In our
declining world of relativism, this movie sticks with the original message that
good can and will prevail over evil in the end. It was every bit the story of Jesus told in a
modern day film. How refreshing to hear
the basic truth that is so adamantly being destroyed by an obnoxious minority
seeking to push a worldly agenda as their blood sacrifice to the gods of this
age. In college, I had a professor in
the education department who was red in the face and virtually in tears
speaking passionately against the existence of absolutes. “There are no absolutes!!!!” he cried out
from the cinder block walls. My
Christian friend, business man, and football linebacker stood up in the non-offensive
stance of Superman and said, “Absolutely!!” and he sat back down having proven
his point to the rest of the class but still not convincing the impassioned
professor.
In this
movie, the Man of Steel embodies every Kryptonian who would ever live. His father wove them into every cell of his
son’s body before sending him to Earth as the only chance to save the only race
worth saving. He is given a heavenly
name and an earthly name and spends his childhood wrestling with his identity
in relation to his superhuman capabilities.
Like Jesus, his earthly father died before him and his mother after him. How agonizing that must have been for
Jesus to know he had the power to stop his father’s death but have to sit back
and let nature run its course! Like
Jesus, his parents loved him as their own but knew from the beginning that he
did not fully belong to them though he was as ordinary as ordinary could get
since he showed up on earth as a baby. At
12 years old, it was becoming more obvious to those around him that he was not “normal.” The people of his time could not handle
knowing they existed on earth with something larger than life. Hello, Pharisees!
At one point
in the movie, Kal-El (“from the house of El,” as in El-ohim?), aka Superman,
says to the Army General, “You don’t like me because you can’t control me. But just because I have more power than you
doesn’t mean I’m your enemy.” Doesn’t
that capture the essence of our fear? It’s the idea that power that big can’t
be trusted. Something we can’t control
can’t be trusted. Hence a person’s fear
of big dogs, for example. Our confidence
in our ability to control the outcome of a situation determines our level of
fear about it. A firefighter has a healthy
respect for fire, but his job is to bring it under control. However, the person being consumed by the flames
is also consumed by fear.
Think about
it! I come back to the gun control debate for a brief comment. Why is it that the President of the United
States wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens who merely want to
protect their homes and children while he gets to have his own house and family
protected by heavy artillery? This
hypocrisy is born from fear, fear of the citizens he is supposed to serve, fear
because he is outnumbered in pushing this unpopular agenda. Perhaps he thinks
we are the enemy since he wants to make our power smaller than his. Yet, all leaders, whether they like it or
know it or not, serve God’s purpose. All
of us do. It is not weapons we need to
fear. It is not the power of something bigger
than us. It is a bigger battle than
that. A strategy that is out of this
world, and we know the end of the story.
I saw an argument against the allegory of Jesus vs. Superman “because Superman
was violent and Jesus wasn’t.” Granted, “the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal” but they are mighty and my frequent
visits to the books of prophesy and Revelation don’t exactly paint the picture
of a Pacifist. Throwing merchants’ tables, breaking open the gates of Hell,
destroying heaven and earth and making new ones. Seriously, it’s all the work of a very
impassioned God whose single minded goal is to claim the lives of those He
loves so we can live for all eternity with Him and without fear. Hell was not made for man. Hell was made for one enemy only, but man is
given the choice. It takes a more
powerful God to give a man a choice than it does to force His will upon a man.
One alien in
the movie very surely told Kal-El, “Evolution always wins!” but of course it
became obvious in the fight to save the human race or obliterate it that those
who chose a life of freedom and truth and justice could not be explained away
by evolution, that there was more to the code than what the enemy
realized. The captain of anarchy from
the utopian planet of the motherland Krypton told Kal-El, “The problem with you
is that you care about these people! If
you care so much about them then suffer with them!” The power that is so big that people would
fear it is the same power it took for a mighty God to suffer with the human
race, the only race worth saving.
Just because
God is bigger and more powerful than anything we can control, doesn’t make Him
our enemy. Imagine if you could live
fully surrendered to that power in your life.
You can never use it for your own gain.
It just doesn’t work that way.
You can only submit to its will in you for His purpose in your
circumstances. That’s some serious power
unleashed, folks!!! Do you feel
powerless or helpless because of atrocities that have happened to you? Sometimes even all at once? The world loves Superman because he saves the
day when the earth is threatened. There
is a Savior greater than any superhero and He will return to Earth.
This Fourth
of July weekend, my family will celebrate religious and political freedom in
America. But throughout the year, we
also recognize our own liberation day.
Mine was October 18, 1992. When
was yours? When did you begin your
commitment to live in full surrender to true Freedom and Power found in Christ
alone?
***By the
way, I find it interesting that the comic book creators of Superman were two
Jewish men who were oblivious to the messianic message that emerged from their
own creation until people started seeing it for themselves.
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