We have noted in the past few weeks that God is real … God does not change … God comes from outside our world. Now we finish our trip through May with the season of Easter still in full bloom with its message of death and resurrection.
I was recently re-introduced to Superman – the comic hero of page, tube and screen. In the recent movie, Doomsday, we can view one attempt to deal with the reality of death and resurrection. The arch evil Lex Luthor begins with the recognition that Superman is as a “god on Earth,” but then in his evil snicker and sneer insists that, “there comes a time when even gods must die.”
The storyline takes us first to the death of this comic super-hero and then to a cloned superhero, who, appearing as Superman who has dug himself out of his grave, attempts to duplicate the real Superman through various saving acts— each of which is less than perfect. In the end, the fake man-of-steel does battle with the real Superman (who, we find out, never really died).
In the end, catastrophe is averted and the cloned superman is debunked and destroyed. … All seems safe once again in the world of Metropolis. Lois is sure of the real Superman once he kisses her and the crowd is similarly happy that the real Superman is back.
There have been many such attempts to reenact the original Easter story. But each one falls short in either imitating its authenticity or deflating its power.
In the original account, the God who exists enters into His created world through biological birth and becomes the God/ Man – Jesus the Christ.
This God-made-flesh then battles temptations and rejections designed to unseat Him as the God who is. However, this God/Man ends up offering up His perfect life and soul to death for the ones (us) who are stuck in a doomsday of our own.
On a Friday that is called “Good,” Christ dies on a cross to, as His name indicates, save His people from their sins.
Hollywood’s attempt at imitation fails to address the statements of the original. The first reveals itself in being unable to pinpoint Superman’s origin as outside the fabric of our physical world. The second is the admission even within the movie that Lex Luthor’s “god on Earth” does not really die. The third is that since the manof steel did not really die, he could not have risen from the dead. … Maybe this is why the authors have Lois Lane writing an article at the movie’s end that misspells “resurrection.”
Could it be that only the original Resurrected One can claim the use of the word, “resurrection”?
“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever lives and believe on me shall never die. Do you believe this? ” (John 11:25-26)
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month’s s contributor is Rev. Dennis Schutte, Pastor of Life In Christ Lutheran Church
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