Dr. Nathan Leasure

One of the things that pastors do is watch our culture, which is now essentially a post-Christian culture, and examine the changes that have taken place that demonstrate we are moving away from biblical Christianity.

One change that has happened in my lifetime is the fascination with superheroes. In the absence of worshipping the one true God, we are now moving towards a polytheism where we embrace, at least in fiction, the idea of mini-gods or superheroes. But what does this growing fascination say about us? As mini-deities that capture our imaginations, what do superheroes reflect about our deific cravings? What exactly attracts us to these fictional deities? What are the implications regarding how we interact with the one, true God which many of us claim to follow?

Well, think about our superheroes – Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, the Incredible Hulk, and many others. What is the common denominator they possess that we find so attractive? I would propose that it is their willingness to rescue but not rule. 

In Gotham City, all the citizens need do is signal their desire for Batman and he comes to save the day. He fights their enemies, saves the city, and restores order, but he never installs himself as the undisputed ruler of the town. As quickly as he comes, he returns to the bat cave and allows the Gotham City citizens to return to their independence.

Likewise, Clark Kent walks around in his glasses, content to blend in and live in disguise until injustice threatens to dominate. Then he takes off his glasses and transforms into a tight wearing, caped crusader until the threat is defeated. After saving the day, he once again returns to anonymity, seemingly never tempted to use his power to rule over those he has saved. 

That’s why Hillsong got it all wrong (again) with their children’s song, “Jesus is My Superhero,” which made its VBS rounds in the last decade. Hear this gripping lyrics:

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, better than Spiderman
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, better than Superman
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, better than Batman
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, better than anyone
Jesus, You're my superhero
You're my star, my best friend
Jesus, You're my superhero
You're my star, my best friend.”

Notice that in the lyric, Jesus is a superhero and a friend but never a king. Yet, this is precisely why Jesus, as much as we might want Him to be, is not a superhero. He did come to save and rescue but He also came to rule. From the very beginning of His earthly ministry, He came preaching that His kingdom was at hand. He told us His rule had arrived! He came announcing that we were under new management and that His salvation and rule and one in the same. This is the great source of conflict for us. We all want a superhero, but our nature resists a king.

We want to sleep with whoever we want to sleep with. We want to shack with whoever we want to shack up with. We want to watch what we want to watch. We want to listen to what we want to listen to. We want to gossip about who we want to gossip about. We want to ignore whoever we want to ignore. We want to carry vile attitudes right into the front door of the church and sit on a church pew and act like everyone is wrong but us. We want to go to church casually and if we make it six times a year, no one better question our commitment.

We want a savior but resist the sovereign. Yet, Jesus saves through ruling. Left to our own devices, we would fall back into the bondage that caused us to yearn for a savior in the first place. Jesus wants to save us and restore sanity to our lives. To do this, He must rule us. Otherwise, we will live our lives like the citizens of Gotham City – always being saved, enjoying the salvation for a time, only to be overcome by another villain again. The message of scripture is to accept Jesus as the Savior of the world, but allow Him to rule in your heart. Only then will peace, security, and sanity return to your being.