I must admit that I love Hollywood’s recent fascination with super heroes. As a twentysomething male I find my pulse quickened even at the mention of this summer’s imminent release of Spiderman 3. I keep buying magazines like Premier, Entertainment Weekly, and Rolling Stone just because they have an article about Peter Parker, Mary Jane and the introduction of Spidey’s arch-nemesis Venom.
That said, I was also somewhat disappointed with last summer’s big blockbuster, Superman. I watched it, enjoyed the special effects, comprehended the storyline, and especially admired Kevin Spacey’s take on Lex Luther; but somewhere deep inside me there was a disconnect with “the superhero of superheroes.” It did not take me long to figure out what bothered me.
Superman is too perfect.
Though I can admire Superman for his unmatched strength, indestructibility, incredible speed, ability to fly and his impeccable moral character, I cannot relate to him. This was exaggerated even more with last summer’s movie, where his face had an airbrushed perfection, his acting had little emotional depth, and his supersuit never bunched in the wrong places. Though I could understand his conflict as an observer, I couldn’t feel what he felt, because I’m nothing like Superman. Peter Parker, on the other hand is someone I can relate to. He’s a normal kid, with lots of emotional and social problems who one day finds himself equipped with great power, which also brings great responsibility. He wrestles with balancing the different commitments in his life, having to sacrifice what he wants for what he feels he ought to do, and sometimes failing to get it right. He is far from perfect, and I find myself moved by his story, because it’s my story as well.
That’s why I’m so thankful that God wrote the Bible the way He did. It certainly seems within God’s power to find the best humans on earth and make them His chosen people; He could find the strong men with impeccable moral character and great interpersonal skills. Instead, God starts the story of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three generations of a dysfunctional family.
In last weeks reading, we discovered that though Abraham trusted God enough to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, he had major problems trusting God with his wife as they traveled through foreign nations. And as he tells the leaders of not one, but two nations, that Sarah is his sister (which though not entirely untrue, was still quite misleading), we want to jump out of our seats and scream at the screen, “Don’t lie to this guy! God is on your side and He’ll protect you! Trust God!”
And then we learned that Isaac picked up most of his father’s bad habits. When he tells the king that Rebekah is his sister, with déjà vu we begin to wonder if God just has a soft spot for liars.
If that were not enough, Jacob and Esau come along and then the story gets really interesting. Where Abraham and Isaac were flawed individuals who had a few problems with telling the truth when they got scared, Jacob is a downright sleazeball, tricking his two-fries-short-of-a-happy-meal brother into selling him his birthright for a cup of soup.
Jacob’s story is full of trickery and the misery it causes those around him, until he has an all-night wrestling match with the angel of the Lord and receives a limp and a new name: Israel, which means “He wrestles with God and with man and has overcome.”
That name, Israel, then becomes the name of his descendents, down to this very day when we read often in the newspaper how Israel is still wrestling with God and with man.
Here I am, today, reading these stories and I find myself understanding these characters. As Jacob wrestles with God, I experience my own wrestling match as I try to understand who God is and what His grace means in my life. As Isaac fears losing his wife to a powerful king, I fear losing the things I value most to this dangerous world. As Abraham goes from great moments of faithfulness and trust, to depressing days of mistrust and fear, I see my own fickle nature as I swing back and forth from faithfulness to self-reliance.
Just as Spiderman is my story, so are the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as I read them, I learn more about myself, and I learn more about the God who created me, knows my frailty, and loves me and blesses me anyway.
That said, I was also somewhat disappointed with last summer’s big blockbuster, Superman. I watched it, enjoyed the special effects, comprehended the storyline, and especially admired Kevin Spacey’s take on Lex Luther; but somewhere deep inside me there was a disconnect with “the superhero of superheroes.” It did not take me long to figure out what bothered me.
Superman is too perfect.
Though I can admire Superman for his unmatched strength, indestructibility, incredible speed, ability to fly and his impeccable moral character, I cannot relate to him. This was exaggerated even more with last summer’s movie, where his face had an airbrushed perfection, his acting had little emotional depth, and his supersuit never bunched in the wrong places. Though I could understand his conflict as an observer, I couldn’t feel what he felt, because I’m nothing like Superman. Peter Parker, on the other hand is someone I can relate to. He’s a normal kid, with lots of emotional and social problems who one day finds himself equipped with great power, which also brings great responsibility. He wrestles with balancing the different commitments in his life, having to sacrifice what he wants for what he feels he ought to do, and sometimes failing to get it right. He is far from perfect, and I find myself moved by his story, because it’s my story as well.
That’s why I’m so thankful that God wrote the Bible the way He did. It certainly seems within God’s power to find the best humans on earth and make them His chosen people; He could find the strong men with impeccable moral character and great interpersonal skills. Instead, God starts the story of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, three generations of a dysfunctional family.
In last weeks reading, we discovered that though Abraham trusted God enough to offer his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice, he had major problems trusting God with his wife as they traveled through foreign nations. And as he tells the leaders of not one, but two nations, that Sarah is his sister (which though not entirely untrue, was still quite misleading), we want to jump out of our seats and scream at the screen, “Don’t lie to this guy! God is on your side and He’ll protect you! Trust God!”
And then we learned that Isaac picked up most of his father’s bad habits. When he tells the king that Rebekah is his sister, with déjà vu we begin to wonder if God just has a soft spot for liars.
If that were not enough, Jacob and Esau come along and then the story gets really interesting. Where Abraham and Isaac were flawed individuals who had a few problems with telling the truth when they got scared, Jacob is a downright sleazeball, tricking his two-fries-short-of-a-happy-meal brother into selling him his birthright for a cup of soup.
Jacob’s story is full of trickery and the misery it causes those around him, until he has an all-night wrestling match with the angel of the Lord and receives a limp and a new name: Israel, which means “He wrestles with God and with man and has overcome.”
That name, Israel, then becomes the name of his descendents, down to this very day when we read often in the newspaper how Israel is still wrestling with God and with man.
Here I am, today, reading these stories and I find myself understanding these characters. As Jacob wrestles with God, I experience my own wrestling match as I try to understand who God is and what His grace means in my life. As Isaac fears losing his wife to a powerful king, I fear losing the things I value most to this dangerous world. As Abraham goes from great moments of faithfulness and trust, to depressing days of mistrust and fear, I see my own fickle nature as I swing back and forth from faithfulness to self-reliance.
Just as Spiderman is my story, so are the stories of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And as I read them, I learn more about myself, and I learn more about the God who created me, knows my frailty, and loves me and blesses me anyway.
“No wonder my heart is glad, and I rejoice.
My body rests in safety.
For you will not leave my soul among the dead
or allow your holy one to rot in the grave.
You will show me the way of life,
granting me the joy of your presence
and the pleasures of living with you forever.”
Psalm 16:9-11
No comments:
Post a Comment