If you haven’t watched the latest avengers and you still want to, which you should, but you don’t want me to spoil anything for you, which you shouldn’t, you should stop reading now.
You’ve been warned! Don’t blame me if I ruin the movie for you!
I know this is branching off from my typical blog posts, but I’ve been thinking about branching out a bit and doing some movie reviews every now and then. If this feels forced or you don’t like it, feel free to let me know, otherwise I’ll probably determine if this is a worthy endeavor based upon how many people read the blogs.
So how about that last Avengers movie, huh? I really did not see that coming. In fact I was talking with a friend recently and they said that they are done with hero movies because all the movies have the same plot, they basically fight a bunch, the hero takes a beating and eventually the hero wins out and kills or otherwise defeats the bad guy and everyone lives happily ever after.
Well, the only happily ever after in this one is with the bad guy in this one. It that more than half of the Avengers have been killed and half of the population of earth. It’s not exactly your typical ending. Though I have my theories on how some of them may come back. . .
So what the crap does this have to do with the gospel?
Well frankly it kind of is the gospel. Dr. Strange hints at it when he said ‘it’s the only way’.
You see the whole gospel centers around the fact that the world has gone wrong, that in one sense or another things are not as they should be. As a result someone has to bring things back to the way they should be and no human being can bring that about which is why God comes. He becomes a man and pays the price for our sins so that things can be made right again.
In this same way, each and every one the Avengers who has fallen is a bit of a Christ figure. Strange, more than any of them resembles Christ in that he in essence has omniscience to see all possible worlds and determine what must be done. He alone is the one who volunteers himself in order to save the world. I am a fan of him being the most christ-like figure because I may have a man-crush on Mr. Cumberbatch. Haha!
There is a sense in which we know that with the evil in the world the only ones who can fix it is one of if not all the Marvel heros, but what surprises us is that that evil can only be conquered by death. Strange sees the possibilities and decides that the only way that they can save earth is to die. This is in the end the greatest sacrifice a man can make just was we see in John 15:13. Not only is there a sense in which the world is not as it should be but that the only way things can be brought back to normal is through death.
In the Gospel this death is God himself through Christ. In Avengers this death is through Strange and the other Avengers who disintegrated. We know from what Strange said that their deaths are the only way that things can be brought back to right.
It’s the Gospel! How neat is that?
Bible Project has a video that basically explains this gospel message called Heaven and Earth. I highly suggest checking it out and while you are on their website I would encourage you to make your own profile and where you can keep track of all of the videos you’ve watched and what you haven’t.
The video even explains how each of us are supposed to be a bit of heaven on earth, which is essentially what the Avengers are as well. When the friendly neighborhood Spiderman fights crime in New York he has made that little piece of earth as it should be. When we follow Christ we bring heaven to earth and we act as Avengers bringing the little piece of the world to the way it should be.
BEARDED DISCIPLE 