Le Balloon Rouge
Le Balloon Rouge has allegorical parallels to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and His desire to be with us. His Spirit pursues us, but are we receptive? Like a ballon, we take on the properties of whatever fills us up. What is the Spirit like and will we allow ourselves to be filled by it?
Balloons are simple. They are used for celebrations and parties, never for funerals. They are sacs defined by whatever fills them up. A balloon filled with Helium rises up into the atmosphere because it is less dense than the air around it. Bags of Helium conform to the properties of Helium. Bags of rocks conform to the properties of rock. Fill it with rocks, and it remains earthbound. Whatever fills the ballon determines how it behaves. We are no different.
We are made to be filled with the breath of heaven. In Genesis, God formed human out of the earth, but it does not become fully human until it is filled with the breath of God. Breath, or spirit, is what makes us fully human. What we love, what fills us up, determines how we behave. God warns against being filled up with other things. Idols made of stone, gold, or whatever our hands make will only conform us into their image (Psalm 115). We are sacs of flesh designed to be filled up with His Spirit which conforms us to His image of steadfast love. As Bob Goff writes, “we become love.”
Released in 1955, Le Balloon Rouge became an award winning classic that still serves as a beautiful allegory for modern viewers. Pascal is a young boy on his way home from school when he notices a red balloon. As he plays with it, he discovers that it has a will of its own. The balloon follows him through the streets of Paris, it lingers outside his window, it enters his classroom, it makes its way into the church, and even waits outside of a bakery for him. The balloon stays alongside the boy everywhere he goes. But the unusual entity disturbs others. His mother does not want it inside the house. Pascal is sent to the principal’s office because the balloon disrupts class. He and his mother are escorted from church on account of the balloon. Outside the bakery, a gang of boys begin their final attack on the balloon as it waits for Pascal. Pascal manages to rescue it, but not for long. They hold onto him as they throw rocks and step on the it. The balloon is no more. Has evil and violence triumphed over the innocent and peaceful? Is this a dystopian tale that ends with no hope? In the end, a swarm of colorful balloons come to Pascal. He grabs hold of them and they lift him up above the city.
The gravity of this world is evident in the mother, the principal, the church official, and the envious kids. This bright red balloon emerges out of the grayness. It is playful, buoyant, and determined to be with Pascal. Jesus enters such a world, a world governed by a desire to cling to its way of dong things- clinging to power, privilege, possessions, praise, position, and pleasure. Jesus is filled up with something else. His ways challenge the norms. He is mysterious and beyond nature. He is unusual. Those filled with love for this world behave according to envy. They do not know what this is, but it is different and cannot be welcomed. In the movie Harvey, Elwood P. Dowd says when people meet Harvey and him “they always leave impressed, but seldom come back.” Why? Envy. “But there is a little envy in each of us, and that’s too bad.”
The religious leaders attack and kill Jesus out of envy. The disciples, like Pascal, see this strange friend crushed and taken from them. Like Pascal, they are despondent. When the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead comes to Jerusalem, this Spirit rests on each of them. Now, each of them is filled with the same breath that filled Jesus. They are lifted up. The gravity of death and powers of this world no longer anchor them to the earth. Pascal is met by a collection of balloons, all with the same nature as his red balloon. They come to him and lift him above this world. The red balloon, like Jesus, was a type of first fruit given in hopes that the rest of the harvest will be like this one.
Childlike
Pascal notices the balloon and interacts with it. He is willing to accept and engage the mysterious. The balloon pursues him, but he does not shut it out. Those in authority scold Pascal for the disruption the balloon creates. The envious are threatened and use violence to get rid of this odd thing. For us to enjoy the relationship of the unusual one that pursues us, we must be like a child that engages in mystery and wonder.
Buoyant
Buoyant doesn’t just mean something that can rise up or stay afloat. It also means something that is cheerful or optimistic. This is emblematic of hope. The red ballon remains with Pascal and cheers him up. However, the experiences at ground level constantly attack this hope. When he thinks all hope is gone, an array of colorful balloons come to him.
The rock that seals the tomb of Jesus seems to crush the hope of the disciples. In Jerusalem, the Spirit of the risen Jesus fills people of all nations, bringing to fruition the hope of Genesis 12 that all nations would be blessed by the one nation. It is the promise in Isaiah 66 that all nations would come to His holy hill in Jerusalem and be gathered as a nation of priests, mediators between heaven and earth. The hope is the replication of Jesus so that all the other vessels containing His Spirit will gather and lift up those whom the Lord pursues.
Filled
What fills your balloon? Romans 15 says the Kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and Paul prays for us to be filled with peace and joy and hope. In Galatians 5, Paul writes of the qualities of this Spirit that fills us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Then Paul writes:
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Earlier in the chapter, Paul reminds them their nature is love. They are called to behave like love. When they attack one another or look out for their own interests and not the interests of others, they are filling their vessels with rocks. Know that the Spirit pursues you. Know that the Spirit desires to fill you up, making you buoyant. This Spirit is filling other vessels all around you. As we come together, we lift one another up and give glory to the One who pursues us.
We are the balloons of every color, filled with the same substance of the original, designed to possess the same properties and behaviors. There are people all around us who have lost their balloon, their hope, their joy, their peace. The world has attacked it and destroyed it. But we are those balloons that gather together as one massive balloon (body) to pursue the hurting, the lonely and restore this special relationship lost to them. The Spirit pursues, but only the childlike receive the buoyancy that comes from being filled up with love.
From Philippians 2, the Imago Dei we are becoming:
2 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
