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J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the “Trilogy of the Rings,” penned fairy tales that enjoy continued popularity because they tell stories where people escape time, overcome death, communicate with non human beings, find perfect love and triumph over evil.
People love to read these sorts of fairy tales and many of the most popular movies lately are of super heroes that match this same description.
Why these movies? Why Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Superwoman and The Fantastic Four? The human heart cries out for something greater — for good to triumph over evil.
And while superheroes are fictional, Jesus is not. By believing that Jesus rose from the dead, and accepting his eternal life, death is actually overcome and good finally triumphs. As followers of Christ we do live finally outside of time: we escape death and communicate with angels and saints. In Jesus Christ, the longings we project onto fairy tales and superheroes are fulfilled.
When we fork over money to see Spiderman 6 or Superman 5 it is, in part, because our hearts are hungry for real transcendence. We intuit that the world is not as it should be, that we need a savior, a hero to help us. You might call this intuition our collective memory. We know there was something like a good and beautiful garden long ago. When we cultivate gardens today it expresses a yearning in our hearts for the original garden. We have a memory trace of Eden.
The secret is to move beyond the trace to the source of this primordial knowledge. Death and evil have been conquered, not just in fairy tales and among superheroes, but there is truly life beyond death with love as its source and highest goal.
The myths of legendary kings righting wrong and defending damsels come true in Jesus — the true king who laid down his life for his bride (the Church) and conquered the great dragon (Satan) by shedding his blood on the cross. We all hope that something like this is true and we go to the movies to see evil’s demise. Following the show, we walk away wishing it was true. Well, it is true my friends!
Jesus did rise from the dead. Love has conquered.
Have a great summer vacation and know the great truth that all fairy tales and all superhero movies are actually just awakening the truth of the fact that we have the greatest king and superhero in Jesus. Enjoy the movies and look for traces of the divine everywhere.
A special thanks to Pastor Tim Keller’s inspiration and great reflections on this subject. He is a creative apologist and the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York
'Searching for a savior at the summer movies'
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