{"id":679,"date":"2011-10-12T14:38:54","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T14:38:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/preacherskid\/?p=679"},"modified":"2011-10-12T14:38:54","modified_gmt":"2011-10-12T14:38:54","slug":"of-super-heroes-fictional-real-and-christ-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/preacherskid\/2011\/10\/of-super-heroes-fictional-real-and-christ-man.html","title":{"rendered":"Of Super Heroes, fictional, ‘real’ and . . . Christ-Man?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Super hero? Meh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You have caught the YouTube (and national news) rage over so-called “real life superheroes.<\/a>“<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>No longer fictional, comic book heroes. Oh, no. These are real guys out there in a variety of costumes, in cities across the nation, fighting crime. Or checking up on the homeless, handing out food and toiletries. They even have their own website.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Whatever.<\/em><\/p>\n

Some of the costumes are better than others, of course. Think of it as sort of a Halloween grab bag. You know, those kids trick-or-treating who have folks with the bucks always<\/em> have the coolest costumes.<\/p>\n

The rest of us (dare I borrow the now-popular\u00a0“99 percenters”<\/a>\u00a0phrase?<\/em>) made due with the cheaper stuff from K-Marts, if we were lucky, or second-hand stores or Mom’s sewing machine, if not.<\/p>\n

Same here. Some of these guys have Hollywood-quality gear, including knife-proof breast plates and bulletproof vests. Others? Well, they look like they just came up out of the basement long enough to borrow Mom’s draperies and pantyhose.<\/p>\n

Just sayin.’<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
George Reeves: Not kryptonite, but a bullet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anyway, this all reminded me of one of the first explanations about deity my folks taught me. I think I was 6 years old, living in Norwalk, California, at the time, and fascinated with the black-and-white, late 1950’s version of “Superman.”<\/p>\n

One day, on the front page of the Los Angeles Times<\/em> delivered to our doorstep, was a picture of actor George Reeves, in his Superman costume. The headline: “Reeves, Superman of TV, Kills Himself in His Home.”<\/em><\/p>\n

I was stunned. He had been “able to leap tall buildings with a single bound,” “more powerful than a locomotive,”<\/em> and “faster than a speeding bullet”<\/em> . . . but not the one he had fired into his own head.<\/p>\n

Kryponite had not laid the Man of Steel low. Just a bullet, and his own depression.<\/p>\n

My dad the preacher and my mother the Sunday School teacher explained that Superman was made up, like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. A figment of imagination created for entertainment.<\/p>\n

But God? He is real.<\/p>\n

Jesus? He was the real<\/em> Super Man. Call him, “Christman?”<\/em><\/p>\n

That, for a disappointed 6-year-old boy whose world had suddenly begun dividing between the formerly unified world of imagination and reality, was a comfort.<\/p>\n

All these years later, I believe I know the difference. I realize, though, others have never been able to find the truth between make believe and faith. Skeptics will tell you there really is no difference.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
His superpower is . . . love<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The testimony of apostles who knew and walked with Jesus 2,000-plus years ago, and willingly died for proclaiming his truth (you don’t do that for something you and the rest of the boys just made up, after all<\/em>), makes my Christian faith real for me.<\/p>\n

The millions who have died for that faith since are that “cloud of witnesses”<\/a><\/em> Paul wrote about.<\/p>\n

Jesus Christ didn’t fly around, that I know of, except that one time at the end when he ascended into the heavens.<\/p>\n

The Nazarene didn’t peer through walls with his X-ray vision . . . but he knows the hearts of human kind.<\/p>\n

The Gallilean rabbi couldn’t — or didn’t — deflect the blows of the Roman soldiers and the nails did not bend, but penetrated his hands and feel. But his life and teachings promise to save us from hopelessness.<\/p>\n

Yep. There’s the only real superhero.<\/p>\n

Up, up and away, indeed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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