Shin Godzilla came out in 2016. I saw it in theaters then and had the joy to re-view it in theaters recently. Shin Godzilla has Godzilla rising out of the Tokyo Bay in a modern setting but focuses much more on the government processes than other Godzilla movies. It is a fast-paced movie about government meetings while a kaiju is causing havoc around the city. You still get some action and there is plenty of destruction, but instead of focusing on civilians or military, this movie gave us a look at government dealing with the problem.
Spoilers Ahead!
We follow Rando Yaguchi, played by Hiroki Hasegawa, a subordinate under one of many deputy chiefs who serve the Prime Minister of Japan. The first response to Godzilla by more seasoned “experts” fails so he leads a team of outcasts, free thinkers, nerds, people who can throw away the “box”. Along with that there is a response by the world at large as the UN World Security Council wants to destroy Godzilla with a nuclear blast.
Rando’s team is different. As they process the data and dream up ideas, a biologist comes to a conclusion that Godzilla runs on nuclear fusion. After this they find data to support it in the form of high radiation around the areas where Godzilla had traveled. This begs the question…does Godzilla need some sort of cooling system? They determine his reason for his retreat is related to cooling down. Of course, he comes back even bigger. They realize that blood must be involved in cooling, so they hatch a plan to research, formulate, and produce a chemical to freeze him from the inside out. This takes time and help from the manufacturing industry.
Many Godzilla movies are a consideration at human suffering. The original 1954 film was a way of expressing the pain from the two atomic bombs that the US dropped on Japan. 1969’s All Monsters Attack was a look at childhood loneliness and fears. Even the first entry in the Monterverse, Godzilla 2014, deals with family loss as a form of suffering. In fact, family loss and struggle is a common thread in most offerings from the Monsterverse.
We often ask, “Why does God allow suffering?” There are many philosophical and theological rumblings that have approached this question. But first we need to ask…what is God’s approach, as shown in scripture? In the book of Judges each time Israel is under tyranny from another army, which God allows because of their sin and pride, He chooses a judge to save them…but the people chosen are rarely ever prime choices. Samson is a womanizer who just wants to beat people up even though he is under a serious oath to God. Gideon is a coward who just wants to hide. At one point the man called is unwilling to go so God gives a woman the right to kill the opposing King (showing that when we say “no” to a calling God can always give it to someone else).
But what we see in many of these is God working on each person’s heart. He never takes the big flashy way out. He made Gideon’s army smaller. Later on when choosing a new king we learn this:
But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
1 Samuel 16:7
Does God want to bring healing? Yes. Does He want to ease our suffering? Yes…but not always in the flashy, big way we always want him to do it. He wants to change us from the inside out. Much of our suffering we see is caused by people and by our own sin. Sometimes he heals a person in a big, miraculous way, but most of the time, just like the team that Rando leads in Shin Godzilla, God is looking for a solution that involves working from the inside out. As he changes our hearts, we then can join him in healing the hearts of other people. Along with that, as He heals us, we are less likely to be the cause of someone else’s pain in the future.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26
2 Corinthians 1:4 tells us that God “comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
God’s most common approach to the human suffering comes from the inside out. Which is exactly how they solved their Godzilla problem. Yes, Japan sent tanks and fighter jets after him, but the success came from pouring a chemical compound in Godzilla’s mouth that then changed him from the inside out. God doesn’t need a chemical to change us from the inside out. His Holy Spirit does that through the Bible, our interactions with others, sermons, time, and once in a while a big, flashy miracle.