In 2019, millions of people flocked to theaters to experience the final chapter of a decade-long buildup. What began in 2008 with a movie about a man who put on a metal suit had culminated in a film containing 36 heroes fighting for the fate of the universe.
“Avengers: Endgame” concluded this fantastical and epic narrative of heroes from Earth and the stars, fighting to restore life and prevent tyranny at the hands of the Mad Titan Thanos. The heroes featured everyday humans with extraordinary technology and skills, genetically enhanced or mutated men and women, and even godlike beings from other planets.
Audiences clamored for this epic tale, which has grossed more than $2.75 billion worldwide. As a whole, the Marvel movies have made more than $18 billion. They may not be critically acclaimed or lauded by the Academy of Motion Pictures, but they seem to be giving the audiences what they want.
But what is it, exactly, that they want? Probably entertainment, mostly. But I wonder if there is an element of escape sought. I wonder if they are looking for a version of hope, for a version of victory over evil. I wonder if they are seeking a different reality, even if it’s a comic book reality.
C.S. Lewis, known mostly for his popular books about Narnia, was a big fan of mythology. He basked in old stories, stories of conquest, tragedy and marvels. What he struggled with, however, were the Gospel stories, which he considered silly and foolish. That all changed, however, in a conversation with his good friend J.R.R. Tolkien and Hogo Dyson. In a letter to his old friend Arthur Greeves, Lewis explains:
“Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: A myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened, and one must be content to accept it in the same way, remembering that it is God’s myth where the others are men’s myths: i.e. the Pagan stories are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call ‘real things.’”
While stories of Zeus, Aragorn or Iron Man are stories and myths, the story of Jesus is what Lewis called “a true myth.” It is fantastic, wondrous, but — and here’s the big difference — it’s real. That changed everything for Lewis. And it changes everything for us.
The escape, the hope, the victory that we seek in Iron Man or Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter, all are really and truly found in Jesus. After all, those characters fought and sacrificed for fictional worlds. Jesus, however, fought, sacrificed and was victorious for this world — for you.
Thanks be to God!
