Everyone’s Super

TorahBytes

For the week of August 24, 2024 / 20 Av 5784

Ekev
Torah D’varim/Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25
Haftarah: Isaiah 49:14 – 51:3

Note: Due to the nature of this week’s message I recommend listening to the audio version. – Alan

Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 8:17)

The 2004 Pixar film, “The Incredibles” is one of my favorites. I love stories of people struggling with their particular giftings. Perhaps they are unaware of their abilities, or they are aware, but can’t or won’t express them. In some cases, they may see their ability in a negative light, not knowing that what they perceive as a curse is actually a blessing.

The Incredibles, as you may be aware, is a comic-book-style animated film of a family of superheroes, who are coping with a government crackdown on such folks due to liability issues. The film’s villain, Syndrome, has a double-pronged plot to destroy any remaining superheroes and later to sell off his technology, providing superhero-like enhancements to the general population. His goal is: “When everyone’s super, no one will be” (see clip here). In his twisted, bitter mind, he conceives that if no one has greater abilities than anyone else, he will resolve his own feelings of inferiority and rejection.

Ironically, what Syndrome doesn’t understand is that, comic-book superpowers aside, everyone is already super. While I am pretty sure you cannot fly, run at superspeed, make yourself invisible, or stretch your limbs infinitely, you have been endowed with power from God, enabling you to do all sorts of things you would never be able to do on your own.

I am not here referring to extraordinary talents such as those on display at the recent Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Or those musical and artistic capabilities that relatively few have been given. I have learned how even extremely talented and successful people can look on with envy on those who appear to be more talented and successful than they are.

But let’s forget comparison for a moment. Let’s simply try to grasp the wonder of what it means to be a human being. Not one of us chose to be born. We didn’t create our heredity. Perhaps we worked hard at developing our innate characteristics, but even our ability and the opportunities to develop ourselves aren’t self-derived.

Everything that makes us who and what we are comes from outside of us. That is why God, through Moses, warns us so sternly: Beware lest you say in your heart, “My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth” (D’varim/Deuteronomy 8:17). To assert that our human abilities are derived from ourselves is to deceive ourselves and misrepresent the One who gave us all life. In other words, to fail to acknowledge that even the most basic of human abilities comes from God is to live a lie.

Once we realize that every human ability is a gift from God, then we can also begin to appreciate the miracle that human life is, including every ability we have. And if every ability is a gift of the supernatural God—that makes us all super!

Everyone being super, contrary to Syndrome’s assertion in the Incredibles, doesn’t undermine our superpowers, so to speak. Syndrome was caught in a web of rejection and envy, blinding him from the beauty of the vast array of superpowers bestowed upon humanity by our creative and benevolent Heavenly Father.

I am aware that most of us don’t feel super. We struggle with a great many limitations and are objects of deep suffering at times. Some are beset by the kinds of circumstances similar to the fictional Syndrome. But that doesn’t mean we must be like him.

In order not to fall into Syndrome’s trap, we need a better grasp of what’s wrong with us. According to Scripture, “sin,” is the principle of evil at play behind the brokenness of our human nature. While that brokenness may obscure our superpowers, it doesn’t obliterate them. In fact, it’s often the human propensity to overcome sin that is most super.

Through the Messiah, God has provided an opportunity for us to connect with our supernaturally derived abilities. He didn’t do so like a comic-book superhero, however. Instead, Yeshua became just like us and demonstrated the fullness of what it means to be human. This included taking on the full brunt of our brokenness, in order to enable us to be superheroes in a broken world.

Scriptures taken from the English Standard Version