He's Always Around

OK, you have to give me credit for going a few posts without mentioning some kind of superhero? Maybe you won't, but I accept that I'm a geek and a nerd and still make a beeline for films based on comics I used to read when I was younger. Note, used to read!

Anyway, I didn't get to see Bryan Singer's Superman Returns at the cinema, and watched it this week after succumbing to the low price strategies currently being employed with great success by some high street shops to drag mugs like me inside their doors and convince them to part with their cash in exchange for DVDs.

It's a great film.

In terms of reflecting on the film though, I became aware of how few people actually seek out relationship with Superman. Sure, there's Lois Lane, but there are segments of the film showing Superman rescuing people all across the world. Yet they are only interested in him when he is saving them. Not before, not after. They want to know Superman is around for peace of mind in difficult times, but that's as far as it goes.

Now, this is reflection was influenced in light of the work I'd done on the magi post I wrote earlier in the week. I'm still amazed at how close Bethlehem and Jerusalem are, and I'd never noticed that before. I puzzled as to why the religious leaders didn't bother to go with the magi to find the baby. I figured it was because they were looking for a messiah to deliver them and a baby didn't fit that bill. Maybe they'd wait until he was a bit older and posed a real threat to the political status quo, but thought there was no point taking an interest in him until he actually proved his worth. And so they stayed at Herod's court. Maybe they liked they were inwardly thrilled at the idea that their hoped for messiah had arrived. But they would wait until he did something first.

Just to clear things up, I'm convinced Jesus is real and also healthily convinced that Superman is a fictional comic book character. But I'm convinced that this behaviour of only wanting a saviour in times of need is one that does pervade our culture. I know people who accept that Jesus existed, but want to treat him as some kind of divine rubber ring, stationed in an easy to reach place on the edge of the waters of their life, ready to come to their aid if they should get into difficulty.

But there is so much more to him than that.

Just imagine. If the citizens of Metropolis wanted to get to know Superman, outside of him saving their necks, they could find out all about where he came from, why and see their lives differently.

Just imagine if we took the same approach with Jesus. Not just at Christmas, but all the time-wanting to get to know him and not just to call out to him in times of difficulty. In seeking a relationship with him, everything changes. As Philip Yancey writes, no one who meets him ever stays the same.