The Laughing Superhero: Captain America, God and the Problem of Pain

If I had any clue how to invest in stock, I would give all my money to Marvel.

With the release of Captain America: Civil War, Marvel has now produced thirteen films since 2008 and made over nine billion dollars at the box office.

These movies are wildly popular. And I think I know why.

While the number of shirtless Chris Hemsworth scenes differ, these Marvel movies all have at least one thing in common...

The good guys always laugh in the face of danger. 

In these movies, disarming humor riddles every universe-threatening fight scene. The superheroes act more like elementary schoolers on a field trip than grown men fighting for the lives of everyone on the planet.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, the main character defeats the most powerful being in the universe by distracting him with a dance off...

And the audience eats it up. Because if only for a couple hours, we don't have to worry about anything. It's like watching a game when you already know the final score.

Though the danger is perilous, the laughter reminds us who will ultimately win.

And for the same reason I used to dress up with a cape and a mask, I go to the movies and pretend I am like those superheroes, defeating evil with incredible puns. 

It makes me feel like I, too, can laugh in the face of trouble in my own life. But when the world is saved and the credits roll, we are left with one, really big problem... 

Life isn't a Marvel movie. 

Sure, you can binge watch superhero movies on the weekends, but what happens when you go back to work on Monday and Thor isn't there to save you from that annoying co-worker who has a complicated relationship with deodorant?

Or when you come home from work and your spouse ambushes you with a dirty frying pan because you forgot to load the dishwasher?

And what about the more serious threats in life? Can we laugh through natural disasters?

And what do we do when that bad guy named Cancer threatens the life of a friend?

Because the danger in our lives, whether big or small, is very real. And unlike the people in the movies, sometimes we aren't spared from those bad things.

The laughter that fits seamlessly into fictional action sequences seems strangely out of place when we are confronted by villains in our real lives. Because the outcome of our lives is not predetermined. 

Spider-man can swing freely because he knows there is going to be a Spider-man 2. And if the first movie is a flop, they will just start the franchise over and that radioactive spider can bite him again for like the fifth time in three years. Either way, nothing too awful will happen to Spider-man.

But we aren't guaranteed a sequel. Our marriages and finances and leaky radiators don't have their own action figures. It is hard to joke around when our worlds are crashing down around us and the Hulk is not there to hold them up.

And yet, in spite of all the things that go wrong in our lives, we still hear laughter from the sky. There is one that flies above and ahead, laughing in the face of evil.

The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,

“Let us break their chains

and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them.

Psalm 2:2-4

God is a celestial Tony Stark, scoffing at his enemies.

It only takes one look at the news, however, to question God's superpowers. 

If God is laughing, why is everyone else crying? If God is an all-powerful vigilante, shouldn't the world be more safe and sound than it is? 

Sometimes it seems like Aqua-man, the guy who can talk to a fish, has cooler superpowers than God. Obviously that's not true, but when things don't go so right it is easy for me to question. 

And that is the huge question, isn't it? If God is all-powerful, why do bad things still happen? 

I don't pretend to know the answer, but I think we get sidetracked when we assume Jesus has the same priorities and motivations as the Avengers, like He is trying to fight crime but His scissor kicks keep getting tangled up in his toga.

God isn't a Marvel character. He is unlike any other superhero you can think of.

When Iron Man would cut off the ear of an enemy soldier, Jesus would heal it. When Captain America would free innocent people from slavery and oppression, Jesus would live in it with them. When Thor would come down from the cross, Jesus stayed.

God operates differently.

So what exactly does God laugh at? If he doesn't always save us from our troubles, what does He save us from?

This is where God shows how cool He really is. Because God does something the Avengers wouldn't dream of. 

While Spider-man and Captain America taunt the danger that threatens our lives, God taunts death itself. 

“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

1 Corinthians 15:55

Loki is scary, but only because he brings death along with him. Without death, Loki is just a guy who looks like a reindeer. He is death's henchman.

God is too big to worry about henchmen. He went for the boss. He wanted death to die.

Through the resurrection of Jesus, God has made the ultimate super-villain nothing more than the butt of a joke. God laughs because He knows there will be a sequel.

It is dramatic irony. Like the fate of Marvel bad guys, we know that death, too, will die. Though it still seems alive, death is nothing more than a dead man walking. 

And thankfully for us, His laughter is contagious. We can laugh with God not because bad things don't hurt, but because the source of all pain will one day be swallowed up by an endless joy and death will be a distant memory, an inside joke shared by all the citizens of Heaven.

Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

Luke 6:21