The word samurai means “to serve”.
In the movie The Last Samurai are many parallels to our current struggles as Christians. If we look at the Samurai’s condition, motives, attitudes and character we will see symbolic pictures of our Lord’s people. However, their battle was physical, ours is spiritual.
Their primary weapons were the sword, bow and arrow, and fire/smoke-screens. Ours are primarily the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God (Eph 6:17, Heb 4:12); our children (biological and spiritual) “like arrows in the hand of a warrior (Samurai)”; and fervent (“zelos” in the Greek, meaning ‘hot’) prayer (Ja 5:16), which ascends like smoke to heaven (Rev 5 and 8).
If one watches the movie keeping in mind the sword as the Word, Samurai as Christians, the imported influences as worldliness, their devotion to the Emperor as devotion to Christ, and Capt. Algren’s journey as that of one converting to Christ, one will begin to see and hear strong lessons for the Christians’ battle for Truth.
The Samurai: “A handful of warriors willing to die for what seems to have become a forgotten word: honor.”
The American said he was, “surprised to learn ‘Samurai’ means ‘to serve’”.
In the same way, “minister” means “to serve”. All Christians are to be equipped for the work of the ministry or “service” (Eph 4). All genuine Christians are God’s Samurai.
Stunned, the American comments on the strange new people he has encountered. “They are an intriguing people. From the moment they wake they devote themselves to the perfection of whatever they pursue ...I have never seen such discipline.”
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” “And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified. --1 Cor 10:31, 9:23-27
After observing his new community, Capt. Algren ponders, “What does it mean to be ‘Samurai’...to devote yourself utterly to a set of moral principles; to seek a stillness of your mind, and master the way of the sword?”
For us the "principles" are the Word. The stillness is an active not passive stillness. “Shalom”, Hebrew for peace, carries the idea of a fullness of peace—not merely an absence of activity. This fullness of peace is so complete that no matter how much it is shaken, there is no movement within the boundaries of that peace because it is so crammed full. When Jesus stilled the sea, the Word says, “it became calm”, however a more literal, and meaningful translation would read, “And a great calm occurred.” You see, peace, calmness is actively overtaking the storm. The great shaking that occurred was overpowered by the calm Jesus pronounced. As we utterly devote ourselves to Biblical principles mastering “ the way of the Sword”, we will know more this stillness of mind—even in the hottest battle.
The training started early...as children. During one scene we see two boys play-fighting with bokkens (wooden training swords shaped like a katana (samurai sword). They swing and block hard, trying to one-up each other. One boy repeatedly gets the advantage over the other stopping his bokken just at the others boy’s neck or disarming him of his weapon completely. Capt. Algren picks up the felled bokken to return it to the child, but is offered to ‘take on’ the winning child. He is told, “They may be children, but they are strong.”
Are we training our children to be strong...really? Or have e passed that responsibility onto some teacher, pastor, youth leader, coach, etc.? The vast majority of children raised in the church do not follow on with Jesus as adults. As little as 1 in 5 do. For the children in the movie, practicing/training with their swords was fun! It was what they did during spare time as well as training times. They wanted to be great at it (and they knew their lives depended on it). So it should be with our children and the Sword of the Spirit. We should be training children that live and play in the context of God and His truth. We should be able to say of our children, “They may be children, but they are strong.” Can we?
At one point in the movie the Samurai leader said of the idea that the Emperor might want him killed, “If the Emperor wishes my death, He has only to ask.” He also believed his ‘rebellion’ to be in the service of the Emperor.
This is the attitude of a Christian! We are not our own; we were bought with a price (1Cor 6:20, 7:23). He actually commands our death; but so we can become truly alive and walk with Him. This attitude of “whatever best pleases our Master” being paramount to us is one we must get again—or maybe for the first time. Our ‘rebellion’ as the world sees it is also in service to our Emperor; but Christians embrace, as the Samurai did, the idea that the rebellion may also lead to pain and ultimately, our death.
The Samurai did not fear death, he understood it is part of the way things are. He did not long for death, but accepted it. This brought tremendous freedom during combat; his mind was free from the fear of pain and death within which left his mind free for the actual battle before him. In all this talk of death, however, the way of the warrior (bushido) is actually about life. It was put like this by the Samurai leader; “To know life in every breath, every cup of tea, every life we take—the way of the warrior.” In response, half whispering the concept to himself, the American repeats pondering, “Life in every breath.” “That is bushido,” declared the Samurai.
Jesus is about life, abundant and eternal life. However, one must die first: die to oneself to begin this new life in Christ, die physically to enter into eternity in His direct presence (unless He comes before that). Even the excuses and arguments we destroy (2Cor 10:3-5), even the pride, self-righteousness and ego we kill, we kill out of a desire for life—true life...life in every breath.
