In just a few days, Superman will visit communities all around the nation and world. Again. For the umpteenth time. This one promises to deliver a more relatable super hero. So we can feel closer to the alien from Krypton, of course.
I’ll probably go see it anyway.
What will come in the next weeks are talk show interviews and bloggers talking about how this iteration of the man of steel compares to its predecessors. Some will even wax eloquent about why we as a society are driven to various super hero stories, and what does this tell us about ourselves? Why do we create a man of steel from another planet? Or a Dark Knight? Or a Spiderman? Or Ironman? What is your favorite super hero, by the way? Why? What does it say about you, you freak?
We like heroes because they save the day. In the Bible’s 1 Kings 17:8-24, we find one of Israel’s favorite “super heroes” – a prophet named Elijah. In this particular story, there is a drought in the land, and people are dying. God instructs Elijah to spend a season in a village called Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. He goes, and finds a widow who God has instructed to feed him. Unfortunately, he is apparently late, because she only has one meal left for her and her only child, a son, and then they would wait to starve to death. Enter the super hero… Elijah assures her that God will provide. And God does! The widow never runs out of food for the three of them, and they survive the drought.
Some time later, the widow’s son became gravely ill and died. The widow complained to Elijah, and he quickly changed into his superhero costume, prayed to God, and the boy came back to life! And all the people rejoiced because their hero really was super.
Hundreds of years later a guy named Jesus was walking through a little village called Nain where he saw the funeral procession of a young man – a widow’s only son (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus changed into his superhero costume, walked up to the coffin, touched it, and told the young man inside to get up, and he did! The crowd was thrilled, of course. A superhero was among them.
We might be tempted, all these years removed from the story, to focus on the fact that two boys were raised from the dead. That Elijah, and then Jesus, restored life to two boys who were dead.
If you’ve studied some, you may also know that for a widow, a son is her hope for a decent life. Widows relied on the generosity of others, which sometimes meant they experienced neglect. But if you’ve got a son to take care of you, you can live know you are going to be taken care of. So, we can see that it wasn’t just the boys who were given life, but the women as well.
Elijah’s account gets mentioned by Jesus as he was teaching. As he was preparing to launch into his ministry, he noted an interesting fact about that widow: she was living in Zarephath, which was not exactly a central location for ancient Judaism. Jesus used the story to tell his audience that God shows favor to all, not just Israelites. This infuriated those in attendance at the synagogue that day. They were pretty set on their belief in a God who clearly favored his Chosen People. Remember as well that people were pretty sure God handed out justice in real time. The fact that the woman lost her husband, and now her son – what must she have done to warrant such wrath?
Yawn. Primitive people! Get over it, right? Why get so frustrated that God would love these women?
Did you know that these women were lesbian?
Were you aware that they both had multiple, late-term abortions before they decided to keep the pregnancy that produced the sons?
How about that these women had been divorced a few times along the way?
Does the fact that they were radical Islamists bother you – that they were considering becoming a suicide bomber?
What else? Well, they were known to hoard their resources, had had a lot of “work” done to keep themselves looking young, were obsessed with the social crowd, and were known to text while driving.
And God showed up for them, not just restoring life, but renewing their living. Their labels didn’t matter to God, apparently, and they still don’t for you and me. So why not drop them today? How about not giving any more allegiance to titles and labels that really don’t matter when compared to our identity found in Christ: we are loved.
Rabbis believe that Elijah was sent to Zarephath so that he could see firsthand the suffering of the oppressed in the land. He couldn’t live in denial any longer. He did something about it. He shared his food and himself with those who were desperate. Will you?
You and I are called to be supers. We are called to go where people struggle and be present. To let them know they are seen, they are loved, they are not alone, and that God doesn’t give a rip about their title or labels. When we act with compassion, we support resurrection, because we give life where there may not be life. And when we act as Jesus, we support living, because we promote a Way that subverts all systems that estrange, isolate, pigeon-hole, politicize – and kill us.
Where do you need to be super? Who are you being directed to be super toward?
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