Who Is It Really About?

 

When watching a movie or reading a book, do you ever find yourself hoping, or even craving redemption or reconciliation for a character and their relationships? Even though you know good and well they may not deserve that redemption, and reconciliation may not seem possible for them. A character that comes to mind for me is Travers Goff in Saving Mr. Banks. I think we crave redemption and reconciliation for these characters because we hope that there has to be a way for them to be saved even if they don’t deserve the saving. We weep with these characters. We have compassion for these characters. We care about these characters. We want nothing more than for these characters to be saved and their relationships to be mended. I believe we think this way because we see ourselves in each of these characters in one way or another. We know we don’t deserve redemption and reconciliation. However, we still want both, even though we don’t deserve an ounce of either. 

Saving Mr. Banks is a Disney movie that shows the making of Mary Poppins into a motion picture in 1961. It took twenty years for P. L. Travers to agree to make Mary Poppins into a Disney movie. From watching Saving Mr. Banks, you witness the life of Helen (P. L. Travers) and P. L. Travers creating Mary Poppins into a Disney movie with Walt Disney himself, a co-script writer, along with music and lyric writers. She had particular requests for this movie and if they were not met, the movie would not be created. 

In one scene, P. L. Travers says, “My point is that, unlike yourself, Mary Poppins is the very enemy of whimsy and sentiment. She’s truthful. She doesn’t sugarcoat the darkness in the world that these children will eventually, inevitably come to know. She prepares them for it. She deals in honesty. One must clean one’s room. It won’t magically do it by itself. This entire script is flim-am. Hmm? Where is its heart? Where is its reality? Where is the gravitas? No weight, Mr. Disney. See?”

Walt Disney replies saying, “‘No whimsy or sentiment’ says the woman who sent a flying nanny with a talking umbrella to save the children”. 

P. L. Travers then asks Disney, “You think Mary Poppins has come to save the children, Mr. Disney?”

Walt Disney soon realizes who Mary Poppins was coming to save. He tells P. L. Travers, “It is not the children that she comes to save, it’s their father. It’s your father, Travers Goff.” 

He goes on to say, “Give her to me. Trust me with your precious, Mary Poppins. I won’t disappoint you. I swear every time someone walks into a movie house, Leicester square to Kansas City, they will see George Banks being saved. They will love him and his kids. They will weep for his cares. They will wring their hands when he loses his job. And when he flies that kite, oh Ms. Travers, they will rejoice. They will sing. In movie houses all over the world, in the eyes and heads of my kids and other kids, and mothers and fathers, for generations to come, George Banks will be honored. George Banks will be redeemed. George Banks and all he stands for will be saved.” 

Now, here is what the Bible, particularly Romans 5, says about redemption and reconciliation for us. 

Why do we need reconciliation and redemption? 

We are sinful. That is a sad but truthful statement. We are evil by nature. We are enemies of God (Romans 5). We are imperfect. We mess things up because we choose everything over God. However, there is good news for you and me. 

How are we reconciled and redeemed?

Jesus. Jesus came to Earth to die for us so that our relationship with God would be mended (reconciled), and we may be saved from the fate we deserve (redeemed). “For while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10). We actually have obtained what we have hoped for. We are redeemed, saved, by Jesus’ blood. Through his blood, our relationship with God is made new. 

How should we respond?

We shall rejoice. “More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Romans 5:11). We have received this redemption that we crave for ourselves and others. We are now reconciled to God and each other. We have what we have always hoped for. Rejoice. 

Sadly, P. L. Travers’s father died from alcoholism. For this reason, it caused her to write her father a redemption story, known as Mary Poppins. She desired for him to be redeemed, so she changed his fate in her writing by creating Mary Poppins, the character that was created to save Mr. Banks. Likewise, the author of life has written a redemption story for us through Jesus. Without Mary Poppins, there would not be redemption for Mr. Banks. Likewise, without Jesus, there would not be redemption for us. Rejoice, Christian, for you are saved by Christ.