I find myself talking to my students about the MCU (for any newbs out there, that’s the Marvel Cinematic Universe) all the time. One student in particular seems to only know how to talk about Marvel movies, but I don’t mind because I love them too! Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings proves to be a valuable resource to bridge the gaps from pop culture to the Bible.
Human beings are made by God and for God, so it is impossible to write a story that doesn’t grasp at knowing him to some extent. He has made us with eternity of our hearts (Ecc. 3:11), and even in our depravity, we sense our need for something greater than ourselves.
Shang-Chi is one of those stories that illustrates this in an especially profound way. In particular, it echoes elements of the biblical office of the priesthood, giving us a powerful opportunity to point our students to the perfect priest, our eternal mediator, Jesus.
The Story of Shang-Chi
In the second half of the film, after Shang-Chi has reconciled himself to his identity, purpose, family, and trauma, we see a man who is resolute on doing what is right. Shang-Chi finds out that his father, the leader of the powerful Ten Rings organization, is convinced that his late wife is, in fact, still alive. Shang-Chi’s father believes that she is trapped behind the Dark Gate in the ethereal village of Ta Lo, his wife’s homeland.
The Dark Gate secures the Dweller-in-Darkness, a soul-consuming demonic being that sought to attack the village and overtake it millennia ago. A magical dragon called the Great Protector helped the villagers in the battle, locking the Dweller behind the gate. He also gifted Ta Lo mystical powers and portions of its skin so that they could craft weapons strong enough to fight the Dweller and his minions should the enemies ever escape.
As the movie progresses, we find out that, though the Dweller has been locked away, he has not been silenced. The Dweller is able to communicate with the outside world by uttering whispers that can be heard by people on earth. The Dweller begins whispering to Xu Wenwu in the voice of his wife pleading for him to come and release her from her prison. Shang-Chi and his sister and friends realize that this is a lie, so they set out to find Ta Lo. Their dual mission is to stop Xu Wenwu from opening the gate, thereby protecting the village from the Dweller.
The Story of the Biblical Priesthood
The storyline of Shang-Chi is rich with symbolism that calls to mind Genesis 3. After all, Ta Lo is portrayed almost as a garden in a world seemingly unaffected by the conflicts on earth. It calls our minds back to God’s command to Adam to tend to the Garden and subdue it, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. More than simply an ontological fact about Adam, being created in God’s image comes with functional duties. Adam, like the inhabitants of Ta Lo, was tasked with keeping out the Bad and cultivating the Good in our world. Although the earth was created perfect, it was not created complete. God, through his vice-regents, Adam and Eve, commanded that this work of completion be carried out in tandem.
Specifically prominent in the movie is the functionality of the priesthood. In Genesis 3:15 God tells Adam to “work and keep” the Garden. This language is only again used in the Old Testament in reference to the duties of the priests in the Temple in Numbers 3:8, 8:26, and 18:17. The priesthood is especially concerned with maintaining the separation between what is holy and all that is unclean (Lev. 10:10). Much of the sacrificial legislation is built upon keeping that which is holy separate from that which is not, clean versus unclean. The priesthood is a recapitulation of the mandate in the Garden, and through it we gain helpful insight into what exactly Adam was commanded to do in Eden.
As God’s vice-regent, Adam was to undertake the continuation of God’s creation through separation. God separated the light from the darkness. God separated the day from the night. God separated the land from the water and the ocean from the sky. And then God placed Adam in Eden so that Adam could continue separating what was clean and unclean from what is holy. The point of this separation was so that God’s presence could increasingly dwell upon the earth until every inch of creation was as holy as Eden and inhabited by God’s presence.[1]
The tragedy, however, is that Adam failed. When faced with the whispering lies of the serpent, Adam neglected his task. Rather than casting out the serpent as his priestly duties demanded, Adam invited the serpent in. Rather than ignoring the twisted deceptions and trusting in God’s words to him, Adam believed the serpent and woefully questioned the very motives of the one who loved him the most. Adam believed the whispers and, because of this denial of the proper authority of God, insisted upon his autonomy. Adam and Eve were, thus, separated from God’s presence. The Highest Priest had expelled that which was now unholy from His presence.
The rest of the Bible is the story of the Holy reestablishing relationship with the unholy until, in glorious entry, the Second Person of the Trinity enters into our world in the form of a baby. Jesus the true High Priest came to live a sinless life and to die a propitiatory death so that upon faith in his merit and not our own, the curse of Eden may be reversed.
Of course, all analogies fall short when pushed too far, but it is hard not to see the similarities. Xu Wenwu, clouded by his own desires, cannot properly distinguish the voice of the Dweller from the loving pleas of his children and so he goes to Ta Lo and lets evil enter. Shang-Chi must now correct the error of his father. This permeates our internal knowledge we have made some error that needs the help of someone else to fix it. In a very cinematically stunning sequence, Shang-Chi is able to wield the Ten Rings to his own command and away from his father. With the Ten Rings stripped, Xu Wenwu realizes defeat and, with a face of regret, his soul is taken by the Dweller. But where belief in the lie lead to death, Shang-Chi must defeat the very thing that defeated his father.
Now wielding the Ten Rings himself and helped by the Great Protector, Shang-Chi is able to best the Dweller and destroy it for good. Again, I am careful not to push too far, but I can’t help but see the death of Adam being conquered by Christ. Where our first father failed, the Son of Man succeeded. Where our first father believed the lie in the garden, the Son of Man denied the lies in the wilderness. Where our first father was cast into death, the Son of Man brings many into life.
This movie and its themes give youth ministers so much material to sprinkle into our talks as illustrations. It gives us a viable way to bridge small talk into gospel conversation. It gives us the ability to show students that the reason they love stories from the MCU is because they contain elements of the best story – the story their hearts truly longs after. Shang-Chi gives us an opportunity to turn a youth hang-out movie party into fruitful dialogue. It offers us a chance to share in a fresh way that we have a high priest who, though he was tempted like Adam, persevered and is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding on our behalf (Heb. 4:15-16).
[1] For more on this idea, Benjamin Gladd’s From Adam And Israel to the Church was especially helpful in formulating my thoughts here.
