A conquering hero…

by | Jan 12, 2011 | 2011 | 0 comments

“Mom,” there’s Zorro!” The excited shout of a 5 year-old boy had the rather staid congregation splitting its sides.

The minister himself could hardly suppress a giggle at being mistaken for the Superman of Spanish California as he mounted the steps of the pulpit – his black robe flowing behind him.

Whether this is a true story or not, Zorro, Flash Gordon, Superman and many others have become legendary in our society. How we long for someone who has the power to right the wrongs, take out the bad guys and restore the right values. How we burn with indignation when an obvious perpetrator gets off on a technicality, or when the laws seem to favour the criminal rather than the victim. No wonder we long for a knight in shining armour to set things straight.

There is indeed such a superhero waiting in the wings to do just those things. He will even rescue us from this evil world on an individual basis right now. But we have to be ready to change direction, trust him completely and surrender our lives to him.

Quite a bit in common

This hero, of course, is Jesus Christ, whose mission is to restore all things back to the way they were originally, i.e. good, as God said of everything he created. Interestingly, Jesus Christ and Superman have quite a bit in common. Clark Kent was a rather nerdish mild-mannered reporter for the Metropolis newspaper, Daily Planet who grew up in the town of Smallville in Ohio in the United States. He was in no way similar to the character he became once he took off his regular clothes, and said “this is a job for Superman.”

Jesus was raised in the town of Nazareth. In John 1:46, one of his own disciples, Nathaniel, asked if anything good could come out of Nazareth. Perhaps he thought an address in Jerusalem would have been better. When Jesus first addressed the people of Nazareth in their synagogue, he quickly perceived their disbelief that a local boy should be anything special. Although they spoke well of him (Luke 4:22), they asked “Isn’t this Joseph’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary?…Aren’t his sisters all with us? Where then, did this man get all these things? And they took offence at him” (Matthew 13:55-57). When Jesus began to berate their attitude, pointing out that Israel had never given honour to the prophets, and that the crowd before him were no different, they were infuriated. They drove him out of the town and to the edge of a cliff in order to throw him down. But in typical Superman style, he “walked right through the crowd and went on his way” (Luke 4:30).

But he was clearly no ordinary man. The miracles he performed were undeniable, and even the Pharisees were silenced by his wit and wisdom.

Nothing beautiful

Clark Kent would perform a heroic deed and then retreat into obscurity so no one would guess his identity. Many a time when Jesus healed someone, he would ask them not to tell anyone. He didn’t want the authorities to arrest him before the time God had ordained. Usually the healed person would tell everyone in sight, but Jesus was evidently not easy to distinguish in a crowd. If he were, Judas would not have had to betray him with a kiss. So Jesus, like Clark Kent, looked just like an ordinary guy of his time. “There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him” (Isaiah 53:2 NLT).

But Jesus’ likeness to Superman is seriously limited. He is not going to take out the bad guys – he’s going to change them completely and make good guys out of them – something Superman never aspired to do. Jesus said: “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). He is already in the process of transforming us into his own image!

The history of our planet is violent and cruel. There is surely not a nation on earth which hasn’t been at the mercy of a tyrant at one stage or another. I consider myself blessed to have spent most of my life in peaceful circumstances. I have not had the experience of being abused, physically attacked or of living in fear of my life. No one ever tried to sell drugs at the school I attended. My parents loved me and did the best they could for our family. But I have seen enough cruelty, hopelessness, suffering, tyranny and just downright evil to long for a Superman hero.

I have come to know that Jesus has already rescued me from the instigator of all evil – Satan the devil. Jesus was the man of sorrows who became the Mighty Conqueror. He did it in plain view on the cross and struck the eternal mortal blow to the evil forces forever. More than that, he has promised me an eternal future with him, which is so wonderful, it’s beyond my wildest imagination.

He’s the ultimate Superman!

 

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