Spoiler Alert: All seasons of Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, and associated comics, etc.
In the fictional universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, the Avatar is a heroic being formed by the fusion of Raava, the spirit of peace and light, with a human. In our universe, the Christ is the incarnation of God, who is creator and giver of life and light. But just how alike are these two entities?
An eternal spirit of light becomes human to save the world. “Wait,” you say, “haven’t I heard this story before?” At first glance, the Avatar seems a lot like the Christ. But let’s dig deeper into the points of comparison and see how similar they actually are:
The Avatar and the Christ both have two natures, human and spirit/God.
Yes, but the difference between how these two natures interact in each entity is telling.
Raava existed long before she became the Avatar, perhaps since the very beginning. At a specific point in history, Raava was fused to a human named Wan to form a new entity with two natures, spirit and human. They operate as a seamless whole: they are always reincarnated together, and each Avatar has only one personality, not two. When Vaatu encounters Avatar Korra, he calls her Raava, as if the two are indistinguishable.
However, there are interesting exceptions. As Wan is dying, Raava speaks to him, suggesting that they are not fully united. Later, Raava speaks to Korra. This suggests that they are really only glued together, like conjoined twins. Also, when an Avatar goes into the Avatar State, they channel the power of all their previous incarnations. It makes sense to surmise that the Avatar State also involves Raava manifesting herself in the Avatar. This could mean that though Raava is always attached to the soul of the Avatar, she is distinct and usually dormant or unconscious. In addition, the current Avatar is able to meet his or her predecessors in the Spirit World. How this is possible has never been explained, but it suggests a certain level of lingering distinction between Raava and the human soul of the Avatar. No matter how indistinguishable Raava might be from the human soul she is fused with, the fact remains that they started out as two distinct persons and still retain some level of distinctiveness.
Just as there was a time before Raava was incarnated as the Avatar, there was a time before the Son was incarnated as the Christ. He too existed for eons before that event; in fact, he is eternal, having no beginning. However, the Son did not merge with a human being but took on a human nature in addition to his divine nature. This was not two entities being fused into one, but one entity permanently taking on a new nature without losing his preexisting nature. In the words of the Nicene Creed, “for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man.”
The Athanasian Creed lays out the details of the incarnation: “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect man… although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person.” The Son, who was a person of the Godhead from all eternity, was transformed into a man by being born of the Virgin. There was not a separate entity, a man called Jesus, who became the Christ by becoming one with God at some point in his life. There was no fusing here. The Christ was the Christ from the moment he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and he has never been two separate entities. He’s not half God and half man, or sort of God and sort of a man, but fully God and fully man.
In conclusion, the Avatar is both human and spirit, but is essentially two entities with different natures joined together. The Christ is fully God and fully man, a single entity with two natures following the incarnation.
Just as the Avatar, being part spirit and part human, is the great bridge between the two worlds, the Christ, being God and man, is the bridge between heaven and earth.
Up until Korra’s time, the Avatar was the peacemaker between mankind and the spirits, moving easily between the Spirit World and the material world to solve conflicts and teaching mankind to respect the spirits in order to ease tensions. This was originally necessary because the spirits were hostile to humans, and the humans returned the favor with resentment and violence. It continued to be necessary as humans perpetually disrespect spirits and the natural world. The Avatar, being part spirit and part human, was uniquely qualified for this task. It could be argued that this is still the case, even in light of the book two finale.
Similarly, a conflict between heaven and earth precipitated the coming of the Christ. However, this conflict began as a result of affronts against heaven on the part of mankind. Human sin put earth at war with heaven—there was no fault on the other side, and God’s wrath against humanity was completely justified. In Colossians 1:21-22 we read that we were enemies of God who were actively working against him. “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight,” meaning that the Christ was born, lived, died, and rose again to make peace between heaven and earth, enduring God’s wrath so we wouldn’t have to (see Romans 5:1-2, 9-10). Taking on a physical body enabled him to make this sacrifice as a representative of both humanity and God, a truly one-of-a-kind being. Even more than the Avatar, the Christ is the great bridge between our two worlds.
A related side note: The Avatar’s role as a bridge also entails fighting spiritual powers of darkness. Similarly, the Christ’s incarnation is related to his role as vanquisher of our spiritual enemies (see Hebrews 2:14-15).
Despite their transcendent, spiritual/divine natures, the Avatar and the Christ can sympathize with us because of their humanity.
In “Escape from the Spirit World,” a canonical online game that bridges the gap between books two and three of Avatar (the depth of my nerd is showing), Avatar Yangchen shares with Avatar Aang her view of why the Avatar is born as a human: “The Avatar must be compassionate towards all people, and the only way to do that is to live with them. The Avatar must experience sadness, anger, joy, and happiness. By feeling all these emotions, it helps you understand how precious human life is, so you will do anything to protect it.”
