Happy Monday, friends, and welcome to another fandoms post! I watched the classic Pixar movie Finding Nemo a few weeks ago and was struck by its similarity to a famous parable. It’s a truly beautiful story of family and coming-of-age, both for Nemo the child and Marlin the father. I can’t wait to share what I found for this one. Hope you enjoy!
Fandom: Finding Nemo, the relationship between Marlin and Nemo
Verses: Luke 15:11-24, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:10
Truth: Even when we are disobedient and rebellious, God’s unconditional love for us drives Him to do whatever it takes to restore relationship with us.
The fandom
Finding Nemo is a beautiful movie, visually and otherwise. The rich colors and scenery inspired my bullet journal theme for this month, in fact. But one of the things I love most about the film is the way that the family dynamic changes. Nemo starts out feeling underestimated by his father because of his “lucky fin”. Because of this, he reacts in defiance to Marlin’s genuine concerns for his safety, and this leads to him being captured by the ignorant, meddling humans (love that part by the way, lol).
Meanwhile, marlin starts out as the scared helicopter parent who “doesn’t want anything to happen” to his son. But his unconditional love for his son compels Marlin to search for him, despite all the dangers and fears that he has to face on the way.
Both Nemo and Marlin have a coming-of-age story in this film, leading to them having more confidence in themselves and trust in each other. Nemo is more willing to listen and show affection for his dad, while Marlin is more willing to let his precious son out of his sight in (reasonably) risky environments.
While it’s not an exact parallel, the story of Finding Nemo reminds me of the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Nemo’s story starts out with refusal to listen and distancing himself (literally) from his father, while Marlin’s story involves doing whatever it takes to find and restore his son. Let’s look at the parable!
the Verses
And He said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate that is coming to me.’ And [so] he divided his wealth between them. And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey to a distant country, and there he squandered his estate in wild living.
Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began doing without. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he longed to have his fill of the carob pods that the pigs were eating, and no one was giving him [anything.]
But when he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired laborers have more than enough bread, but I am dying here from hunger! I will set out and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired laborers.”‘
So he set out and came to his father. But when he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion [for him,] and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves (servants), ‘Quickly bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet; and bring the fattened calf, slaughter it, and let’s eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:11-24 NASB
This parable has a lot of similarities to the story of Nemo and Marlin. In Bible times, asking for a share of the inheritance was basically the same as saying, “I don’t want you around anymore; I wish you were dead” to the father. While Nemo doesn’t go quite that far, he is in the same place of disobedience and rebellion that the Prodigal Son shows, and he tells Marlin, “I hate you” right before he is taken by the humans.
The Prodigal Son does more to estrange his father than Nemo does; he behaves recklessly and sinfully, while Nemo becomes more like the lost sheep, a victim of circumstance. But the end of the story is the same: when the sons return to their fathers, there is a celebration and a sense of forgiveness and restored relationship. And the parable, which was told to both high-and-mighty Pharisees and lowly tax collectors, has a wonderful Gospel parallel that I’ll share momentarily. Here are a couple more verses I’d like to share with this Finding Nemo fandom:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 NASB
This verse takes Marlin’s love for Nemo to an even greater extent. I think it’s clear that Marlin will do anything for his son, even die for him (he almost does several times). And he does it when their relationship isn’t in its best moments, which is the definition of unconditional love. But this verse shows that God’s love goes even further: not only will He do anything for us, but he will also sacrifice His only Son for us. Woooooahhh!
In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son [to be] the propitiation (CSB: “atoning sacrifice”) for our sins.
1 John 4:10 NASB
I thought of this verse because of its emphasis on God’s love for us rather than our love for Him. In Finding Nemo, the driving force of the plot is Marlin’s love for his son and determination to get him back. While Nemo also wants to get back to his dad, he is pretty much helpless to do so; all of his escape attempts prove futile until the very end. In the same way, our love for God is a very good thing, but the only thing that made a difference in restoring our right relationship with him was Jesus’ love and sacrifice for us.
Gospel connections with Finding Nemo
I believe that the Gospel message, or the steps of becoming a believer and receiving the gift of salvation, can be broken up into three parts:
- I am. Who is God? What is He like? Who are we, and why are we here? Is there more to life than just the time between our birth and our death?
- God is the Creator and Lord of everything that we know. He is light, He is absolutely perfect, and He is all-powerful and all-knowing. He is also love, and He created each and every one of us to live in relationship with Him. We, on the other hand, are hard-wired to resist that relationship. Because of the rebellion of the first humans, our nature is to resist God’s rule, and we are therefore separated from Him. This separation is called sin. Our sin causes us to feel a void or emptiness that we try to fill with other relationships or pursuits (like pleasure or success), but that can only truly be filled with the relationship with God that we were meant to have. For more thoughts on this, check out this post.
- With you. How can I “fix” my sin problem and find joy, peace, and a relationship with God?
- There is only one way to restore the relationship that we were always meant to have with the God who created us, and that is Jesus. As we already discussed above, Jesus, the Son of God, came as a human to rescue and restore us while we were weak, helpless to fix ourselves. He showed the love of God for us by subjecting Himself to all of the indignities and suffering of the Cross, and died a criminal’s death, even though He had done no wrong. Because of His perfect sacrifice, Jesus was able to end the eternal separation between us and God, and now gives us the choice to receive His gift of salvation and eternal life. For more thoughts, see this post.
- Always. God shows His faithfulness and steadfast love for His people (originally Israel, now including all who believe in Him) throughout Scripture. He will always be with us, and gives us reminders of His presence and His truth through Holy Spirit, who inhabits every believer. Through Him, we have eternal forgiveness of sin, access to His throne room through prayer, and the ability to grow into the people we were always meant to be, free from the power of sin. After we die, we have the promise of Heaven, where we will see our Lord face to face and never have to suffer or be separated from Him again. For more thoughts, see this post.
This part of the Finding Nemo story relates to the “with you” portion of the gospel story. Nemo’s refusal to listen to his father’s warnings led to him being captured and lost. Because of Marlin’s unconditional love for his son, he crossed the entire ocean and went through all the things in order to get him back. In the same way, God the ultimate, perfect Father loved us, even our rebellion, enough to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring us back to Himself.
Application
In response to what we’ve learned today, here are some “I will” statements to help us live out our faith in real, real life:
- I will give thatnks to God for e immeasurable grace and unconditional love He show s me every day
- I will seek to tell others what God is really like and how He has proven His love for us
- I will show others he same grace and loyal love that has been given to me
My journal pages
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about Finding Nemo and its connections to the Gospel and the parable of the Prodigal Son. If you don’t consider yourself a believer, I hope I’ve given you something to think about. If you do, how can you use this parallel as a way to share the Gospel with your people?
Happy fangirling!
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