Dawn of Justice and Victorious Sacrifice

Superman dies! A few months back I went to see this way over-due production, and the scene was visually shocking, yet expected. This was the way things ended in the comic bout with Doomsday. Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice’s twist was the foe was something created by arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. This is all part of “a mythological journey for Superman,” according to film director Zach Snyder, which includes “the birth, death and resurrection.” Accordingly, the final frame includes a faint heartbeat and soil levitating from the casket.

Hope of resurrection, victory over the enemy of death, is the yearning within the hearts of many. The very idea makes a fine fixture to incorporate into our Superman mythology. Perhaps we can get a foretaste of this victory in present, like in recovering from a brush with death; yet, the human experience is the reign of death. What if this enemy could be destroyed? For the Christian, the victory over death is rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the apex of redemptive history, the epicenter of a monumental happening that shook the fabric of time and space. The Apostle Paul writes, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).¹ God sent the Son to die upon the cross for sinners, the Son resurrected on the third day, and those who believe have eternal life.

When Jesus Christ appears again, the dead shall be raised from the graves. The saints shall be resurrected to eternal life in a new heaven and new hearth and the sinners to eternal condemnation in the lake of fire (John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. 15:1-58; 2 Cor. 5:9-10; Heb. 9:27-28; Rev. 20:11-12; cf. Dan. 12:2).

Another theme explored in Dawn of Justice is the corruptive effects of evil. Luthor wants to both mar and destroy Superman. The villain uses the collateral damage from the previous battle with General Zod to fuel public distrust in the Kryptonian’s goodness. Luthor even utilizes extraterrestrial artifacts and technology to construct weapons for the purpose of killing Superman. The mad man thinks a god-like Superman intervening in human affairs is an evil that the world can do without. Even the mind of Bruce Wayne becomes poisoned with anti-Kryptonian sentiments and the Batman nearly succeeds yet stops short of killing Superman after coming to a true evaluation of things. (Luthor had taken Martha Kent, and used to adoptive mother to manipulate Superman into battling the Dark Knight).

The Bible depicts God’s people in spiritual warfare against the sinful flesh, the world, and the Devil. Luthor embodies the way of the Deceiver in leading a campaign of misinformation to slander Superman, and lead masses into questioning the goodness of hero’s attempts to rescue earthlings from their distress. The serpent says, “Indeed, has God said…” (Gen. 3:1), and calls into question the truthfulness and goodness of Yahweh’s prohibition against eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “You surely will not die!” said the serpent, who then asserted, “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” the serpent said (Gen. 3:4-5).

New Atheist works like Christopher Hitchen’s God is not Good: How Religion Poisons Everything follows the same tactic. Although arguments against theism are pretty flimsy in such works, the fierceness and dogmatism of the presentation can easily poison minds against belief in any benevolent deity. Christians who fail in knowing why they believe what they believe can easily be led astray by the ruse.

Christianity’s place in this epic battle between the Light and darkness is to realize this. Yes, there are many sinners who have been duped by Satan into serving in the army of darkness and waging war against God and the people of God, but Jesus Christ brings sinners out of the darkness into the light, and the Christian serves as agents behind enemy lines calling enemy soldiers to defect towards the other side.

Nobel death is another theme explored in the Dawn of Justice mythology. When Luthor realizes the plan to have the two superheroes has been foiled, he creates Doomsday to destroy them both. Superman and Batman are joined by Wonder Woman to defeat Luthor’s monster. The three heroes are unable to bring down the beast, and all hope appears to be lost. Yet, Superman leads one last foray armed with a kryptonite spear, and stabs Doomsday in the heart. There is also a great cost to this victory, for Kal El is pierced through the heart by one of the bony spines protruding from the beast. Superman gives his own life to deliver the earth from the destructive force of Doomsday.

It is Superman’s noble death which inspires Batman to form the Justice League. The Dark Knight realized that other threats to earth’s existence would come, and a world without Superman would need a force of metahumans to thwart off those attacks. This Justice League would include Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, and the Flash.

Nobel death, self-sacrifice, or martyrdom is something truly powerful, which can inspire others to do something greater than themselves. Christianity see in the death and resurrection of Jesus as the motivating force behind leaving behind an old sinful life and taking on a new righteous life. Paul writes, “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). The disciple of Christ enters into the kingdom on the basis of Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the same death and resurrection motif is carried out in all areas of Christian living, like the foregoing of selfish ambition and empty conceit addressed in Philippians 2.

I’ll have to hold off on Dawn of Justice being one of the best 2016 comic book superhero action films to come out, but there are redemptive elements explored in the storyline (like resurrection, corruptive effects of sin, and noble death), which make this an interesting story. So it was at minimum worth paying the admission. 

WGN

Notes:

1. All Scripture cited from New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), unless noted.