Humility and Heroism: A Faith- Based Look at 'Avengers: Endgame.'

Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Nightcrawler Experience!
It's taken a long time for me to make, but here it finally is!
I helped take the St. Johns youth group to see 'Avengers: Endgame,' and then used the movie to give the message at their weekly youth worship service.
People liked what I said in it, so I decided to tweak it a little and make it into an entry on the Nightcrawler Experience! After all, such a magnificent movie deserves another look!
SPOILER WARNING!
First, let's start with a brief look at the previous film in the series, last year's 'Avengers: Infinity War.' In that, the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the other heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe so far at last have to confront Thanos (Josh Brolin), the genocidal intergalactic tyrant who has been the "Bigger Bad" in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for years now. Thanos seeks the Infinity Stones, a group of six stones from all over the universe which each offer some form of unlimited power (One stone enables its bearer to instantly travel to anywhere in the universe, another lets its user control and manipulate time, and so on), and which could together make whoever had them all become essentially a god. Thanos wants to use this power to wipe out half of the life in the universe because he believes this kind of culling is the only way to stop those races and life forms from completely dying off due to overpopulation. The Avengers and other heroes put up an amazing fight, and kill Thanos's generals, but ultimately, Thanos wins. He gets all the Stones, and uses their power to kill billions of life forms all over the universe in an event known as "The Decimation" or "The Snap," including several of the Marvel heroes. Not exactly a feel- good ending.

Now then, in 'Endgame,' the Avengers manage to track down Thanos with help from the new heroine Captain Marvel and kill him, but the damage has been done and Thanos used the Stones to destroy each other so it can't be undone. Things fast forward to five years later. Ant- Man (Who had survived the Decimation) returns, and through his story and what he had been through, the remaining heroes learn that there can be a way to potentially reverse what Thanos did; If they, through a rather complicated exploitation of the space- time continuum and the use of Pym Particles, can travel back to certain points in time and certain areas of the universe, they can get past versions of all the Infinity Stones, bring them back to the present, and use them together to undo what Thanos did and restore all the Decimation's victims to life. Things take all kinds of fascinating turns from there, leading up to an ultimate showdown with Thanos (A past/ alternate version of him) and his army in which the fate of the entire universe is at stake.

I only had a few, very small problems with 'Avengers: Endgame.' One was with the heroine Captain Marvel. I just felt like they were trying too hard to make her WAY too powerful, borderline invincible. Also, during the final battle with all the heroes returned, I was kind of disappointed that they never had Drax (From 'Guardians of the Galaxy') directly confront/ attack Thanos. I would have loved to see Drax personally land just a couple hits on Thanos, to avenge the deaths of his wife and daughter (They had been killed by Thanos's army many years earlier). I feel like it would have been nice to see him get that kind of closure. Lastly, again in the final battle, there is a point in which they make a big deal about a group of female heroes all charging in to attack Thanos's army. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for empowering women and everything, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done an awesome job with showing that its female heroes can be every bit as effective as their male allies, but the way that particular scene was shown felt like it crossed the line from commendable female empowerment to blatant pandering.

All of that out of the way, WHOOOOOOOO!
I cannot tell you how deeply I loved 'Avengers: Endgame'! It's easily one of the best things the Marvel Cinematic Universe ever created, and will almost certainly have a cemented place somewhere on my Top Greatest Films of All Time list (At LEAST Top 15, probably Top 10). It does a wonderful job with character development for each of the major characters in it (Which is saying something, considering what an enormous cast it has). We even see the return of some past characters, such as Thor's mother Freya and Dr. Strange's mentor the Ancient One, and they too have some excellent scenes.
 There are a lot of extremely moving moments throughout it, such as Tony Stark talking with a past version of his father and Thor having a sweet conversation with his mother taking place mere minutes before her death in 'Thor: The Dark World.' We see some characters' series- long story arcs come to a satisfying end, and others' stories coming to an exciting new chapter (Let's just say I'm very interested in what they'll do with 'Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 3'). All the performances are as wonderful as they've ever been, especially Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Josh Brolin.
The action sequences and fight scenes are brilliantly staged. In particular, the epic final battle against Thanos's army is truly magnificent to behold. There is also a great deal of humor thrown in, especially from Thor (The first glimpse of him after the five- year lapse and the less- than- ideal condition he's now in is hysterical), Hulk, and the always- hilarious Rocket Raccoon.

