Considering Heroes and a Savior

Super Hero movies are all the rage these days. I enjoy many of them. They are often about things our culture struggles with: technology, government etc. They often portray a world in which there is good and evil, and in which good ultimately prevails. Many of the Marvel heroes share in our foibles and weaknesses. They are not perfect. In a sense they give us a measure of hope that people can solve the crises before us.

But, I think, there is a potentially dark side to this “hero worship.” Or should I call it “hero longing”? The problem is not the heroes themselves, but the limitations of the heroes which, in part, creates their appeal to us.

Heroes deal with external evil. They rescue people from the tyranny and destruction of an evil being. They recognize that evil is “out there”. They are capable of dealing with evil out there.  And the evil “out there” needs to be dealt with. We do need someone to rescue us from evil people and evil structures.

This is one reason why so many rely on government- to rescue them from evil out there. Governments should be just, and punish evil doers (Romans 13). But it is what neither a hero nor a government can do that is just as important. Dealing with the evil within.

We also need to be rescued from the evil within. But heroes (and government) leave us unchanged even as they rescue us from evil out there. This is why government, while it can be good, is never enough. It is not meant to deal with the heart of man. Both leave us in our sin, even while they might try to rescue us from the earthly consequences of that evil. This, I think, is why heroes are so popular. We really don’t want to change. We just want to be safe as we continue to act on our anger, lust, greed and more.

What we really need is the Savior. Jesus dealt with the evil out there upon the Cross. This aspect of the atonement is called “Christus Victor”. He defeated God’s (and our) enemies at the cross (Colossians). Satan has been defeated!

But that is not all He did for us. Just doing that would never be enough because evil is not just out there, it is also “in here”. Jesus had to die both for sins and sin. He removed the guilt produced by the evil within, and the evil within itself. He breaks the dominion of sin over us. He removes the penalty of sin, and breaks the power of sin too.. This, along with defeating Satan, is part of Christ’s work for us.

But Jesus is not content to stop there. He also works in us in what we call sanctification. Jesus works in us, on the basis of the cross, to free us from the practice of sin. This is what most people don’t want. They really don’t want to change. They don’t even want to admit they out to change. We see this in the “culture wars” we experience. People want the evil in them affirmed, not killed. They want freedom to practice it, not freedom from it. And now justice is being twisted to support this freedom to practice sin.

As a Christian, I readily admit that I need to change because there is evil in me. I’m not taking the high ground in the culture wars, though people might think so. I’m firmly at the foot of the cross saying “THAT (practicing sin) won’t bring life, only death. THIS (the cross) brings life through His death.” I’m saying, in effect, that heroes are nice, but we all need Jesus. I recognize why people are afraid of the real Jesus. He threatens their way of life. We can’t settle for those who want to preserve our way of life. We need the One we fear who worked for us, and now works in us.