A force for good

SupermanEven though I love movies, I rarely go to the theater. But I usually make it to the multiplex for the big blockbusters that are released at Christmas (Lord of the Rings 1-3, The Chronic(what?)cles of Narnia) and at the Fourth of July (Minority Report, Terminator 3, War of the Worlds). This year I think Superman Returns will get me there.

SupermanIt isn’t just the big-budget effects that attract me, but the idea of Superman himself. When I was five, I put my underwear on outside my pajamas and pretended to be Superman. I haven’t done that in awhile (honestly) but I do have in my heart a lasting esteem for the super-hero.

At some point in our lives, didn’t we all see that same appeal in Jesus?

In his book The Myth of Certainty (more about it here), Daniel Taylor has a fictional professor at a Christian college describe her attraction to Jesus:

“When I was a young girl, I had a love for Jesus that I’ve never quite matched since. He was so clearly everything I wanted to be - not just good, but a force for good. I didn’t want to just be good, I wanted to do righteousness - like Jesus did when he healed the sick and cast out demons. I looked at my own little world and at the bigger one beyond and said, ‘Sarah, there’s casting out to be done here and you and Jesus are going to do it.’”

You’ve seen that in Jesus at some point in your life, haven’t you? And yet it’s easy to lose sight of it, easy to make Christianity more about being good than doing righteousness.

Don’t get me wrong: What we do has to flow from who we are. The Pharisees illustrate what happens when action replaces inner righteousness. But Jesus attracted people by acting as a force for righteousness. He still does.

Superman is one of those good stories that remind our hearts of the One True Story. And remember, Jesus came not just to do righteousness himself, but to create followers to be a force for righteousness: He said in John 14:12 - “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

For some good reading on Superman Returns, check out Christianity Today’s interview with director Brian Singer, and this wonderful article at Relevant Magazine.

Blogged with Flock

June 27, 2006 · Filed Under Christ, Movies

Comments

One Response to “A force for good”

  1. MichaZuk on July 1st, 2006 10:05 pm

    Pay the bucks to see Superman, then in a month or so I hope you (and everyone else) will rent the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. In your sermons You have hit on the acceleration of just about everything…such is Global Warming. I remember it was a big topic in my classroom thirty years ago…I made it big because I thought it was so important. From the movie, I was startled by the accelerating rate of buildup of greenhouse gases. I pray that people will not take movie as a “tree huggers chicken little dance.” We can do something about it. We must. I believe, as Gore does, that this is a moral, not a political issue.

Leave a Reply