Seeing Myself Hidden in Christ through A Manga Character: A Christmas Reflection
Versi Bahasa Indonesia dari tulisan ini dimuat di WarungSaTeKaMu.org dengan judul Melihat dan Memahami Injil Natal Lewat Tokoh Manga.
“You’re such a weeaboo!” said my friends jokingly.
“Huh? What’s a ‘weeaboo’?” I asked.
“Dude, you just explained the story of a manga to us, that means you’re a weeaboo.”
The conversation pretty much summed up my first encounter with the word “weeaboo”. I’m sorry if I sound outdated. I’ve not been active on social media, which I understand popularised the term among Indonesians. If you also didn’t know, “weeaboo” is used – often derogatorily – to describe people who seem obsessed with Japanese media and pop culture.
I used “seem” because, while indeed there are such people who brag about the superiority of Japanese culture, those mistakenly called “weeaboo” like me genuinely enjoy manga or anime as entertainment, nothing more. I’m sorry if I do overenthusiastically talk about a manga series I’m following sometimes, but I trust you can empathise with my eagerness. Isn’t it natural for us to passionately share our joy from something with others so they can enjoy it, too?
That’s exactly what I’m going to do here: sharing about a manga protagonist and how I relate with him, but with a twist: I’m linking my reflection on the character back to Lord Jesus. By this uncommon piece which connects a manga with the Gospel, I hope to show you that (i) we can committedly follow Christ and still enjoy entertainment and (ii) He can be found in all creation, including ours, when we seek Him with all we are (Acts 17:27, cf. Isa. 55:6–7).
Without further ado, let me introduce, from the manga series My Hero Academia (MHA):
To understand what “One for All” is and the significance of Izuku being its ninth user, we must first dive into the setting – and a little bit of history – of MHA’s universe. MHA took place in a world where only a minority of population didn’t have “quirks” (the manga’s term for superpowers). As such, heroes and villains were prevalent in the society. The villains were governed by All For One (AFO), the story’s oldest villain whose quirk of the same name enabled him to steal and use others’ quirks. Leading the heroes’ resistance against the villains was All Might, who possessed the quirk One For All (OFA).
If you think the antithetical terms AFO and OFA are related, you’re right. In the distant past, AFO had a brother who was thought to be quirkless (i.e., he didn’t have a quirk), so AFO forcefully gave him a quirk that stockpiled power. What they hadn’t known was that the brother had a quirk which allowed him to transfer his quirk to another person. The power transference and stockpiling quirks merged into OFA, with the brother as its first user. He tried to stop AFO but failed as OFA was too weak, so the brother passed OFA to the next user in hope that it would one day become powerful enough to stop AFO’s reign of terror.
Five years before the main MHA story, All Might as the eighth user of OFA managed to de-feat AFO, granting him the moniker “Symbol of Peace”. However, the battle left All Might grievously wounded. Moreover, knowing that the imprisoned AFO might one day return and threaten the peace he’d fought hard for, All Might had since been looking for a successor who was worthy of OFA and could continue his mission to stop AFO once and for all. After recovering from his wounds, All Might started teaching at his alma mater U.A. High School.
Entered: Izuku Midoriya. He was your typical teenage nerd, with aspirations to enrol in U.A. and become a great hero like All Might. But Izuku was born quirkless, so how could he fulfil his dreams? You can guess how the story unfolded: Izuku accidentally met All Might and got involved in a situation where he showed heroism despite having no quirk. In the aftermath, All Might revealed his secrets to Izuku and chose him to inherit OFA. Now with a quirk, Izuku managed to join U.A. and began training to succeed All Might as the Symbol of Peace.
It was quite a standard story from here: Izuku developed well as a hero trainee, gained valuable rivals and allies, and faced his rogue gallery. But, like all good stories, the protagonist must experience a nadir before the zenith. Nine months into his study in U.A., Izuku joined a covert operation to capture AFO’s followers. During the heroes’ ambush, they discovered that AFO himself had appointed a successor and transplanted his AFO quirk to him. This successor and a handful of AFO’s cronies survived and even released AFO from imprisonment. The return of AFO and his followers threw society into chaos like the time before All Might defeated AFO. With AFO actively targeting Izuku to “reclaim” OFA, Izuku decided to leave U.A. with All Might to protect his loved ones, but not before explaining to his classmates about OFA and his reasons for leaving them.
Hence began Izuku’s quest to track and con-front AFO once and for all. Yet, after some time following leads, helping civilians in need, and defeating assassins sent by AFO, Izuku couldn’t locate him at all. Exhaustion added to the burdens that Izuku carried as OFA successor. Izuku ended up pushing away the allies who had been helping him with his mission, including All Might, and operated solo under the same rationale of protecting them from harm’s way. Izuku’s journey reached its nadir when days of restless search and battles finally twisted his appearance, making him resemble a villain more than a hero, as shown in the image below.
