Superheroes

This morning I went out for a nice run around the neighborhood and noticed a few advertisements for the movie “The Green Lantern”, which comes out in a couple weeks. That got me thinking…we really love our superhero movies, don’t we? Aside from The Green Lantern and Captain America, which come out this summer, over the last few years we’ve seen movies about Thor, Ironman, The Fantastic 4, Spiderman, Batman, Ghost Rider, The Incredible Hulk, Hellboy, and Blade…just to name a few. As I continued my run, I began to think that this love for superheroes is not new to our culture today. Didn’t all of these superheroes first become popular decades ago through comic books? Superheroes have been loved by our society for decades.

This makes me wonder…if superheroes are so readily accepted, and even loved by society why do we have such trouble accepting and loving God? Isn’t it interesting how many people would pick up a Spiderman comic book rather than the Bible, or how many more people will pay 10 bucks to see The Green Lantern than go to Sunday Mass? It’s an interesting question with an infinite number of possible answers. Today, I’ll offer you mine…which centers around our inability to accept God’s humility.

Whenever a superhero saves the day, he always does it in the most epic way possible. His superpowers are put on display for the world as he rescues the people from whatever danger is threatening them, and then receives the standing ovation afterwards. Think about your favorite superhero, with the exception of maybe Batman, doesn’t he follow this pattern? I’ll go back to the first Ironman movie. Tony Stark defeated all odds to take down the bad guy, fighting in incredible technologically engineered iron suites, throwing Obadiah Stone into the reactor to save the day. The next day, the whole world shows Tony Stark their appreciation when they find out that he is, in fact, Ironman.

We love our superheroes because of their “epicness.” They save the world right in front of our eyes for all of us to see. God, however, seems to work in a very different way. Usually, God doesn’t “save the day” on the grand stage with huge flashing lights and explosions. God works in a much more humble way. This is shown perfectly in the story of the Exodus, God saving his people from their slavery in Egypt.

I always thought it was very interesting that of all the ways God could have brought the Israelites out of Egypt, he chose to use Moses. God could have played the “superhero” and saved the Israelites in the most epic way possible, but instead he chose to work though Moses, a man who seemed to be the most unlikely person to lead the nation of Israel back to the Promised Land. God chose to save the Israelites through a socially awkward criminal. By our standards not only is this not epic at all, it seems almost inefficient. We as a society don’t want to cheer for the humble God who works through his people, we want to see superheroes who put their talents on display for everyone to see.

The beautiful thing about God is He is not motivated by “epicness”, but rather by love. God is love and everything he does for us is motivated by perfect love. One thing God shows us is that humility is an absolutely essential element of true love. Humility ensures that love remains selfless, as true love can never be self-centered but always self-giving. As we read throughout the Scriptures we see God constantly putting his humility, not his “epicness”, on display as an example of true love for us. This is of course most perfectly shown through the person of Jesus Christ who “Emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). The fact that God became man to save his people, people who constantly sin against God, people who add nothing to God’s infinite greatness is incredible. Not only that, but God didn’t save us through any “superhero epicness” but in the most humble of ways: death on a cross. How blessed we are to have such a perfectly loving, humble God.

“Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me so perfectly. Your love is so amazing, so perfect it’s almost incomprehensible for us. Help me, guide me to come to know and appreciate your love for me more fully. Allow that love to really penetrate my heart, that it may transform my life.”