Spiderman 3

Hello Friends,

A few weeks ago my family and I had the opportunity to see Spiderman 3.  I am blessed with three wonderful ladies in my family, all of whom like a good action/adventure movie.  We do our share of romantic comedies and teen flicks, but they are always willing to help dear old dad/hubbie take in a good action/adventure.

Spiderman 3 was very good.  We enjoyed the action and the special effects.  The story line was a bit weak and the resolution was a little too easy, but all in all we liked it.

Like all of the comic book heroes, the story is a classic good versus evil.  You know from the previews that Spidey has a black suit that highlights his darker side.  I won’t give away how all of this comes about but I do have a few thoughts about the story.

First, the dark suit represents the dark side of Spiderman.  When he first finds it he is intrigued, curious, inquisitive.  The trap is already set.  He tries it on and it feels good.  While wearing it, he finds a different strength than he has known before.  He likes it.  So it is with sin.  At first it looks interesting, different, unique, harmless.  We may dip a big toe and find that it feels okay, even good.  We like it.  Before long it consumes us.  We find that we are not filled, but emptied and we crave more and more of it.  We don’t even realize that it is eating us up from the inside out.  I remember a quote from a book about Spiritual Warfare that our small group studied recently.  It goes something like this: the thing about deception is the decieved doesn’t know (s)he is being deceived.  Did you get that?  I think that even sometimes when we know something is wrong, the good feeling we are getting overrides our sense of morality.  So it is with Spiderman.  He is deceived and caught.

The second thing that I came away with was that it took an effort for Spiderman to break the hold over him.  spidey does finally realize the black suit is not helping him.  In an enormous battle of self, Spidey tears away the bonds that have entrapped him.  With sin, it first takes a choice then an effort.  We must choose to repent (which means to turn away from) from our sin.  Then we must make the effort to strip away the bonds.  In the movie, the scene is almost one of birthing, or hatching.  It is a breaking out into a new life, a new creation, a new birth (or rebirth).  We must make the effort to shed the old self, the sin, the familiar path.  However, we are not left to our own strength.  Unlike, Spiderman, we could never shed the sin on our own.  We have the help of an all-powerful and loving God.  He gives us the strength and courage and determination and love and support and grace and mercy and a lot of other stuff to shed the shackles. 

My chains are gone I’ve been set free

My God my Savior ransomed me

And like a flood His mercy rains

Unending Love, Amazing Grace

(by Louie Giglio & Chris Tomlin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU_4lIik9D8

Until next time, this is your friendly neighborhood Christian,

Cameron