Who are you?
You can tell me your name, but that’s not who you are. It’s only what you’re called...and I’ve been called plenty of things by plenty of people. I’ve also called those people plenty of things - but that’s neither here nor there.
You can tell me your job title, but your career isn’t who you are either. What you may do this year may not be what you do next year, and it’s too small a thing to define yourself with anyway. To see a cashier as just a cashier – or a pastor as just a pastor – it may help you categorize them, but it will not make sure that you know them. So what makes you you? Is it where you come from or the sum of all the good and bad things you’ve ever done? Is it who or what you love? Or is it something beyond your control?
It’s kind of a big question, right? For a family film to tackle? But it’s exactly what The Lion King pounced on 26 years ago – and then again this past summer ‘cause I guess Disney needed a bit more money. It’s the question that Simba spends the movie trying to figure out.
At first, all he can think about is being the future king.
Then, he tries running away from his past – or rather, he tries to run away from himself. We’ll get to that later.
Finally, there’s that big awesome bit where he does the big roar and everyone’s happy again. It’s a great bit. The music’s triumphant and all the lions are roaring – you need to watch this movie again. That’s what I’m getting at.
Anyway, don’t let go of that “Who are you” question, because that’s the question we want to try and answer today as we follow Simba through his story. Today, we are all Simba. And in just a moment, Mufasa himself will have a few things to say to us.
Mufasa: Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom.
Simba: Everything the light touches...what about that shadowy place?
Mufasa: That's beyond our borders. You must never go there, Simba.
Adam and Eve had one rule.
Just one rule, and if they followed it, they would’ve gotten to stay as caretakers of the Garden of Eden for eternity. God gives them everything they can see for as far as they can see it. All they gotta do is not eat from this one little tree and everything will be fine.
But along comes a serpent who tells Adam and Eve that the forbidden fruit might not be so bad after all. In Genesis 3, here’s what the serpent says.
“You will certainly not die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Only the bravest lions go there.
You are Simba today, remember. It doesn’t take much to see the privilege that we’ve been born into like he was. Many of us come from different walks of life, but we’re all fortunate enough to live in a kingdom much like Simba’s. We have a beautiful country, where we’re free to go where we wish and do as we like. Everything the light touches is ours. And yet, there’s always been something about ‘that shadowy place’. Time and time again, I have this terrible knack of desiring the thing I shouldn’t have. I mean, I’ve never had the urge to run headfirst into an elephant graveyard, mind you, but we’ve all looked longingly at that little lie that’s just a bit easier than the truth, or listened to that gossip that tasted sweeter than silence.
So Simba goes to the shadowy place, bringing his best friend along and nearly getting both of them eaten by hyenas (which is the worst). Thankfully, Mufasa rescues them, but when Mufasa and his son have ‘the talk’ about it, Simba says something interesting.
“I was just trying to be brave like you.”
What’s neat about that is how closely it resembles what the serpent told Eve. The serpent said, “You will be like God.” We don’t often realize it or think about it much, but whenever we decide to do things our way, we’re basically ignoring Mufasa’s directions and walking into the elephant graveyard. Sure, we were told not to go there, but that probably wasn’t an entirely informed command. Mufasa couldn’t really have meant what he said – and if he did, he probably underestimated just how capable Simba was, right? It can’t be as bad as we’ve been told.
In some way, shape, or form, we feel that we are ready to become God in the same way that Simba “just couldn’t wait to be King”. But no matter what it looks like – whether it’s telling a convenient lie, visiting the ‘shadowy place’, or taking a bite from a forbidden fruit – we always find out that we are not as much like God as we thought we were.
We find out that doing things our own way has consequences. Sometimes the consequence is immediate, and sometimes it takes ages to finally land, but the ‘freedom’ we think we’re heading for always turns out to not be as free as we thought. We all have a shadowy place – it’s never far away. And when we go, we always end up paying for it. And if you think you haven’t paid for it, then you’re Simba when he says:
"I walk on the wild side. I laugh in the face of danger. HA HA HA HA!"
Trust me – the hyenas aren’t far off.
Simba thinks that ‘who he is’ is defined by the cool things he can do. He thinks that if he can show everyone how brave or strong he is, then he will have value. His whole song-and-dance bit (as catchy as it is) is a song where he’s dreaming about how great he will be. In his own eyes, he’s not there yet. But one day, he thinks, he’ll be there – and it’s going to be amazing.
Mufasa corrects Simba that night after rescuing him. He says, “Simba – being brave doesn’t mean you go looking for trouble.” Charting your own course does not make you who you are, but we act like it does all the time. We define our worth by where we’ve been or what we’ve done - by the steps that we’ve taken on our own strength. Now, if you’ve got a great self-esteem, it’s not so bad. You only see the best things you’ve done, and you brush the rest under the rug. If you’re the opposite, you see only the heap of your own failures. Your little victories just seem like they’ll never measure up to the times you’ve let people down. Unfortunately, both of those kinds of people are in trouble. The over-confident person is like Simba laughing in front of the skull. They can’t see how lost they’ve become. The other person is like Simba here:
They’re so aware of their inadequacy that it’s crippling. It kind of keeps them wallowing in a place that they know they don’t belong – because they don’t think they deserve any better.
