Frozen: True Love

...continued from Part 1

Ever since they were kids, Anna has known nothing but hurt from her older sister, Elsa. She doesn't remember the first time, when Elsa accidentally hit her with a magic snowball. But she does remember the "doors in her face," all those long years of being ignored. Most recent is Elsa's refusal to bless Anna's engagement to Prince Hans.

And yet, Anna is convinced that her sister, Elsa, is worth loving. Sure, she threw the land into an eternal winter, but there's still good in her, she can feel it.

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." -- 1 Corinthians 13:7

It's just going to take some convincing of Elsa. So Anna climbs the mountain with Kristoff at her side--

--and ends up stabbed through the heart by one of Elsa's icicles. Now she's dying, and the only cure is an act of true love. Well, thinks Anna, what can be more of an act of true love than true love's kiss?

But when she's this close to that kiss--and this close to dying without it--Anna runs the other way. She runs to save her sister, fearlessly putting herself between Elsa and the oncoming sword. The ice that has been overtaking her from that encounter with Elsa's icicle now takes over, crystallizing into statue. Anna is dead.

It would make some sense if she'd died for Hans, at least before she knew of his betrayal. Or Kristoff, who might just be the true love she was looking for. Olaf has been her friend; he deserves such sacrifice.

"Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good." -- Romans 5:7

But Elsa has singlehandedly ripped Anna's heart to shreds, both figuratively and literally. Elsa almost killed her--twice. She's slammed the door in her face again and again and again. Elsa is the reason the land is frozen. Elsa bears a power so strong people call it sorcery. She is feared, and with excellent reason. No one can think of a reason why she should stay alive. She ruins every thing she touches, every relationship she encounters.

And it's Elsa that Anna sacrifices her life for.

"Love covers a multitude of sins." -- 1 Peter 4:8

If you ever wanted a picture of God's love demonstrated, Anna's sacrifice is it. This blog often highlights themes of sacrifice. Will Turner trading himself for Elizabeth. Or even Flik taking one for the team in A Bug's Life. But this is different. Anna loves Elsa. And Elsa doesn't deserve it at all.

That's love. As the film points out, that is true love.

"There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." -- John 15:13

Life returns to Anna. Throughout the film, Anna is full of hopeful optimism and love. She loves love and wants only for everyone to be happy. She breathes goodness. When she sacrifices her life for Elsa's and becomes a heroic statue of ice, the very act of true love is what brings her back to life. It is her death which becomes the victory over death itself. 

"...death could not keep him (Jesus) in its grip." -- Acts 2:24

"He (Jesus) broke the power of death..." -- 2 Timothy 1:10

"...though the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know...if she could have looked a little further back...She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards." -- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis

And Elsa? Elsa is free. Her powers no longer control her. Instead, she can use them--or not use them--however she pleases. No longer is she a slave.

The film is vague on how, exactly, Anna's sacrifice is the freedom of Elsa. But it hints towards one explanation: Elsa's experience of that unconditional love was enough.

We are undeserving. We have tried and tried and tried to control ourselves, to do good, but we have failed, and failed, and failed. Sin has got the better of us. We are pinned down by our mistakes and failures. We are desperate. We are trying. And, as Elsa sings, we "can't." If a good and wonderful person is going to die for someone, it's only logical that we're last on that list

But we're not. Not in Frozen, not in real life. Anna gives up her life--her good, honest, optimistic, hopeful life--and lays it down for the one person who has hurt her more than anyone else. Anna gives up her life for the very person who has frozen the kingdom, ruined her childhood, and almost killed her.

Elsa knows she doesn't deserve it. But Anna doesn't see things that way.

"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." -- Romans 5:8

To Anna, it doesn't matter what Elsa has done. The only thing that matters is that Anna loves Elsa, no matter what. And that's how God loves you. He dies for you, knowing full well what you've done, knowing that he is good and you are not, knowing that you've broken His heart time after time after time. But that's not what matters to Him. What matters is that He loves you. That's all that matters. He loves you.

And He has come to free you. He has died to free you from all the destruction of sin.

"For while you were slaves to sin, you could not do righteously...but now you are made free from sin." -- Romans 6:20, 22

Sin has ruined us. It has turned everything we touch into failure. It has sabotaged our relationships. We have hurt people, vowed to do better, and done worse. It has tricked us into lifestyles that keep us from success. Sin is the cause of every bad thing on this earth: war, poverty, disease, murder, rape, abuse, cheating. All of it. All because of sin. And without Jesus' death, without the heroic sacrifice for the people who have caused Him the most pain, there is no hope.

"For the wages of sin is death--

But, like Anna, He chooses true love and dies so that we can live.

"--but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus." -- Romans 6:23