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Flynn Rider as Jesus

Similarities

We see a very prominent similarity of Flynn and Jesus when Flynn resurrects from the dead. When Mother Gothel stabs Flynn, he dies. But, with the help of Rapunzel's tears healing his wound, Flynn comes back to life. This is similar to when Jesus died on the cross. After he died and was played in his tomb, he was nowhere to be found three days later. He couldn't be found in his tomb because he resurrected. Another similarity in this is why they died. Both Flynn and Jesus died to free people from misery. Flynn could have let Rapunzel heal him. Instead, he cuts of her hair to give her a life of freedom and save her from a life of misery and slavery that she would have had to live with Mother Gothel. But, because he saved her, he died from his wound. Similar to this, Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. When we die, we have the opportunity to go to Heaven and live a life of eternal freedom with God. 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves

Phillipians 2:3

Differences

Although Flynn has many similarities to Jesus, we can't compare everything about him to Jesus. For example, their personalities are extremely different. When we first meet Flynn in the movie, we see him committing a crime to the royal family by stealing the crown of the lost princess. From this we see that he is a trouble maker, and we later learn he is arrogant, selfish, and a liar. We learn his life long goals "mainly happen somewhere warm and sunny. On and island that [he owns], tanned and rested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of money." Flynn was an orphan when he was younger, which is where he picked up his fake name "Flynn Rider." He lies about his first name which is really Eugene Fitzherbert. Here we see that he is insecure about himself, but he pretends he has a great pride in himself and that he is perfect. We also notice that Flynn is a vagabond, a person who wanders from place to place without a home or job. And, although he did agree to help Rapunzel, he only did it for his own benefit.This is much different from Jesus. When we think of Jesus, we think of words like honest, caring, forgiving, and patient. He had no trouble going out of his way to help people and cared deeply for everyone. "At times when he could have benefited from some needed rest and relaxation, Jesus still put himself out for others. He did not have a me-first attitude." "Jesus consistently showed patience with his apostles and others," and "as a perfect man, Jesus did not experience many of the distresses and concerns that other humans did. Yet he showed deep feeling for people. He was willing to go out of his way for them, to do things beyond what might have seemed necessary. The differences between Flynn Rider and Jesus can be summed up by Phillipians 2:3, which says, "Do nothing out of ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves."

By Flynn Rider sacrificing his life for Rapunzel, we see the theme of sacrificial love. "Sacrificial love is giving up something for the greater good. It means temporarily losing yourself and your desires to focus on something outside of you." This means that Flynn loved Rapunzel so much that he was willing to die for her. This is just like when God sent his one and only son, Jesus, to die on the cross to forgive our sins. He listened to God because he has an enormous everlasting love for us and would do anything for us. We hear this in the song "More Than Anything" by Point of Grace. It says, "More than anything he wants them to know, he'd rather di than let them go, cause' God loves people more then anything." The greatest way he could this love to us was by sacrificing his life, which is how Flynn showed how much he loved Rapunzel. When describing "the width of his love, he stretched one hand to the right and the other to the left and had them nailed in that position so [we] would know he died loving [us]." 

Sacrificial Love

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

John 15:13 (NIV)

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