One way or another, sin catches up with us. And what do we do when we’re broken? What do you do when you fail a test? What do you do when you spot a stain on your outfit while you're at a party? What do you do when you trip in public?
You hide.
Scar: Run away, Simba. Run. Run away and never return.
We have inherited something from Adam and Eve. Just like them, when we mess up, we hide.We throw that test away before someone sees it. We cover up that stain as best as we can. When we fall, we get up off the ground and look around really quickly to see if anybody saw us. That's exactly what Simba did, and that's exactly what Moses did too.
This is a fun fact if you’re interested - the producers of this movie admit that they drew heavily on the biblical story of Moses when putting the story together. Moses was a son in the palace of the Pharoah, but ran away from everything after he killed a guy. He ran somewhere he wouldn't have to face what he had done.
Simba - the one who was supposed to be the future king of his people - ended up living the "Hakuna Matata" life with Timon and Pumbaa, two guys who never pushed him to be who he knew he was supposed to be. They were fun to be with, for sure, but they kept him from doing anything truly significant with his life.You’re Simba, remember – so who are your Timon and Pumbaa? Who are those friends who are a blast to hang with – but who you know are keeping you from the duty you were born to fulfill? Because when you don’t realize who those people are, you find yourself looking like Simba or Moses. Moses - the man who God wanted to lead an entire people out of Egypt - found himself leading sheep instead to pass the time. Sure, if you asked Simba or Moses what they were up to at this point, they might answer, "Well, I'm on a journey of self-discovery. I'm, uh, finding myself." But what they were really doing - what we are really doing - is going on a journey of self-burying. In fleeing our guilt, we end up fleeing from our true purpose in the process.
Pumbaa: Ever wonder what those sparkly dots are up there?
Simba: Well, somebody once told me that the great kings of the past are up there - watching over us.
Timon: You mean a bunch of royal dead guys are watching us? What mook made that up?
We’ve all been in this place like Simba was, where we’ve been trying to avoid that guilt we just can’t shake, and then from out of nowhere it rears its head. And it is guilt that Simba is feeling here when Timon and Pumbaa laugh at him. There’s embarrassment, sure. His friends are making fun of him. But it’s more than that. See, Simba finds himself here being mocked by his two closest friends in the world. He’s mocked for bringing up a belief system that he learned from the most important person in his life. And though Timon and Pumbaa didn’t necessarily mean to offend, it cuts Simba on a deeply personal level. And it’s not because he’s left that life behind or because that belief doesn’t mean anything to him anymore – it’s because there’s something within him that keeps him from letting it go.
Think about Peter, that disciple of Jesus who swore up and down that he would never betray Jesus. Back when Jesus was on trial, hours from being crucified, Peter was waiting nearby – and people started recognizing him. First there was a servant girl who called him out, and a bit later someone else did too. Both times, he swore that he didn’t know Jesus. You know how the story goes.
About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him.”Peter replied, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Notice what Simba does here right after saying “Yeah, pretty dumb, huh?”. He looks up at the stars, and they look straight back at him just like Jesus looked at Peter. He believes that the great kings of the past are up there, watching over him. And he just called them dumb in front of his friends. And it’s here that Simba and Peter run away – not when they’re being ridiculed, but when they remember the person who they believed in. Simba doesn’t just feel embarrassed. He feels convicted. He knows that the life he is living is so dramatically different from the one he is supposed to live. He’s worked to forget it – but here, in this silent moment where he’s looking up at the stars, the belief that he’s been carrying shows up once again.
I believe that the Holy Spirit does that to us. I believe no matter how far you run from God, he’s never far away. But here’s what we do - because we’re silly. We think that God’s just sitting up there, watching us with a disappointed frown on his face and his arms folded. We’re afraid to turn to God. Simba’s lying here, thinking,“What would Dad think of me if he saw me now?”And I do that all the time. When I mess up, I’m afraid to even think about God – because to think about him is to remember that I’ve messed up. And if you don’t think about God, the mistakes you’ve made can feel like they’re not such a big deal. At least, for a while. But then someone at a party asks you what kind of church you grew up in. Or you’re at a family event and your aunt asks you what kind of shows you’ve been watching lately. It doesn’t take much, but suddenly it’s like you’re right back there at the top of Pride Rock, listening to the words the king told you. And you remember that you’re not the person you were told to be.
Some of us are stuck in this spot. It’s like we’re standing fifteen feet away from a campfire in the middle of the night. We’re afraid to get too close to the fire because we know that getting close means the light will show the mud on our clothes. We keep ourselves at arm’s length from God because getting closer means facing the things we’ve done. C.S. Lewis phrased it kind of like this: you’re so ashamed of your toothache that you refuse to go to the dentist.
