Nov. 7, 2021, column in the Amarillo Globe-News:

Jesus: A better superhero than all the fake ones combined

By Mike Haynes

                Our niece, Sheri Ann, loves Halloween. She and her husband, Tyler, always dress up, decorate their house and especially, make it a fun time for their 4-year-old son, Dallas.

                From the video I saw of Dallas this year, it looked like his improvised costume was part Ninja Turtle, part Spiderman. And his confident body language showed that he considered himself some kind of superhero.

                Lots of superheroes show up on Oct. 31. Wonder Woman. Black Panther. When I was around Dallas’s age, I had a Superman outfit complete with the red cape, and I would jump off our 18-inch fireplace hearth knowing I wouldn’t really fly around the living room but giving it my best imitation.

                 We invent superheroes who have abilities we’d like to have. How many times has someone asked you, “Which would you rather have, the ability to fly or to be invisible?” 

                Superheroes also fulfill, at least in our fantasies, the need to be saved. We are Lois Lane falling from a building, but Superman catches us to save the day.

                We use the word to praise first responders, soldiers and others who put themselves on the line for our protection, but there are no superheroes in real life like those from the DC or Marvel universes. Except…

                Christianity offers us one. You know his name. And if what he says is true, he’s a better superhero than all the fake ones combined.

                We are told that by taking our sins upon himself when he died on the cross and then rising from the dead, Jesus Christ – God – saved us from the penalty of those sins. His message is that if we believe in him as divine, we will live with him in heaven for eternity. Things might not be so good on Earth, but there, he is preparing a place for us that is better than anything we can imagine.

                Christian author C.S. Lewis was aware that other religions have stories of gods dying and coming back to life. He knew that such accounts, including that of Jesus, sometimes are called “myths.” He also knew that although people tend to use the word “myth” to mean something that isn’t true, there is another meaning.

                Simply put, “myth” can mean a story that describes or explains a truth. In that sense, Lewis recalls in his essay, “Myth Became Fact,” the example of Balder, the son of the god Odin in Norse mythology. Balder dies and goes to the underworld and eventually, at the end of the world, he returns.  

                Lewis also mentions Osiris, an Egyptian king and god who was murdered but came back to life as ruler of the underworld. But the British author points out a key difference in those myths and that of Christ. While the others are hazy histories with no specific locations or times … well, Lewis explains it better than I can:

                “The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact. The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history.

“It happens – at a particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences. We pass from a Balder or an Osiris, dying nobody knows when or where, to a historical Person crucified … under Pontius Pilate.

“By becoming fact it does not cease to be myth: that is the miracle. …God is more than a god, not less: Christ is more than Balder, not less. We must not be ashamed of the mythical radiance resting on our theology. We must not be nervous about ‘parallels’ and ‘Pagan Christs’: they ought to be there—it would be a stumbling block if they weren’t.”

If someone tells me the Bible story is a myth, my answer will be, “Yes, it is.  A true myth.” It fulfills the wishes of humans who for thousands of years have invented superheroes to save them; and 2,000 years ago in a real place on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, the myth came true.