The Next Big Thing?

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, the realistic re-telling of the last hours of Jesus, remains the top-grossing R-Rated movie of all time. The big budget adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ allegory of the gospel, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, was one of the biggest movies of last year. And now the next big blockbuster to depict the gospel story is scheduled to be released on June 28. That movie is Superman Returns.

Superman? Think about it. Here is a savior who comes from another world to save mankind. That does sound familiar, right? The teaser for the movie contained these words spoken by Marlon Brando as Superman’s father in the 1978 movie--

Even though you have been raised as a human being, you are not one of them. They can be a great people, Kal-El. They wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason above all-- their capacity for good-- I have sent them you, my only son.

Sound familiar? Superman's real name "Kal-El" and that of his father "Jor-El" both use the Hebrew word for "God.” The plot has Superman returns after a long absence, a story-line not unlike Jesus’ death and resurrection. These kinds of comparisons really got going when James Caviezel, star of The Passion of the Christ, was considered for the role of Superman, a role which eventually went to Brandon Routh. Stephen Skelton has written The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero, a book featured by Rick Warren (Purpose Driven Life) on his web page.

I think it is important for Christians to understand the popular culture. Jesus spent His time in the streets with common people, not ivory towers separated from them. I think we can use the interest of people in the culture to build bridges to the gospel. That is why we look at the birth of Jesus at Christmas and his death-and-resurrection at Easter— people are already focusing on those themes. I did preach on The Da Vinci Code when the movie was released, and I made a big deal about The Chronicles of Narnia, a movie I’ve seen a half-dozen times. I think it is important to use people interest or questions in spiritual things to point them to spiritual truth.

But there seems to me something else going on when we start seeing Superman as a Christ figure! Do we really think someone will see Superman again beating up on Lex Luther and think, “You now, I really outta go to church?” Will secular people be opened to spiritual truths here? Will discussions about Superman Returns at the water cooler give us chances to share our faith? Maybe, I guess. Who knows?

Or is it maybe that believers are looking to secular culture for some sort of confirmation of faith? If a popular movie throws us a bone (or uses imagery that we can interpret as a bone), maybe that makes us feel better about our faith. After all, we are used to movie like The Da Vinci Code undermining and ridiculing faith. We are used to religious people in movies always turning out to be psycho-killers. So when The Chronicles of Narnia comes along and treats faith respectfully, that is refreshing. So are willing to see Superman as another allegory of faith? Am I the only one who sees this as a super stretch?

If talking about Superman Returns helps you share you faith, that’s great. But if we are willing to take comfort in Hollywood treating faith respectfully, then we are setting ourselves up to be disappointed. It has always been the case that those who follow Christ must follow him outside the camp of respectability (see Hebrews 13:11-14). There is always something of a disgrace to follow the Crucified One. We certainly should not expect our culture to make faith more respectable!