Superman the Movie with Paul McDonald and Sarah Daniels
Happy 4th of July from the Men at the Movies podcast. What better movie to kick off the week than Superman, a person who stands for truth, justice, and the American way? Sarah and I dig into the parallels we find between Kal-El’s and Jesus’ stories. Their most significant similarity was that they received their identity from their father. When we follow their example, and seek out the father in our own fortress of solitude, we have the freedom to ask our questions and discover our purpose. Join us as we discover God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
As Christians, we have the knowledge that can save the world.
God created you to do things with you.
We can access the father in our own fortress of solitude.
In the presence of the father, we can receive our identity.
Our tendency is to receive our identity from our experience.
What he can do becomes less important than who he is.
Themes
We’re here for a reason
Capability does not equal purpose. Just because we have the ability, doesn’t mean that’s what we were meant to do.
We have these gifts and abilities, but why do we use them? For what purpose?
Our reason and purpose are first answered by our identity.
Parallels with the gospel
The father is grieved because the people rejected his wisdom, so he sends his son as hope.
Even though he can do things no one else can do, the son experiences isolation.
The son sent from the father to do the father’s work.
Jonathan Kent parallels Joseph (raising a son who isn’t his who has a special purpose).
See Jesus and Superman as an infant, teenager, and when he’s thirty.
Jesus and Kal-el receive their identity from their father.
They are someone we can trust, calls himself our friend.
They are both good men.
Resources
When God Was a Boy by C.T. Giles
A Year with Men by John and Luke Eldgredge
Questions
Who was your favorite Superman actor?
What is your purpose?
How have you used your gifts and abilities in ways that pulled you from your purpose?
What happened when you pursued a different purpose?
Where have you lived a life of striving?
Where is your fortress of solitude? When was the last time you went there?
Have you asked God, “Who am I?”
Where do you take your questions?
Who knows and accepts the real you?
What would it be like to reveal your true self?
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Edited and mixed by Grayson Foster
Logo and episode templates by Ian Johnston
Audio quotes performed by Britt Mooney, Paul McDonald, and Tim Willard, taken from Epic (written by John Eldredge) and Song of Albion (written by Stephen Lawhead).
Southerly Change performed by Zane Dickinson, used under license from Shutterstock.
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