One of my favorite Superman stories is Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes. The story is set in the year 3008. The example of Superman's heroism and integrity has led not just to all of Earth being united but also to the formation of the United Planets. The United Planets are protected by the Legion of Super-Heroes, a diverse group of superpowered teens that has been inspired by Superman to fight for truth and justice. But trouble arises when a guy calling himself "Earth-Man" starts spreading the lie that Superman was from Earth, not Krypton. Earth-Man claims that Superman hated aliens and fought to protect Earth from them. Earth rallies behind Earth-Man and tries to kick out its aliens, which include most of the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion, desperate to combat Earth-Man's lies, brings Superman 1000 years into the future to prove that Superman was an alien and a supporter of alien rights. This pays off in a wonderful moment when a human police officer tries to shoot an alien while screaming, "Superman wouldn't help aliens. He's for human rights. He's for us!" Superman stops the officer's bullet, stares him down, and calmly replies, "I'm for everyone."
"I'm for everyone." Sometimes I wonder if Jesus would say something like that to His church today. Jesus Christ is for everyone. We know this. No one would deny it. But it can be really difficult for us to live out. There are obvious examples I could give you here, like persons of color feeling excluded from congregations filled with white people. But it's really easy to cherry pick the grossest examples of injustice to make ourselves feel like we're doing a good job because there are others who we think are worse than we are. Let me try to dig a little bit deeper. How do we feel when a person with Tourette syndrome walks into our church? What about someone in our community who struggles to hold down a job? Are we happy to see them, or do we cringe, expecting them to ask for a handout? Do we feel called to share Jesus with people who are less educated or less wealthy than we are? What about people who are more educated or more wealthy than we are? Do we think Jesus is only for those who seem to have their lives together or that He's only for those who don't seem to have their lives together? Do we reach out to both adults and children? What about the lesbian couple or the teen mom or the ex-convict or the guy who's parked outside the bar most nights? Do we want them as part of our church fellowship, or do we think they're hopeless, not worth our time? Are we welcoming to people from "broken" homes? (Side note: Why do we think that two-parent, first-marriage households aren't broken? Don't we believe that all of us are broken?)
I'm as guilty of this as anyone. If I'm going to talk to someone about Jesus, I know that deep-down I want to have some sort of perceived advantage. I want to be better educated or older or even less insecure. That's ridiculous. I hate it, but I know that it's true about me. And I'm pretty sure it's true of other Christians, too. We have types of people that we love and types of people that we don't love and just really don't even want to love. But we don't get to make decisions about whom we'll tell the good news of Jesus. Jesus is for everyone, whether they know it or not, whether we like it or not. If preach the gospel but ignore people through our actions or inactions, we're hypocrites. If we try to limit Jesus' love to specific groups or try to make Jesus be on our side, we're wrong. Jesus is bigger and better than that. Jesus is for everyone. Praise God for that.
Grace and peace,
BMH
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