Here’s the mistake that we’re making. Simba thinks that ‘who he is’ is the sum of the mistakes he’s made. He’s spent years trying to forget about them, but that very journey proves that he believes his identity is rooted in the guilt that he carries. The more he tries to ignore it, the heavier the weight becomes. When he was a kid, he thought his identity was found in his bravery, but now he thinks it’s found in the things he’s done wrong. And it’s crippling him.
Doing things our way makes us like this. We realize that we’ve messed up, and we in our silliness do one of two things. We either become Simba at the graveyard – tricking ourselves into thinking we’re alright when we’re really on the edge of disaster – or we become Simba under the stars, locked in a losing battle to forget the guilt that we’ve carried for years. That’s us up there. That’s me. That’s you. Simba has forgotten who he is. When you were here, you forgot who you are.
"You have forgotten who you are, and so, forgotten me."
Let’s take a second and just think about Mufasa’s plan of action here. If you were murdered by your brother – now that may be a stretch for some of you, perhaps not all of you. If you were murdered by your brother, and your son spent his life thinking it was his fault – and then you had a chance to talk to him, what would you say? I would probably say, “Hey, it’s cool. It wasn’t your fault. It was my brother. Please keep an eye on him.” My point is that Mufasa fully had a chance here to clear things up for Simba – and he didn’t take it. Instead, he throws Simba a crazy curveball. The first thing he tells Simba is "You have forgotten me." Like, what? Of course he didn't! The whole reasonSimba is out here in the middle of nowhere in the first place is because he thinks he killed his own dad. And yet, here Mufasa is, giving Simba this gut-punch straight out of the sky.
It reminds me a lot of Moses and the Burning Bush. Remember that Moses fled Egypt because he killed somebody. Simba thinks he killed someone, but Moses did it for real. You’d think that would be something that God would want to address before selecting him as the leader of all of Israel. But God doesn't bring up the fact that Moses killed a guy. He doesn't even address it! Instead, he gets straight to the heart of the matter. "Bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt".
I love that. See, the King doesn't waste time talking about the past. He talks instead about right now. Right now, Simba (that’s you) isn't being who he's supposed to be. Mufasa doesn't bring Simba back to the moment that he worked so hard to forget. Instead, he calls out where Simba is now.
“You have forgotten who you are, and so, forgotten me.”
But what is Simba supposed to do with that? He doesn’t know who he is in the first place! And when Mufasa tells him that he must take his place in the Circle of Life just like God tells Moses to head back to Egypt, both of them respond the exact same way. For Simba, it's "How can I go back?" For Moses, it's "Who amI that I should go to Pharoah?" Don't you know what I've done? Don't you know how broken I am? How can you use me?
And I love this. I love this. Because God doesn't worry about our brokenness the way we do. He cares about us and loves us, but he doesn't fixate on our failure. Mufasa says what is probably the most spiritually significant line of dialogue in Disney’s history. This is it – right here.
"Remember who you are. You are my son."
Some of us have been living like ‘who we are’ is something that is in our control. I’ve lived like that. If I can just do enough good deeds, God will love me – or people will love me – or I will love myself. And if I fail, I’m worthless. All I can do is show myself off when I’m at my best and hide my sins for as long as I can. I can’t tell you how convicted I got just writing this because I do this all the time. I was sitting at home on the couch typing this up and thinking,
“Man, I do this. When I mess up, I’ll do whatever it takes to hide it.”
Because I’ve got a toothache and I’m afraid of the dentist. I think he’ll take one look at me and say I’m beyond saving. But I keep forgetting that’s not the God I serve. When Moses asks God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” God answers, “I will be with you.”
Who you are has nothing to do with the great things you think you’ve done or the bad things you’ve tried to hide. Who you are has nothing to do with your name or your title or your spouse or your job or your possessions. Who you are has everything to do with who He is.
You are His son. You are His daughter. That’s who you are. That is an unchanging, unconditional, unending truth. You will never stop being his child no matter where you go or what you do.
My brokenness is not a hindrance to God. I belong to Him. He’s been by my side from the beginning, showering my life with opportunities to return to Him. I’m the Prodigal Son and He’s been waiting since the day I left with open arms. But He’s not content to leave me the way I am once He brings me home. Mufasa isn’t trying to just make Simba feel better – he’s trying to save the Pride Lands. God doesn’t want to just give Moses a happily ever after. He’s working through Moses to rescue all of Israel. Isn’t that amazing? ‘Who you are’ has nothing to do with you – but once you accept it, God uses you to make His name great. God’s plan for you is so much bigger than you ever could’ve imagined, and if we could stop carrying our guilt around like we’re capable of dealing with it, we’d see that. If we could simply remember that we are God's sons and daughters, we'd remember that his forgiveness and love is a gift that we all have free access to. Ephesians 1:7 says "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Because we are God's children, we don't have to run from our mistakes. Because we are God's children, there is no place you can go that God's love will not reach. There is nothing you can do that will make us useless to God. Like, come on! Who made man's mouth? Who made the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Who are you to tell God that he cannot use you?
You’re Simba. You messed up somewhere along the way. We all have. But your brokenness does not define you. Remember who you are. You are a child of God. And that means He's not finished with you yet.
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