The “last straw” for the Samurai was when they were forbidden to carry their swords in public—the same swords that once protected everyone. They were told that now that they are a nation of laws; they did not need the Samurai (servants armed with the outdated swords). They were mocked by their own people for clinging to the principles which made them as great a nation as they were.
Sound familiar? More and more we are becoming a nation of man’s laws and are being forbidden to carry and/or use our weapons, the Sword of the Spirit, prayer, etc. in public; they view it as outdated and no longer appropriate. We too are mocked as we cling to what is good and hate what is evil (Ro12:9).
Upon reentering the main settlement of the city after the Spring thaw, the local society was militantly different. Not only were swords forbidden to be worn in public, but now those carrying them and dressed in the old way with robes and their long hair in topknots were out-rightly ridiculed. The ridiculing of the outward appearance of the samurai village’s leader culminated in rudely cutting off his topknot of hair—a very precious thing to a Samurai. During the violent stripping of this outward sign of honor, he screamed in horror and grief, tears running down his face.
Ro 12:2 says, “do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” J.B. Phillips translates it, “do not let the world squeeze you into its own mould.” The Message says it like this, “Don’t be so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking.” 3Jn11 says, “Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.” Are we as grieved and resistant when things in our culture want us to conform to its view of acceptable? Are we as troubled when others tempt us to betray our Lord Jesus by choosing their ways over His? We are to appear different to the world, “as lights in the world” (Phil 2:15). This starts with our inner attitude character, and devotion, and is reflected in our outward appearance in areas such as modesty, compassion, and entertainment choices.
The lifestyle of the Samurai was described by the American as they sat around a campfire as a life of service, discipline, and compassion. The Samurai leader was thinking his life was a failure, because in his eyes he had failed to uphold the good, protect the culture from itself, and honor the great ones who went before him. Tears welling up in his eyes, his right hand subconsciously caressing the sword of his ancestors resting upon his shoulder, he grievously reflects, “For 900 years my ancestors have protected our people. Now, I have failed them.” The American in response to his shame dismally responds rhetorically stating, “Shame? Shame for a life of service, discipline, compassion?” The leader defeatedly explains,“The way of the Samurai is not necessary anymore.” “Necessary?” The American retorts, and refocusing his friend, rhetorically asks, “What could be more necessary?”
The Christian life is one of service, discipline, and compassion. Pastor, leader, parent, Christian, do you feel ashamed thinking you are irrelevant or ineffective to the ones and world you wish to protect or save? Do you feel the world has dubbed you “unnecessary” to their plans? Take heart; the same is said of Jesus and all the prophets that were before you (Mt5:11-12). The more dark and cold the times in which we live become, we, like that campfire, become more necessary. Indeed, a life of service, discipline, and compassion—what could be more necessary?
Through his journey, the American comes to understand what it is that is truly important and valuable. The American is asked if he will fight the other Americans if they attack them. His answer is simply, “Yes.” When asked why, his heartfelt explanation is, “Because they come to destroy what I have come to love.” He has become more like those who look and live differently than those whom he came through biologically.
As Christians, Jesus works in us to will and to do for His good pleasure (Phil 2:13). We are closer to Him and His people, no matter where they are from, than our own family many times (Mt 10:34-39, 12:48-50). We are closer by the blood of Jesus than the biological blood of man could ever make us (Gal 3:28). And, when those we were once like attack those we love, we will respond to protect those loved ones—even from so-called “family”.
The sword the American was given before the last battle had a special inscription on it. It said, “I belong to the warrior in whom the old ways have joined the new.”
Jesus said, “...Every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings forth out of his treasure things new and old.” Matt 13:52. Everyone who has studied thoroughly the old ways and has come to the new Light of the Truth has great things from both. Likewise, we as Christ’s, have wonderful things from the new and old of God’s Word. However, they are not relegated to the past. Jesus is with His people through His Holy Spirit now, and the Word of God is applicable even now. Though the wisdom of God is “old” it is still fresh, because even though times may change, people, apart from Christ, will not. The Bible needs to be in the hands, heart, and mouth of every warrior for Truth in whom the old ways have joined the new.
The Samurai “rebelled” to maintain the lifestyle they thought (knew) was best for everyone. Their rebellion was more, in actuality, a lack of conformity. They were not rebelling against society. However, they were thought of as rebels, because they were not willing to follow the society in its plan of worldliness. They were the religious conservatives, not wanting to lose what made their land the place of honor it used to be. They did not want their country to be like the rest of the world.
