Superhero Christianity

This superhero is a man of mythic spiritual proportions, even surpassing Jesus Himself. (I’ll unpack that seemingly blasphemous statement in a minute.) I call this person….SUPER-CHRISTIAN.

Super-Christian is the person all us Christians feel we should be, but none of us really is. Super-Christian is always on top of his game; he’s always happy, always victorious, prays all the time, and never loses his temper. He never has a bad day. Super-Christian never has financial problems (only “challenges”), and never gets sick (only “attacked”). Super-Christian has never, ever taken medication for depression, because of course, he never gets depressed. You can pick Super-Christian out of any crowd because of the flashy smile pasted on his face, that never comes off no matter how hard you hit him or how mean you are to him. He just never loses his cool; his buttons are un-pressable–testifying to his amazing spirituality. What an amazing guy.

The thing is, like Batman, Spider-man, Superman…Super-Christian doesn’t exist. He only exists in our minds. (For you sci-fi people whose sense of reality I’ve just destroyed, I can recommend some counselors on request.) But the Super-Christian image is so strong among believers that we feel we must measure up to it; we all come to church wearing our Super-Christian masks, desperately hoping that nobody sees the real us–the person behind the mask who doesn’t have it all together. (It all looks good, everyone in their Super-Christian masks; but it prevents true community because you can’t have true relationship with someone who doesn’t exist.)

Here’s the rub: not even Jesus was Super-Christian (hence the semi-blasphemous statement above). What? you might ask. Jesus was sinless! Yes, He was. But Jesus also got angry in public, which Super-Christian would never do. He was known to say things like “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I put up with you?” and “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He even lost his temper once and threw a bunch of tables around in the temple. Can you imagine Super-Christian saying/doing anything like that? And He wept. And in the garden before His death, He stressed so intently that He sweat drops of blood and asked God to remove His calling from Him. (Super-Christian would never get stressed, and would never, ever question His calling.)

Do you see what a mess this is? We are all trying to measure up to a persona that Jesus Himself didn’t even try to do. And who said we were supposed to be Super-Christian? Wasn’t this discipleship about learning to follow Jesus? And yet week after week, so many of us put on our Super-Christian masks and go to our Sunday gathering places to pretend we are something we aren’t, and in the midst of people we should be very close to, we feel alone in the crowd.

I used to love Super-Christian; heck, for awhile I thought I was Super-Christian. But I have to say now that watching my superhero Christianity crumble at my feet has been one of the best things that could have happened to me. Not only did I find a human being in the rubble, but my goofy expectations of others came down, too, so I could relate with them better, and they with me. I’ve been on a journey to learn what true community is, what true “church” is and should be; and I can tell you it goes a lot better and is a lot more fun and interesting when people take off their Super-Christian masks. So let’s be real, people! Let’s be ourselves and follow a real super-hero–Jesus, who loves our normal, messed-up selves just as we are.

Wayward Son

Musician. Composer. Recovering perfectionist. Minister-in-transition. Lover of puns. Hijacker of rock song references. Questioner of the status quo. I'm not really a rebel. Just a sincere Christ-follower with a thirst for significance that gets me into trouble. My quest has taken me over the fence of institutional Christianity. Here are some of my random thoughts along the way. Read along, join in the conversation. Just be nice.
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