The REAL Superman's Birthday
I don't often do overtly religious posts, but this is something that it occurred to me to write up yesterday, and I'm sort of spreading it around in case anyone would like to read it (on myspace and facebook, as well, so if you're there, my apologies for subjecting you to it twice). And like I did with the last one, I say,
The REAL Superman’s Birthday
I’ve been present for several arguments/debates about who the best superhero is. The argument usually comes down to two choices: Batman and Superman. My own preference is for Superman. Yes, Batman has character complexity that Superman lacks. He has a dark side. He’s just a regular guy without super powers. All that is true, but I still like Superman better. There’s something about a character who is so totally good and totally selfless that I find absolutely compelling. As you can imagine, I was thrilled that Superman Returns finally came out this year, and that it was done very well. It was by far my favorite movie all year.
Though they are a little overdone in the film, the parallels the writers and directors created between Superman and Jesus are part of the reason I got so much out of the film, as I often do when movies or books invoke Christ. This use of a Christ figure is done often in works of literature and entertainment that are supposed to be secular. John Coffey in The Green Mile, for instance. Owen Meany in A Prayer for Owen Meany. It’s interesting to me that so many writers feel the need to utilize a character as a Christ figure. When it’s done in Christian fiction, like novels by Ted Dekker or in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, it’s done to help the reader understand Christ more fully, but I have a hard time pinning down why it’s done in movies and books without explicit religious purpose. Sometimes I think it’s to lend the character or story a little more gravitas. But sometimes I think it’s because the idea of and desire for a selfless savior is so ingrained in our souls that it’s the biggest compliment you can give a character.
The parallels to Christ have always been there in Superman’s mythology. The father (Jor-El) sends his only son (Kal-El) to earth to help and look out for its people. Superman is pretty much a perfect being, without sin or selfishness. He’s more than just a man. He’s there to help and save the people of earth.
The movie Superman Returns brings the Christ parallels even more to the forefront. They bring in Jor-El’s message to his son from the first film: “Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.” In order to save the people of earth, Superman has to be willing to sacrifice himself. In the process, he “dies” (even falling to earth with his arms out to each side as if positioned on a cross), and rises from the dead (what is deemed a coma by the writers - maybe they thought they were being too obvious) about three days later.
Though I doubt they intended it, the writers of the movie do their best invocations of Christ in the smaller moments where they aren’t trying quite as hard. Superman has been gone for five years, and no one knows where. In her frustration, particularly about his failure to even say goodbye, Lois Lane has written a story called “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman,” and has even been awarded the Pulitzer for it. When she talks to Superman again for the first time since his return, she tells him, “The world doesn’t need a savior, and neither do I.”
Of course, Lois is totally mistaken. In fact, if not for Superman saving her and several other reporters from certain death as their plane plummeted toward the Earth in the film’s first act, she would not be around to tell him she doesn’t need him. This makes me think of my own tendency to always want to do everything for myself. I HATE asking for help. I think most of us would probably agree that we’d prefer to keep it so that no one has to look out for us but ourselves, that we don’t need anyone to save us. I know that for my own part, this is the area in which I’m probably the most pigheaded. Little stuff, big stuff, it doesn’t matter. My pride makes it so that I insist that I can handle it all, as if needing help makes me weak or something.
But what Lois finds out after her life is saved by Superman AGAIN, along with the lives of (as Lex Luthor brags) “Billions!” of other people on earth, the world does need a savior. On one of the “making of” documentaries on my Superman Returns DVD, one of the producers made a remark about the fact that the world really does need a savior; it needs a Superman.
Well, the good news, and what many of us are celebrating at this time of the year, is the fact that the world already has one. While we may be capable of taking care of ourselves in most ways, one thing we cannot do to save ourselves is to get ourselves right with God. Based on all the reading I’ve done in the last six years or so (science, history, Christian apologetics, and more), I have unflappable certainty that there is a God who created this world and that Christ was his son that he sent to earth because we were incapable of saving ourselves. Christ is perfect, Superman is pretty close, but the rest of us are not. The rules that God put in place when he made this world say that the punishment for sin is death. All of us, with our free will, are sinners in some way or another. Because God loves us so much, he built a “loophole” into his own rules, sending His Son to earth to first show us the way to live and then to take the punishment for our sins in our place as he died on the cross. It sounds a lot like a story we would praise a writer for making up, but does it ever occur to us that maybe this is the reality that we model stories after, that we praise writers for invoking?
