Perhaps in an attempt to make the world a better place, if only in our fantasies, we have filled our culture with a host of fictional super heroes. Summer movies, comic books, novels, television series entertain us with good guys, often existentially conflicted, fighting evil. It is not just little boys who long for super powers to right wrong. As fictional as it all is there was a super hero who walked among us. He could have jumped off a tall building, He chose not to. He never punched anyone though He was struck over and over. His only episodes of rage occurred when He saw political and religious powers abusing the poor and even then He never struck anyone. He used extraordinary power to restore sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and life to the dead. He maintained remarkable self-composure by not calling angels to come to His rescue. He did psychological battle with His arch foe. He allowed that foe the privilege of literally grinding Him into dirt in a battle over His and our futures.
If Charles Dickens had written of the cross surely he would have used his famous passage from “The Tale of Two Cities” for Jesus instead of Sydney Carton. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” And where is Jesus now? According to Hebrews 1, He is sitting on the throne of glory. And what is He doing? He is trying His best to woo us into His love. Jesus is the ultimate super hero. There is none even closely like Him.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 13, 2015
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