Seeing myself in Izuku Midoriya
Now that you know more about Izuku and MHA, let me share how I relate to him. Like Izuku’s receiving OFA from All Might at 14, I received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour nine days before I turned 15 years old. Our lives have since never been the same. While Izuku went to U.A., trained in preparation to oppose AFO, and became a capable hero in his own right, the Lord called me to study environmental science at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, becoming the only Indonesian in the programme’s first batch. After four years of “training”, I worked as one of the few Indonesian environmental consultants in Singapore. During those 3.5 years in my first job, I discerned the Lord affirming His calling for me in marketplace, especially in the emerging field of sustainability.
I then decided to further equip myself by picking up a master’s degree in sustainable finance at National University of Singapore. Surprisingly – or unsurprisingly? – I was again the only Indonesian in the programme’s first batch. Now I’m employed at the institute which hosts my master’s programme, researching how various market sectors can internalise their social and environmental externalities through sustainable finance so that we can better adapt to and mitigate climate change. I’m also serving in several ministries revolving around discipleship: developing church curriculum, leading a cell group, teaching in youth service, and writing in WarungSaTeKaMu and this blog.
As you can see, the combination of my vocation at work and ministry, sustainable finance and discipleship, is rather unusual. Depending on perspective, my set of vocation is either an honour or a burden: the former, because God doesn’t call everyone to trail-blaze and discover His kingdom’s work in an emerging and increasingly relevant field; the latter, because trail-blazing means walking the path alone with very few able to relate to your work and experience. Add to this mix my setting, a country infamous for being busy, and you’d perceive my daily temptation to view my vocation as a burden. Unfortunately, more often than not, I fell into the temptation. Like Izuku, I felt burdened by the weight of my vocations to the point of repeatedly thinking, “No one gets me, no one can carry my burdens, I have to fight this fight by myself!” Having learnt about Izuku’s and my nadirs, you may now wonder how we overcame them. We didn’t. Someone else came to our rescue.
How Izuku navigated through his nadir
For Izuku, it was his classmates in U.A. Now knowing his plight, Izuku’s friends searched for and reached out to him, asking him to return so they could prepare to confront AFO together. Izuku tried to resist, but an exhausted eighth heir of OFA could not hold a candle to 19 natural quirk users. In a battle recorded in the manga’s chapters 320 to 322, Izuku’s classmates collectively held their own against him despite his superior quirk. Realising the errors in his way, Izuku apologised to his friends and returned to U.A. with them so he could get proper rest and support for the final, all-out battle against AFO and his cronies. The “easy” takeaway is that our closest ones can rescue us from our nadir and help us get back on our feet when we are down. Yet, we know deep down that the reality is not as convenient. Why? Because our family and friends won’t always be with us throughout our lives. Some may even leave us alone in our struggles because they can barely keep up with theirs. So, whom can we turn to for help when we are at our nadir?
How we can navigate through our nadir with Christ
Reading this arc of Izuku’s story (in chs. 316 to 325, Izuku faced off with his friends in chs. 320–322) reminded me of another figure – historical, not fictional – who was brought down to his nadir, just as Izuku and I did, and managed to navigate through it with hope. Here is what he said about his plight and how it was resolved:
16 At my first defence no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:16–18 ESV)
Apostle Paul wrote the text above in his second letter to Timothy his protégé, which turned out to be his last letter before his passing. After being released from home imprisonment in Rome in Acts 28, Paul continued serving and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for which he was imprisoned again in the same city years later. There was Paul, writing in the dark corner of a Roman prison cell to his protégé, likely shivering from the cold of winter (v. 13). Abandoned by his companions in an earlier trial (v. 16), Paul asked Timothy to come and accompany him (v. 9) as he waited for more trials which likely would end with his death (v. 6).
We’d understand if Paul’s letter ended in despair, but that’s not what followed verse 16. What happened? Lord Jesus was accompanying Paul, affirming His calling for him and strengthen-ing him to prevail through this apparent nadir (v. 17). Why was Lord Jesus’ presence enough for Paul to endure his imprisonment, moreover praise Him (v. 18)? Because Paul knew that Jesus had experienced worse loneliness and suffering than he did, some even by Paul’s own hands (Acts 19:5). And, having accepted Him as his Lord and Saviour, Paul knew for sure that Jesus Christ was always with him through His Holy Spirit in him (Rom. 8:9–11).
