James Lyons
Have you noticed what big business comic book heroes have become lately? They’ve multiplied far beyond Superman and Supergirl. Superherodb.com lists nearly 20,000 superheroes in alphabetical order. Movies based on the top 10 have netted over $15 trillion.
They’ve also moved far beyond comics and movies. They’re now cartoons, action figures, jewelry, rugs, clothing, electronics, pet accessories, greeting cards, party décor, board games, wrapping paper, LEGO blocks, backpacks, dinnerware, happy meal toys, ad infinitum!
And the biggest is currently Batman – grossing $3.5 trillion at global box offices. Holy Bat Merchandising!
So why do they fire our fantasies and open our wallets?
Well, there’s all that superpower! What kid hasn’t longed to zap the school bully and become the class hero?
But we all know you can’t become a superhero by wishing it. Donning a cape and running through the house doesn’t qualify you to dive from the roof!
Something must happen to you – usually something unpleasant, extraordinary, paranormal ... even alien! But afterwards, you’re never the same. The world can’t see it yet, but those closest to you realize that something has happened – even if they can’t put their finger on!
And from then on you have this secret – a hidden wisdom or power, a hidden source that’s “out of this world” – that enables you to combat evil on a cosmic level!
And superheroes end up becoming things like Masters of the Universe or Guardians of the Galaxy.
Now if this all sounds vaguely familiar, there’s a good reason. Mankind has always longed to become something more than we now appear. Superheroes are exactly what God made us for, what we were always meant to be.
Champions, victors, overcomers – rulers of all creation!
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
Of course, we can’t turn ourselves into super-children. It takes a supernatural birth to become children of God.
And suddenly, something different begins emerging in the new believer’s life. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
For now, this difference “is hidden with Christ in God.” But someday our true nature will be revealed. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him.”
This yearning for the eternal is unique to man. We long to be changed by Something greater than ourselves. Our souls feel that we were meant to have power over nature, deep wisdom, communion with the Beyond, divine foresight, to fly, to live forever... in short, to be supernatural. We long for this because we are supernatural – have been since the day God breathed into a handful of clay.
He breathed eternity into us. We’re haunted by the siren song of eternity calling, and our souls long to answer.
Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our souls are restless until they find their rest in Thee.”
Our eternal souls will either connect with the Beyond, and grow forever in wonder and wisdom, in worship and worth, in love and beauty and power – in all we were meant for. Because we have an infinite capacity to grow!
We’ll disconnect, and descend forever in despair and darkness, desperation and rage, gnashing of teeth, infinite misery – haunted by regrets and all our worst nightmares. We have an infinite capacity for torment!
James Lyons is the pastor at Camp Creek Baptist Church.