsali as an enemy combatant.  He had already been sentenced to death, without a public trial.  He would be executed as soon as he turned himself in.
 
Tsali’s friends found him and passed on the message.  Though he was innocent of any crime, he chose to turn himself in.  He was motivated by one thing:  gaining the freedom of his people.  An innocent man gave his life to win the freedom of outlaws.  He turned himself in to the army on the condition that his death sentence would be carried out by the Cherokee people and not the United States government.

Tsali is a good picture of Jesus Christ in the Cherokee culture.  1 Timothy 2:5-6 says, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time."  One of the highlights from my trip was to try and make this connection to three Cherokee people we were worked.  Two of them were descendants of Tsali and the story resonated with them.  One of them received Christ with us. 

The story of the Iron Giant and the decision of Tsali show how Jesus Christ has changed our world.  Jesus’ sacrifice in love for His people inspires story-tellers and real-life heroes.  Without Jesus our world would be cold and selfish.  This world is as sacrificial as it is for the single reason that Jesus came to us, died for us, and sent us out to give ourselves in service for the good of others.  The existence of Christ’s church has changed our world.

But it also creates a connection point to the gospel within every culture.  Everyone knows they need saving from time to time.  We honor and love those who sacrifice for others, even giving up their own lives to save the lives of others.  All these small pictures give us a picture of what we really need – a Savior to deliver us from the bondage and guilt of our own sin and free us to live with God.

So the next time you see a movie or hear a story, ask yourself, “Where do I see the gospel in this story?”  Then ask your neighbor something like, “Why do you think the sacrifice of the Iron Giant inspires us?  Did you know that God sent someone to give himself to save a people for Himself?  His name is Jesus.  Would you like to know more?”

For additional information on next year’s mission trip to Cherokee, speak with Dave Purks.

For information about movie content, I suggest: www.kids-in-mind.com

Here are some links I have been looking at recently about this book:
The Shack, A Review - by Tim Challies
God's Not the Defendant by Gary Thomas
An Amazon.com Review
Or if you like Audio, listen to Albert Mohler on The Shack