I had read this passage several times, but I did not understand the significance of Paul’s words there until I saw The Bible Project’s depiction of verse 17: Paul in a dark, cold prison with Lord Jesus standing next to him and comforting him. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between the image painted by 2 Timothy 4:17 with a scene in MHA’s chapter 321 where Izuku’s friend grabbed his hand, symbolising their willingness to support him in his mission to defeat AFO:
At once, Jesus’ other name came into mind: Immanuel, God with us (Mat. 1:23, Isa. 7:14).
This name bears both personal and cosmic implications. It means that nothing in this universe exists or happens outside God’s control, including our suffering (Rom. 8:28, cf. Mat. 6:25–30). Jesus being Immanuel means that God will never leave nor forsake us (Deut. 31:8). We have His assurance for this promise, the strongest of any assurance possible. In Jesus, I found the true Izuku who bore the unimaginable burden of the whole world, experienced the worst abandonment of all, and prevailed to the end without relying on and losing himself. Where? On the Roman cross that was the nadir of Christmas, Jesus cried loudly, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Mk. 15:34).
Behold, the Son of God, the Author of all creations (Gen. 1:3; Jn. 1:3), the true heir of God the Father (Rom. 8:17), coming down in the form of His creation to be with us and suffering the worst possible nadir alone. What for? So that those who believe in Him will never be alone but be in His faithful, eternal presence. Need we more proof that this is the only God whom we can worship and rely on at all times, especially in times of need? If Jesus was with Paul during his imprisonment, He is surely with us too, until the end of the age when He comes the second time (Mat. 28:20).
How I navigated through a nadir with Christ
This truth first came to me approximately two years ago, when quarter life crisis hit me hard and knocked me down to my nadir. I had just turned 25 a month before and was three years into working in environmental consultancy. The COVID-19 pandemic was still raging, most of my friends had their own Christmas event, and somehow my schedule was as empty as the supermarket aisle for masks and hand sanitisers.
During those days, my mind wandered into a very dark territory. (Whatever dark thoughts you could ever imagine, I can say they’ve visited me.) I almost succumbed to them, had not the Lord called me to teach in the youth service’s Christmas event on the topic of – drumroll, please – Immanuel. Being “forced” by Him to contemplate on this other name of Jesus which God had assigned long way before He was born led me down to the train of thoughts which I detailed above.
Did the darkness lift? No, but I knew that I’m not walking alone. It’s like my eyes had been covered by some scales which then fell off (cf. Acts 9:18) when I grasped this truth of God being with me in the person of Jesus Christ. With this encouragement from the Lord Himself, I was led to be more proactive and discovered some friends with whom to celebrate Christmas. Yet, more importantly, He enabled me to comfort others who may share similar afflictions, first the youths who came to the 2021 Christmas service and now you who read this piece, “with the comfort with which [I myself am] comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:4).
Seeing Jesus Christ in every story
It’s very easy to forget that we are sinners undeserved of the salvation graciously given us by Lord Jesus, especially if we see ourselves as good, blessed people. Our gifts and blessings may become curses and burdens, making us forget that we of all people need His salvation. Izuku had this amnesia, but his classmates came to his rescue. Our closest family and friends may do the same, but ultimately only Jesus can save us. Izuku and his friends’ fight remained, but Christ has won the battle for us. Thus we fight on because He has decisively won over sin and death.
We can derive many applications from my sharing, such as taking the initiative to share with those closest to you about your predicament, just like Izuku and Paul did with their letters. But there’s something else we can do to address our amnesia at its root. I hope you would at least remember and apply this one: when all seems lost and you don’t feel like coming to God at all, may His Spirit move you to remember the stories which moved you, then follow along the trail in the direction in which they point. There, you’ll find the Grand Author, Jesus Christ, extremely near and incredibly close, and with Him all things (Rom. 8:32; 1 Cor. 3:21–23): love (Jn. 15:9), strength and companionship (2 Tim. 4:7), rest (Mat. 11:28–30), and courage and hope (Ps. 23:4, 6) to go on in His calling for you.
As the late Tim Keller wrote in chapter 2 of his book The Hidden Christmas:
If Christmas really happened, it means the whole human race has amnesia, but the tales we love most aren’t really just entertaining escapism. The Gospel, because it is a true story, means all the best stories will be proved, in the ultimate sense, true. (p. 28)
Uncover His story beneath all good stories in this world, and you’ll find yourself hidden in Him (Col. 3.3), calm, quieted, and hopeful (Ps. 131) in the face of all things. At the end of this year, may you find Jesus Christ ever present, ever close, ever loving. Merry Christmas, the grace of Jesus Christ be with you, soli Deo gloria!
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