I think the reason that some people refuse to believe in Christ, or to give true consideration to whether or not Christians could be right in what they believe, is very similar to Lois’s declaration that she doesn’t need a savior. We don’t want to have to take help from anyone, admit we can’t take care of it all ourselves. But we’re all like Lois and the reporters on the plane or the window washer in the movie who fell off his scaffolding on the side of a skyscraper - we’re plummeting toward certain death. It’s a shame when pride gets in the way and we say to God, no thanks, I’ll just take my chances. That’s like Lois, the reporters, or the window washer looking at Superman and going, “Hey, thanks, man, but you can just let me fall. I’d rather try to save myself. I’ll figure something out. Maybe the rules of physics will suddenly change and my collision with the ground won’t kill me.” Only the death we’re plummeting toward concerns our afterlife rather than our life in this world (and since the former is eternal while the latter is more like eighty years on average, it’s pretty obvious where our focus should be).
So, if you’re already a Christian, here’s to remaining focused on the reason we celebrate at this time of the year; the savior that the Superman producer says the world really needs has already come. If you’re not, here’s to considering investigating Christianity at least a little more and really considering the possibility that Christ is who Christians believe he is. Don’t say, “No, man, I’ll save myself.” Don’t deny the real Superman the opportunity to save you before you hit the ground and it’s too late.
Note: If you’re in the latter group, first of all, thanks for reading this far. Second, if you have questions getting in your way, feel free to ask me. I think it’s great when people have such strong faith that they don’t let questions get in the way of their belief, but I’m not one of those people. Most of you know me, and if you know me, you know I tend to be pretty logical most of the time, perhaps overly so. I can’t help but think of questions or analyze claims, and I’ve spent the last six years or so researching answers to those questions that I come up with or that people around me challenge me with. Chances are, if you have a question or there’s something getting in the way of your belief, I have probably had the same question or obstacle myself, and I’ve probably either got the answer or a place you can find it for yourself. If you don’t want to ask me but are interested, a good place to start would be books by Lee Strobel: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator. The way I look at it, you can keep banking on the collision with the ground not killing you, or you can prepare as if you expect it to and allow yourself to be saved. If you turn out to be wrong, and maybe you weren’t going to die, or maybe all the people who weren’t falling suddenly die, too, what have you really lost? Why take the chance on being wrong? All you’ve really got to lose is that you’ll have to, at least once, allow someone else to save you.
The REAL Superman’s Birthday
I’ve been present for several arguments/debates about who the best superhero is. The argument usually comes down to two choices: Batman and Superman. My own preference is for Superman. Yes, Batman has character complexity that Superman lacks. He has a dark side. He’s just a regular guy without super powers. All that is true, but I still like Superman better. There’s something about a character who is so totally good and totally selfless that I find absolutely compelling. As you can imagine, I was thrilled that Superman Returns finally came out this year, and that it was done very well. It was by far my favorite movie all year.
Though they are a little overdone in the film, the parallels the writers and directors created between Superman and Jesus are part of the reason I got so much out of the film, as I often do when movies or books invoke Christ. This use of a Christ figure is done often in works of literature and entertainment that are supposed to be secular. John Coffey in The Green Mile, for instance. Owen Meany in A Prayer for Owen Meany. It’s interesting to me that so many writers feel the need to utilize a character as a Christ figure. When it’s done in Christian fiction, like novels by Ted Dekker or in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, it’s done to help the reader understand Christ more fully, but I have a hard time pinning down why it’s done in movies and books without explicit religious purpose. Sometimes I think it’s to lend the character or story a little more gravitas. But sometimes I think it’s because the idea of and desire for a selfless savior is so ingrained in our souls that it’s the biggest compliment you can give a character.
The parallels to Christ have always been there in Superman’s mythology. The father (Jor-El) sends his only son (Kal-El) to earth to help and look out for its people. Superman is pretty much a perfect being, without sin or selfishness. He’s more than just a man. He’s there to help and save the people of earth.
The movie Superman Returns brings the Christ parallels even more to the forefront. They bring in Jor-El’s message to his son from the first film: “Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El, they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.” In order to save the people of earth, Superman has to be willing to sacrifice himself. In the process, he “dies” (even falling to earth with his arms out to each side as if positioned on a cross), and rises from the dead (what is deemed a coma by the writers - maybe they thought they were being too obvious) about three days later.
