Jesus Christ Super-Hero

Be forewarned that there is a moderately serious discussion about Jesus as well as some comic book talk contained herein. If either of these things make you uncomfortable, turn back now, lest you be forever scarred by it's contents.

This past weekend, Anne and I went up to her hometown to spend Christmas Eve with her family. Among the activities we went to Church for the Christmas Eve service. Overall, very nice, but the sermon went on far too long. My general feeling about sermons, or any public speaking, really, is that you should leave your audience wanting more, not wanting the Church to catch on fire so that they can escape. That's just a rule of thumb, not written in stone or anything, but I think that it's sound advice.

One of the main problems I saw, was that he was focusing on the part of Jesus' story that I find the least interesting. That is, all of the stuff about how special and perfect Jesus was. Now, don't get me wrong, Jesus is special, absolutely. I just think that other parts of his story are more interesting.

Let's put it in terms of superheroes. I know it sounds geeky, but I think it works. He fights evil, he's got special abilities, he's got a distinctive look. That's the whole package right there. The lack of combat skills and general pacifistic attitude require that he be in a support role on a team like the Avengers or the JLA, but all in all, I think he'd be a valuable member.

So, back to the topic at hand, talking about him as a perfect person, is like making him Superman. I know that, at first blush, it seems like a good comparison. They've both got all those powers. Jesus can walk on water, turn water into wine and absolve all sin, and Superman can fly, turn coal into diamond and melt things with his eyes. Not identical, but similar, nonetheless. Also, Jesus comes from heaven and Superman comes from outer-space. And on top of all that, they're both goodie two shoes.

But when you look closer, I think that Batman is more like Jesus that Superman ever could hope for. I know what you're thinking. In what way is Jesus like a revenge obsessed guy who creeps around in the dark? Well, let me tell you. One of the defining characteristics of Bruce Wayne/Batman has always been that he has no powers. He's just a (relatively) normal guy who, through determination and will, turned himself into a crime fighter on par with an alien who can bounce bullets off of his chest.

And to me, that's the defining characteristic of Jesus, too. Not the crime fighting part, but the human part. And not human like Zeus when he wanted to bang some chick. Human with all of the good and bad that comes with that. A Jesus Christ who got pissed off because someone made fun of his haircut and decided to forgive and love him anyway is way more interesting than a Jesus who never gets pissed off at all.

Yes, okay, he could do the whole water to wine thing and the other tricks, but the thing that really made him different wasn't the powers, but the ideas. I mean, my understanding is that it was pretty fucking revolutionary to think about things the way he did. "Heaven is for everybody? WTF, Jesus? We thought you were going to smite someone."

It is far more interesting to me to think about a Jesus that is as fundamentally flawed as every other human being on the planet, but overcame those flaws, than one that was born perfect. If he's a perfect being, as alien to mankind as Superman was, then there's a barrier between what he can achieve and what we can. But if Jesus is a flawed human, like Batman, that means that everybody can aspire to being like him.

And that is why, to me, Jesus will always be Batman. And also why Batman kicks Superman's ass.