Since I was a kid I’ve absolutely loved super heroes, comic books, cartoons and action figures. I’ve thought long and hard about what it would be like to have all sorts of super powers, which ones are the coolest, which ones are the most unique and which ones would be the most helpful when saving the world but I came to the realization a couple of years ago that people, given super powers, are way more likely to become super villains than super heroes.
The writers of these stories have known this all along. That’s why the villain to hero ratio is always so high but this reality didn’t sink in for me until one night I was at a friend’s house in high school and he was playing the popular game Grand Theft Auto. My friend wasn’t typically a rebellious person but if you watched him play the game, you’d never have known that. Given freedom from consequences, even the nicest guys will steal cars, run drugs, go on killing sprees and pick up hookers. Left to themselves, unafraid of consequences, people are wicked.
The Bible says in Romans 3:23 “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. This means we’ve all done wrong, or dare I say, evil things. All of us have an inbred corruption; it shows up most visibly if we’re unafraid of the consequences or if we think we won’t get caught but it’s there the whole time in all of us. The human heart, at its core is a very deep and dark place filled with all sorts of evil desires.
It sounds hopeless and terrifying doesn’t it? We weren’t always this way though. God created the world good but sin came in and corrupted it. Genesis chapters 1 & 3, the first book of the bible, tells us this story about how God created everything good and sin corrupted His good creation (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201-3&version=NIV).
Some of my favorite stories in the superhero world mirror this in an unbelievable way. Take Superman for example. Superman is a hero known primarily for his nobility and righteousness; He is a man who is as close to perfect as we can imagine but he becomes completely self centered when he comes into close proximity with Red Kryptonite. The external force of this small, red meteor rock warps all of his goodness into evil just like sin twisted God’s good creation.
Spider-man runs into a similar situation when an alien costume forms a symbiotic relationship with him and overtakes him. This hero who was once willing to sacrifice himself, his life and his happiness for others begins looking out for number one and mistreating those he cares about. The alien costume begins to destroy his original identity and warp it into something evil.
Sin is to humanity as red kryptonite is to Superman or the alien costume to Spidey. It is an outside force that snuck its way into our lives and it twisted what God designed for good, into evil. The worst part is, no matter how hard we try we can’t seem to fix it or make things good again. Not on our own anyway.
Both Superman and Spider-man needed outside help in order to become good again. Superman’s help usually comes in the form of a friend who takes the Red Kryptonite out of his presence thereby freeing him from its effects.
Spider-man’s freedom is found in a less less personal way. Loud noises weaken the alien costume; so he finds himself being set free, get this, in a church bell tower as the bell chimes.
Just like Superman and Spider-man both needed outside help to become good again, so do we. We can’t become completely pure or set ourselves free from slavery to sin. God is the only one who can do this work in our lives and He does it through His son Jesus Christ.
A few months ago I met a man named Tom Burton who was a prison chaplain. One of the courses offered at the prison through the chaplaincy was an Alcoholics Anonymous course. In AA one of the steps to recovery is putting your trust in a higher power because you realize you cannot overcome the addiction in your own strength. I asked Tom what kind of success rate they had with the course and he replied “if the person puts their faith in Jesus Christ as their higher power, 80-90% of the time they get sober and stay sober but if they put their faith in anyone or anything else, that stat drops below 20%”.
Christ is the only one who can change our hearts. He is the only one who can take away our “red kryptonite” or help us shed our “alien costumes”. No one else is immune to their effects and no one else is qualified to deal with it.
A lot of times we get the wrong idea about Jesus. Some people think He expects us to be perfect and that He gets angry with us when we aren’t but that’s not really what He’s like. Christ is not a god who expects us to overcome sin on our own but He overcame sin for us and comes alongside us to help us. This is what sets Christianity apart from all other religious systems. Life with Christ is freedom and it’s the only way for us to find this freedom. He has made the preparations for us and He is ready to help. He’s just waiting for us to ask Him.
Some of you may love their life of sin right now. You might love being carefree because of your “red kryptonite” or you may be enjoying the power and pleasure of your “alien costume” but sooner or later, the consequences are going to catch up with you. Sooner or later you’ll get in over your head, doing things you never thought you’d do and Jesus is the only one who can bail you out and turn things around.
Others of you know the freedom of Christ. If this is you, you have a responsibility and a calling to tell others how they can be free too. You get to be on God’s team in this saving process. Let’s strive to fill our role as sidekicks and show our loved ones the only hero who can save them.
Super hero stories are great. I love Spider-man, Superman and tons of others but the only hero really capable of saving us from everything, even ourselves, is Jesus and I pray we’d all cry out to Him for help.