Though I doubt they intended it, the writers of the movie do their best invocations of Christ in the smaller moments where they aren’t trying quite as hard. Superman has been gone for five years, and no one knows where. In her frustration, particularly about his failure to even say goodbye, Lois Lane has written a story called “Why the World Doesn’t Need Superman,” and has even been awarded the Pulitzer for it. When she talks to Superman again for the first time since his return, she tells him, “The world doesn’t need a savior, and neither do I.”
Of course, Lois is totally mistaken. In fact, if not for Superman saving her and several other reporters from certain death as their plane plummeted toward the Earth in the film’s first act, she would not be around to tell him she doesn’t need him. This makes me think of my own tendency to always want to do everything for myself. I HATE asking for help. I think most of us would probably agree that we’d prefer to keep it so that no one has to look out for us but ourselves, that we don’t need anyone to save us. I know that for my own part, this is the area in which I’m probably the most pigheaded. Little stuff, big stuff, it doesn’t matter. My pride makes it so that I insist that I can handle it all, as if needing help makes me weak or something.
But what Lois finds out after her life is saved by Superman AGAIN, along with the lives of (as Lex Luthor brags) “Billions!” of other people on earth, the world does need a savior. On one of the “making of” documentaries on my Superman Returns DVD, one of the producers made a remark about the fact that the world really does need a savior; it needs a Superman.
Well, the good news, and what many of us are celebrating at this time of the year, is the fact that the world already has one. While we may be capable of taking care of ourselves in most ways, one thing we cannot do to save ourselves is to get ourselves right with God. Based on all the reading I’ve done in the last six years or so (science, history, Christian apologetics, and more), I have unflappable certainty that there is a God who created this world and that Christ was his son that he sent to earth because we were incapable of saving ourselves. Christ is perfect, Superman is pretty close, but the rest of us are not. The rules that God put in place when he made this world say that the punishment for sin is death. All of us, with our free will, are sinners in some way or another. Because God loves us so much, he built a “loophole” into his own rules, sending His Son to earth to first show us the way to live and then to take the punishment for our sins in our place as he died on the cross. It sounds a lot like a story we would praise a writer for making up, but does it ever occur to us that maybe this is the reality that we model stories after, that we praise writers for invoking?
I think the reason that some people refuse to believe in Christ, or to give true consideration to whether or not Christians could be right in what they believe, is very similar to Lois’s declaration that she doesn’t need a savior. We don’t want to have to take help from anyone, admit we can’t take care of it all ourselves. But we’re all like Lois and the reporters on the plane or the window washer in the movie who fell off his scaffolding on the side of a skyscraper - we’re plummeting toward certain death. It’s a shame when pride gets in the way and we say to God, no thanks, I’ll just take my chances. That’s like Lois, the reporters, or the window washer looking at Superman and going, “Hey, thanks, man, but you can just let me fall. I’d rather try to save myself. I’ll figure something out. Maybe the rules of physics will suddenly change and my collision with the ground won’t kill me.” Only the death we’re plummeting toward concerns our afterlife rather than our life in this world (and since the former is eternal while the latter is more like eighty years on average, it’s pretty obvious where our focus should be).
So, if you’re already a Christian, here’s to remaining focused on the reason we celebrate at this time of the year; the savior that the Superman producer says the world really needs has already come. If you’re not, here’s to considering investigating Christianity at least a little more and really considering the possibility that Christ is who Christians believe he is. Don’t say, “No, man, I’ll save myself.” Don’t deny the real Superman the opportunity to save you before you hit the ground and it’s too late.
Note: If you’re in the latter group, first of all, thanks for reading this far. Second, if you have questions getting in your way, feel free to ask me. I think it’s great when people have such strong faith that they don’t let questions get in the way of their belief, but I’m not one of those people. Most of you know me, and if you know me, you know I tend to be pretty logical most of the time, perhaps overly so. I can’t help but think of questions or analyze claims, and I’ve spent the last six years or so researching answers to those questions that I come up with or that people around me challenge me with. Chances are, if you have a question or there’s something getting in the way of your belief, I have probably had the same question or obstacle myself, and I’ve probably either got the answer or a place you can find it for yourself. If you don’t want to ask me but are interested, a good place to start would be books by Lee Strobel: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and The Case for a Creator. The way I look at it, you can keep banking on the collision with the ground not killing you, or you can prepare as if you expect it to and allow yourself to be saved. If you turn out to be wrong, and maybe you weren’t going to die, or maybe all the people who weren’t falling suddenly die, too, what have you really lost? Why take the chance on being wrong? All you’ve really got to lose is that you’ll have to, at least once, allow someone else to save you.