This same “rebellion” is ours today; and we are seen as rebels Isa 59:15 says,
“‘Yes, truth is lacking
And he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey.’
Now the LORD saw,
And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.”
We too are a target, just as they were, when we stand for what is right.
Toward the end of the film was a heart-wrenching scene in which the American—the last samurai—presented the sword of his fallen brother, the samurai leader, to the Emperor. Painfully kneeling, and injured from the battle, he urged the Emperor beseeching him with the last words of his mentor, the Emperor’s own former teacher saying, “This is Katsumoto’s sword. He would have wanted you to have it. Let the strength of the Samurai be with you always. He hoped with his last breath that you would remember the ancestors who held this sword...and what they died for.”
Likewise, Jesus who has gone before us to death, urges us through those now battered and bruised in His service, “This is the precious Word of God, the Sword of the Spirit. He wants you to have it. Fight the good fight (1Tim 1:18, 6:12)! Let the strength of the Warrior-Servant Jesus be with you always. Jesus commands that you remember Him (1Cor 11:24-25), those who suffer and die by this Sword (He 13:3), and remember all who lived by this Sword, “who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith,” (Heb 13:7). The Word is precious. May we be faithful in passing it to our leaders, those around us, and the next generation.
He then declares to the Emperor, “Your highness, if you believe me to be your enemy, command me, and I will gladly take my life.”
His outward confession declares his previous inward conversion; he has taken on the heart of the great warriors before him. It is the same heart-change that occurs when people repent to God from their sins, and place their continuous trust in Jesus to forgive them by God’s grace through their faith and trust. This results in a new life with new desires.
It works by Jesus’ sinless blood paying the price of our deserved punishment for our willful rebellion against Him (1 Thess 1:9; Acts 20:21). “Sin” is breaking God’s laws, the 10 Commandments, also, doing what one knows to be wrong, which earns His wrath and condemnation (1Jn 3:4; Ja 4:1-4,17; Ro 3:23; Jn 3:18). Through God’s law, we see ourselves in truth—if we have lied, looked with lust, hated, and taken anything without permission, we are a lying, adulterous, murdering thief (Mt 5:28; 1Jn 3:15), none of which will have an inheritance, in the Kingdom of God, but do merit a place in the lake of fire (Rev 20:8). When one becomes a Christian—not a church-goer—one dies to their former way of thinking and living. God works this in us as we obey Him in trust. As we become dead to the desires that make things such a mess, we become more and more of who we really are, untainted by outside pressures and influences.
Galatians 2:19-20 says it this way, "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Rom 6:5-7
Says, “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.” Christians become Christians through confessing that the sins of their previous life were wrong, repenting (tuning from them) to God through Jesus, and surrendering to Jesus allowing His Holy Spirit to reshape them in the way He wants them to be. From there it is a daily walk with Him in prayer, reading His Word, meeting and “training” with other believers. He will train you with His Sword, and you will become Samurai.
The Emperor’s response was that though he dreams of a unified, strong, and independent country; and even now they have many modern conveniences and Western clothing, “We cannot forget who we are, or where we come from.”
Neither can we as a people, as a nation forget that before Jesus came we were His enemies, lost, and without hope (Eph 2:11-13). But, the media, government schools, and entertainment industries are calculatingly redefining history and censoring truth in order to erase the memory of God and the Faith in Jesus held dear by those who made us great—and indeed, the faith needed to continue in any greatness at all.
Personally we must keep our desires on things above (Col 3:2), or we too will lose ourselves in the sea of “relevant” affluence, comfort, and convenience (Jn 15:5).
Sin, satan, and selfishness are on the march. The warriors of God must sharpen their weapons, train, and engage, or all is lost. The enemies are infiltrating that which we have come to love. Fight Samurai! Warrior of God and Truth, we all need you. “...Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” –2 Tim 2:1-4
Do you long to be mighty? The mighty are always those in service of something bigger than themselves; something that carries on through their lifetime into many lives to come. There is no greater calling than the call to be part of the Lord’s army and family; nothing that will have greater impact.
I hope this little reflection has challenged you somewhat about what and Who it is you are fighting for. Is it Christ or comfort; truth or tastefulness; reality or relevance? Is your goal your divine call, or your dignified colleagues? Do you fight more for you and your “rights”, or for your Ruler an what's right? Everyone is fighting for something.
I long for people to have devotion for Christ like the Samurai leader, and “convert” had for their emperor. If you want to be the Lord’s samurai, may God bless you and keep you, brother, sister! Recognize and remember the battle. Train, and act; be ready for opposition, never, ever give up.
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