There’s a movie I like that came out about 5 years ago.  It’s all about how a man and his friends seek to undo the tragic and horrible acts of a villain named Thanos – whose name literally means “Death.”  This walking personification of death has wiped out half the life in the cosmos.  It’s just gone.  But our hero and his friends won’t give up hope that what was lost can be restored.  Does this story sound familiar to any other story you’ve heard? 

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One of the most interesting parts of the movie is when they’re able to look into all possible futures – almost like having an all-powerful eye looking from outside of time; and after all the thousands of possible scenarios, they discover how many possible ways there are to beat Thanos … ONE.  And it struck me how close to the gospel this is … because how many ways were there for our lost and fallen race, intractably bound in the grip of death, to be restored?  How many plans would have worked?  How many people could have truly been strong enough to do it?  ONE.

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            The movie ends with Death and our hero standing off against each other.  The proud villain who thinks he has won simply says, “I am inevitable.”  And our hero, bruised and bloody, quietly and defiantly responds, “I AM” … and he pauses, letting those two words linger there for a moment (How interesting, since that is the name that God gave himself to be known by his people: Yahweh – “I AM”). Our hero, on the brink of death, says “I AM…” says his name, and snaps his fingers.  It’s like he’s saying, “It is finished.”  The hero dies, but it’s because he knew it was the only way.  And then, all the billions of people who had been taken – who were lost – are returned.

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            I like that film for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is it reminds me of the lengths to which my God and Savior went to bring us back to him.  And all of Christ’s love, all of his signs and wonders, all of his teaching and compassion, all of his perfect obedience to the will of the Father … is summed up in those 3 words of his on the cross – whispered into the face our enemy, the face of death:  “It is finished.”

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    Now, in movies and comics, heroes somehow come back from the dead, all the time it seems.  That’s almost expected in fiction and fantasy.  But that can’t happen in real life … until it did.  He is here, and He forever proclaims, “I AM … ALIVE!

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                It is true!  Let us rejoice over the Risen One!

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                Pastor Chris