As I said at the start, I found a whole cornucopia of Scriptural messages in 'Avengers: Endgame.'
One of the first concerns the subject of memory: There is a key scene near the climax of the film. Thanos proclaims that, when he regains the Infinity Stones, rather than merely wiping out half the living beings in the universe, he will wipe out ALL of them. Then, he'll build a new universe in which nobody remembers the past and what was lost, to make it so that the remainders would see him as a hero rather than as the genocidal monster and tyrant that he truly was. That part really stuck out to me. See, all throughout the Old Testament, the people of Israel would often find their great empire invaded and conquered by outside nations. The reason for this? They forgot. Specifically, they would become so complacent with their lives that they forgot all the great things God did for them and their ancestors, became ungrateful for all His blessings upon them, and so they began worshiping false idols and committing other sins, so God withdrew His support from them. Memory of the past is a very important thing, especially for us as Christians. It can guide us, teach us important lessons, and remind us of the ways God has helped us and strengthen us. It’s especially important to remember the lessons of the past when we’re facing hard times. I’ve definitely been through a lot these last few months, and one of the main things that got me through them was remembering the times that the Lord has helped me in the past. Like Thanos in the movie, Satan desires for us to forget what God has done for us and not lean on Him, but we are called to always remember God as our deliverer and the source of our strength.

Another message concerns my favorite Avenger and favorite superhero in general, Captain America. One of 'Endgame''s highlights is definitely near the start of the final battle with Thanos, when it's just Cap, Iron Man, and Thor fighting him. Thanos knocks down Thor and is about to finish him off, when to everyone's surprise and exhilaration, Captain America is able to lift Thor's hammer Mjolnir (A magic artifact which can only be lifted by those whom the hammer deems to be worthy, which isn't a whole lot of people), and uses it to go to town on Thanos, dealing a ton of damage to him. I cannot tell you how thrilled I was at that moment! I knew in the comics that Cap was one of the few who could lift Mjolnir, and liked the way they portrayed Cap in the films so much that I couldn't wait to see the moment when that would be shown, and it ended up being every bit as magnificent as I knew it would be! It had me cheering in the theater aisle!
This moment is particularly important because it reminded me of a scene from an earlier Avengers film, 'Age of Ultron'; At one point, the Avengers have some downtime, and are talking about Mjolnir and how to lift it. The other Avengers try to lift it with no avail, to Thor's smug amusement. Then, Captain America takes his turn. As he begins lifting, we see the hammer briefly move about an inch or so (Instantly evaporating Thor's smugness), yet Cap apparently can't lift it either and gives up. Anyway, seeing Cap lift the hammer and use it against Thanos in 'Endgame' made me realize something; In 'Age of Ultron,' when Cap seemingly couldn't lift Mjolnir, he was FAKING IT! He could have lifted it all along, but he was humble enough that he didn't want to show off or shame the others who couldn't lift it. That humility is a big part of what causes Captain America to truly have the heart of a hero, and that was what enabled him to be deemed worthy to lift and wield Mjolnir and use it so well against Thanos. In fact, I did a mini- binge of several ‘Avengers’- related movies in preparation for the youth group screening of ‘Endgame,’ and even before he became Captain America, back when he was just frail, wimpy Steve Rogers in the first movie with him, it was his humble, kind, noble nature that first impressed the scientists enough that they chose him to have the honor of going through the procedure that turned him into a super soldier. Humility is a VERY important virtue to have if you seek to follow Jesus. Proverbs 29:23 says that “Pride brings a person low, but a lowly spirit gains honor.” When we become too proud of our abilities or our accomplishments and brag too much about them or view ourselves as better than others because of them, we’re really setting ourselves up for a fall. It's us focusing more on ourselves than on God, which will inevitably lead to us getting a rude awakening. Arrogant people driven by their pride and their egos are some of the most obnoxious people you’ll ever meet, but people who remain humble and down to earth tend to be very easy to get along with and support, and those people generally go far. Jesus always uses people who are humble enough to recognize His control over their lives rather than their own.

