Warning, Spoilers for Spider-Man brand New Day!
Growing up, my family loved Spider-Man. I first encountered the character while in the mission field; I was six at the time. We happened to be in South Africa, and there was a video rental store. My dad rented the entire first season of the Spider-Man animated series along with Spider-Man‘s first encounter with The Insidious Six. We thought it was amazing and binged all the episodes at our disposal. We couldn’t get enough of the 90s cartoon, the original 60s, and later, the Spectacular Spider-Man. My twin and I even had a Spider-Man birthday party.
As an adult, I am a fan of the films. In both the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield films, Peter struggles with wanting revenge on the man who shot Uncle Ben, and it takes him to dark places. In the 2002 film, a criminal dies as a result of Peter’s actions. In Spider-Man 3, Peter tries to kill Sandman, and in The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter becomes a Crusader with a vendetta - searching for the man who shot uncle Ben. In Spider-Man No Way Home, Tom Holland’s Peter wants to show mercy and rehabilitate the super villains from the other universes so they won’t die when they return to their homeworld. However, Green Goblin kills Aunt May. Tom's Peter struggles with wanting to kill Green Goblin. Andrew and Tobey’s Spider-Men share their experiences to comfort him, and all three of them experience healing and redemption as they save the villains themselves. In the end, they save the spiderverse, and everyone in Tom’s universe forgets who Peter Parker is.
In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter must overcome his trauma and isolation in order to stop Jean Grey from killing everyone responsible for her sister’s death. Peter allows her to enter his mind and shares his own experience and the lessons he learned. Jean Gray is able to let go of the temptation to gratify her desire for revenge and release everyone in New York from her control. Punisher, not knowing the situation has de-escalated, attempts to shoot and kill Jean, but Peter takes the bullet for her. While leaving the hospital, he sees how much he is loved by the people of New York and finds healing.
This arc containing all three Peter Parkers makes me think of scripture:
“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-5
This is a fulfillment of God’s mandate to creation found in Genesis, “Be fruitful and increase in number.” We are supposed to go and make communities just as the God who is three in one creates communities. How do we do this? James writes that Faith without deeds is dead, and Paul writes in his letter to the Romans:
“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.” Romans 12:9-16
We must authentically care for everyone. Our agenda must have a holistic lens. Our vision must be set on the reality of Christ’s willingness to endure the cross, Christ’s vindication through resurrection, and the call to be a kingdom people - a holy people. We need to be a community known not for trying to fix people but to support people, a community that doesn’t listen to respond but instead listens to understand, a community known not for what they are against but for who their King is - not any old political figure or spiritual leader but the Living God who makes all things new! In other words,
The Good News must be good news!
Paul writes to the Ephesians:
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.…Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:2-3, 31-32
When we focus on our wounds, it clouds our vision and we are more likely to activate the sympathetic nervous system responses of fight, flight, or freeze. It is not a rational response, which makes it difficult to make decisions of loving one’s neighbor as oneself. However, there is a fourth reaction the nervous system can make - the reaction babies choose when they come out of the womb - they reach.
The great thing about having a relationship with the Living God is we can use our imaginations to picture Jesus on bad days. The Holy Spirit gives us the mind of Christ and sanctifies our imaginations; this allows us to visualize the Jesus who is found in the New Testament’s reaction and view how much he cares about us and others, how much he accepts us and others, how much our God is for us and others.
I cannot tell you all the times this discipline stopped me from taking my own life and helped me persevere in relationships when I felt tempted to give up on people. Remember, forgiveness is not saying that what the person did was understandable or acceptable or not that bad. Emotions don’t have to be rational to hurt. Forgiveness is taking up one’s cross and praying with Jesus that the Father would not hold against them the pain and suffering they caused you (or person/persons you are offended for). In the Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela put it this way:
“I did not want to drive the whites into the sea; I wanted them to be free as well.”
Forgiveness is not a one time deal, it needs to happen every time one is reminded of the offense. Like Spider-Man, we must show ourselves grace and mercy in order to fulfill our responsibility to others. Who knows how God will blow your mind if you just lean on the everlasting arms?