The Christ, who was born a man, can also relate to us, and this makes it possible for us to go to him for salvation. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses,” says Hebrews 4:15-16, “but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 2:17-18 states that the Son was made fully human so he can serve as a merciful and faithful high priest on our behalf, and that his suffering and temptation equip him to help us in similar situations. This is something of a mystery. As creator, the Son would have an even more sympathetic attitude toward humans than the Avatar—it’s not as if he was somehow deficient before becoming the Christ. He already knew the value of human life; that’s part of the reason he came, not something he had to learn when he got here. Yet somehow his incarnation still matters in this respect.
Since the reason for their incarnations is ongoing, the Avatar and the Christ both continue in their humanity indefinitely.
Yes, but some finer distinctions are necessary here.
The reason for the incarnation of the Avatar is Wan’s mistake in separating Vaatu from Raava. This weakens Raava to the point where merger with Wan is the only way to defeat their adversary. Raava is proud and prejudiced against humans: she refuses to explain why Wan should not side with Vaatu because she sees him as unworthy of her attention, and she is initially reluctant to cooperate with him. Because of this, she also shares some responsibility. In the end, the two merge because neither is strong enough alone. The incarnation of the Avatar comes about through necessity because of the heroes’ mistakes and weaknesses. Though Wan attempts to bring peace and balance to the world, his mistakes prove his undoing. He dies trying to keep peace on a battlefield, his mission unaccomplished. When he laments this, Raava comforts him by saying, “We will be together for all of your lifetimes, and we will never give up.” His successors inherit the consequences of his mistakes. This cycle continues for ten thousand years, with Aang inheriting the Hundred Year War from Roku and Aang bequeathing his oversights with Yakone to Korra. The Avatar is continually reincarnated in a never-ending, seemingly hopeless quest to save mankind because each Avatar’s legacy contains failures mixed in with the triumphs. Every Avatar fights to bring peace and balance to the world, but no Avatar ever succeeds. It’s a beautiful cycle of futility, but it’s futility nonetheless.
Whereas Wan’s error is a fall that tasks the Avatar with setting things right, Christ is incarnated in response to someone else’s mistakes and weaknesses—humanity’s. Much like in the fictional world, mankind has been embroiled in sin and death since time immemorial, since the first Fall. This needed to be fixed, so enter the Christ, incarnated to redeem humanity and creation from our mistakes. He breaks the cycle of futility, not only of sin but also of the Law with its ineffective sacrifices (Hebrews 10:1-14). His sacrifice is all it takes to save a person and make them holy forever. It’s all it takes to redeem the entire world (Romans 8:18-21). Rather than originating in his errors or weaknesses, his decision to be made man was deliberate, a result of righteousness and humility (Philippians 2:5-11). While the Avatar continues to be human through reincarnation, the Christ is human for the rest of eternity through a single incarnation and resurrection. He was born, died, and rose again once and for all—no repeats necessary.
If the Christ’s perfect life and sacrifice were completely effective, why do we still see sin at work in the world? In short, the war has been won, but there’s still some mopping up to do. As the Avatar continues to do his or her work in the world, so too is Christ’s work ongoing through the actions of his Spirit and his Church. Though he is not present bodily, he will be one day, and when he returns, his victory will be complete. Avatar Wan establishes a cycle of futility, even if it is a heroic one. Wan can only imprison Vaatu, which doesn’t prevent him from influencing the world toward evil and strife. Even Korra’s victory at the end of book two is not the final end of Vaatu. Conversely, Christ Jesus has utterly defeated Satan and will one day lock him away where he will be totally powerless. There have been many Avatars—Wan, Yangchen, Kuruk, Kyoshi, Roku, Aang, and Korra are merely the ones we know about in a potentially endless chain. But there was, is, and always shall be only one Christ.
There you have it: While there are some similarities between the Avatar and the Christ, scratching below the surface reveals illustrative contrasts. No matter how much I enjoy watching the exploits of the Avatar, if I had to choose a god-man to save my world, I’d pick the Christ any day. I consider my premise affirmed: geeking out about fiction can help us know and worship God better, even when it’s mainly by contrast.
Jesus Geek 
This was fun to read, because I’ve had the same thoughts while watching the show. Neat parallels, but as you said, I’m pretty sure I’d prefer Christ saving the world to Korra. ;)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Awesome article! I am such a fan of Avatar, and this summarizes my thoughts exactly. Have you ever thought about how the yin/yang philosophy in that world obviously doesn’t work? Have you ever thought that Raava cannot be the God of the Avatarverse because she is not powerful enough? I love thinking about that kind of thing because Christianity is the only religion/philosophy that really works with the world, and allows us the traits that make us human. Here’s a link to my blog; I think you’d like it.
http://christinabohnet.wordpress.com/
I’ve thought about both of those things; in fact, I’m hoping to write posts about them one of these days. I’m glad to hear from a kindred spirit and happy to hear that you enjoyed this post.