The other night I was watching Superman Returns and I was making some thoughts. There is a scene where after a 5-year absence Superman makes a stunning return and catches an airplane out of a crash. Its falling with no hope of recovering and then out of no where he comes and catches it and sets it safely down in the middle of a baseball field and the crowd cheers! This is one of my favorite scenes in any Superman movie or show, it is fantastic.
While watching this scene my mind began to wander and took me to some fun places. I imagined how it would feel to have been some one in the baseball field and later how it would have felt to have been on the plane. 5 years before it must have been a scary and dark time for them, there was a person who could catch them when they fell, there was a person who could step between the bullet and them and save them from the imminent death that approached. Then all of a sudden, he was gone. When a plane falls out of the sky there would be no one to catch it. And then 5 years later on an otherwise unremarkable day a plane fell from the sky and he was back and he caught it. The stadium was in shocked silence and then just as sudden as his return the crowd broke out in cheers, no more would someone fall and not be caught. Superman was back! How grand would it be to have been on that plane knowing you are going to die, knowing that there was absolutely nothing you could do to stop that from happening and then to be caught. The absolute joy that would be had when Superman opened the door of the plane and asked if everyone was alright.
That scene and the feelings it brought on were still fresh on my mind the next morning when I read Romans Chapter 5 and I realized we live in a similar situation. No we don’t have a man in blue tights that flies around and catches airplanes, but we do have a Savior and His power to save is not reserved for the silver screen. There was a time two thousand years ago when the preverbal plane was falling out of the sky. In fact that plane had been falling with every person on it since the fall of Adam and was going to fall with every single human soul on it until 2,000 years ago Jesus reached out and caught it.
We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We all continue to fall. We cascade through a dark and bitter fall until we would reach a sudden stop among lucifer and his fallen ones, doomed to suffer eternity out in the bitter gulf of hell. This is no less than we deserve and no more than we have earned by our own action and yet there is One Mighty to Save. In no less as triumphant a moment than Superman catching the plane, Jesus reaches out and pulls us back from that pit of misery and endless wo.
And the best part about this? We don’t have to earn being saved. It’s a free gift. You could not pay for it if you tried. Living a changed life and striving to be your best are the blessed side effects of God’s grace and love, not the bargaining chip upon which we attempt to purchase. “God showed His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” Romans 5:8
The price has been paid, the tally totaled, the scales balanced, and the accounts settled. While we were imperfect and falling down that doomed cascade Christ looked upon us and settled with the Father that we were worth it. The same joy and peace that filled the hearts of the people in the stadium when Superman caught the plane should fill our hearts each day as the Savior of the world catches us. No more will man fall and not be caught.
He is risen! He is risen!
Tell it out with joyful voice.
He has burst his three days’ prison;
Let the whole wide earth rejoice.
Death is conquered; man is free.
Christ has won the victory.