Jesus as Clark Kent

My inner geek is going to show for just a second here. I love superhero origin stories. My favorite part of the story is watching them learn who they truly are, struggle with their powers, choose the responsibility of sacrificial heroism.

Can you imagine Jesus as Clark Kent?

Jesus is the ultimate hero, but we really don’t know what his life was like before he was the teacher we know. I really wish we could see those early moments of Jesus’s life. Talk about the origin of the hero of all heroes!

This advent, I’ve been really focusing on Christ’s coming to earth, becoming human, really imagining what that had to be like for Him, to live as a child while being God.

We know from Luke 2, that he was recognized as the Christ by Simeon at 8 days old when Mary and Joseph brought him to the temple for the traditional circumcision. During the Feast of Passover, when Jesus was 12, Mary and Joseph found him conversing with the Jewish teachers who were all amazed by his wisdom and understanding.

But precious few verses summarize 30 years of his life. Jesus came to earth as an infant, and lived quietly unknown, unrecognized. He knew His purpose and mission but had to wait for God’s timing. What was he doing all that time? I can’t wait to ask him.

John 1:1 ESV “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

He was GOD and had to still wait for God’s plan, thirty years before it was his time to reveal his true identity.

John 2:1-4 ESV “On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” 

He could snap his fingers and heal the sick, think a thought and bring back the dead, but he was hesitant to perform miracles until God’s appointed time for him. But his mother asked . . .

The fact that Mary comes to him gives us a glimpse into this Martha Kent and Superman moment. I wonder what signs and miracles he must have done at home in private – perhaps none, but Mary obviously knows who He is, that He came to save the world, but His Father hasn’t instructed him to stop being Clark Kent just yet.

As I watch people living hurt and broken lives, I wonder how Jesus handled hurting people before God called him to start his signs and wonders. Living around broken people, how did He, knowing what He knew, WAIT for God’s appointed time to start teaching, doing miracles and wonders?

Sometimes the minute God gives me a little understanding, I want to rush off and share it with everyone. I wonder how He did it, Jesus as Clark Kent, not revealing His true nature?

The Bible doesn’t give us a lot of insight into those early days, but His witness had to be in how he lived.

If none of us could ever witness to anyone except through our lives, what would your witness be?

Would people see Superman peeking through your Clark Kent exterior?

Jesus came as an infant, had parents, lived as a man, so we could know our God understands, has felt the struggle of being Clark Kent in a world that desperately needs Superman.

And this year, as I picture Jesus as Clark Kent, I’m moved to tears by the humility of not just becoming human, but the lowliest of humans, an infant born in a stable, so that his miracles and wonders could only be attributed to the power of God.

He put on the pain of our human bodies, the wounds of a fallen world, and did so just to die an agonizing death, for me, for you.

I wonder if our fascination with superheroes really stems from trying to understand Jesus. His sacrifice is so beyond understanding, we try to grasp it through fictional characters who pale in comparison, but the analogy really personalizes his birth and life and death for me.

And I’m really thankful for Him in a deeper way every year.