Another Biblical lesson that can be taken from ‘Avengers: Endgame’ is that it actually confirmed a prediction I had when I gave my ‘Infinity Wars’ message last year: The reason why Thanos won in the previous film was because the heroes let themselves be split up and divided and spread out all through the universe, and often fighting amongst each other; The reason why the heroes prevail in ‘Endgame,’ in contrast, is because there, all of the heroes banded together against Thanos, and worked together. They set aside their differences and united in the name of the greater good of stopping Thanos and saving all of existence. When I first saw that final battle scene, with all the restored heroes and warriors leaping through the portals to join in the battle, I remember thinking to myself, “Well, Thanos, you might as well start picking out your coffin now!” When all those heroes, from all corners of the Earth and the universe in general, united against Thanos, it was clear that he was finished. He and his forces may have been strong, but all of the heroes together were stronger, because of how much they all brought to the table and combined together. In much the same way, we can do incredible things for the Lord when we work together. We need to set our differences aside and combine our skills and gifts to help build God’s Kingdom and bring more people to know Him. 1 Peter 3:8 shows this by saying “Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” I’ve seen this plenty of times in all the missions trips and other church events I’ve aided in. For instance, I and a few others from my church are involved in a kind of social outreach/ activism group called PEACE, which involved a bunch of churches from all over the county uniting together in spite of our differences to help spread God’s love to those most in need of it and encouraging our public officials to aid us in meeting the needs of the less fortunate, and this group has already done so much to help our community and God’s larger kingdom. Together, we represent an incredibly diverse mixture of races, religious denominations, and likely political views as well, yet we see past our differences to our common calling as followers of Jesus to do His will to the least of these.

A final Scriptural point to be taken from 'Avengers: Endgame' concerns rising above hardship and failure. At the end of ‘Infinity Wars,’ things really did seem doomed. Thanos had won, and wiped out so many billions of lives throughout the universe. But, our heroes didn’t give up. They kept on doing as much good as they could for five years (i.e. Captain America ran a support group for survivors of the Snap, Black Widow began leading and coordinating superhero efforts with the heroes they had, Tony Stark married and had a daughter, etc.), and when Ant- Man emerged and gave them the opportunity to gain the Stones and fix the damage Thanos did, they took it. Psalm 37:7-9 sums this up pretty well: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; Do not fret- It only leads to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.” We may come across times in our own lives when it really feels like we’re in a pit, and there’s no hope of getting out. We can see evil people in our own world who seem to win. But, God loves us enough that He hates seeing all this evil in the world even more than we do, and when He knows the time is best, He will bring down the Devil and his followers, and lift up those of us who fully trust in Him. It’s just a matter of clinging to hope, and the promise of the better day that God will bring to us.
At times, though, that victory can come with a price. In the movie, we had Black Widow giving her life to help provide the Avengers with the Soul Stone, and of course, Iron Man dying to help wipe out Thanos and his army. We, too, may have to sacrifice things that are important to us in the name of doing what’s right. There are people who’ve given up everything to serve in overseas missions, and some who’ve even sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Gospel. But, God has ensured that what we may lose is NOTHING compared to the rewards He has waiting for us in Heaven.

So, now, as we go out, we should all do what we can to help shine God’s light to all around us, remember what He has already done for us, stay humble in our efforts, be willing to unite with our brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of our differences, and bring His peace and salvation to all in need of it. Christians, assemble!
That's it for this edition of the Nightcrawler Experience. Keep your eyes peeled, as we're nearing Christmastime and I'll have a couple special editions in store for that. Until then, may God bless you all!