{"id":2630,"date":"2018-04-18T15:12:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T21:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=2630"},"modified":"2018-04-18T15:12:05","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T21:12:05","slug":"why-captain-america-must-die","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2018\/04\/why-captain-america-must-die\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Captain America Must Die"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Chris Evans as Captain America, art courtesy Disney and Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Captain America
\n<\/strong>Not-so-secret alias:<\/strong> Steve Rogers
\nStarred in:<\/strong> Captain America: The First Avenger; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Captain America: Civil War
\n<\/em>Appeared in:<\/strong> The Avengers; Avengers: Age of Ultron; Spider-Man: Homecoming
\n<\/em>Special abilities:<\/strong> Super-strong; Super-fast; Has a super Frisbee.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chris Evans in Avengers: Age of Ultron, photo courtesy Disney and Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Captain America is my favorite superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And he has to go.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not because I want<\/em> him to go. Cap (played by Chris Evans), has been the heart and soul of the Avengers for years. He\u2019s followed his conscience throughout his MCU career, even when that conscience told him to drop his shield. He\u2019s been the moral core at the heart of the team\u2014a guy who despite not having the strength of Hulk<\/a> or the power of Thor<\/a> or the titanium wherewithal of Iron Man<\/a>, took its helm through acclimation and led it through its most perilous hours. Yeah, I think if he tried a bit harder in Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/em>, he could\u2019ve hoisted Thor\u2019s hammer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Through all his adventures, he\u2019s kept true to the promise he made scientist Abraham Erskine when he was just a scrawny soldier named Steve Rogers: \u201cThat you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is a good<\/em> man, one whose inherent goodness was born in the Great Depression, honed in World War II and survived unscathed even in our complex, deeply flawed 21st Century. Even now, apparently sidelined as the events of Avengers: Infinity War<\/em> open, it almost feels as though the Avengers are awaiting his return. Who else, after all, could better lead them?<\/p>\n

The Avengers\u2014the whole MCU\u2014will be worse off when Cap really leaves it.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why I think he has to.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no explicit Christ-like figure in the MCU as we might find in D.C.\u2019s universe, with Superman. With Supes, the Messiah undertones have been a part of his character from the very beginning, right down to his name<\/a>. And even though Disney and Marvel have portrayed Steve Rogers as practically a man without sin, Steve himself would chuckle and shake his head at such comparisons. He\u2019s just a guy from Brooklyn, after all. He\u2019s a manmade superhero, too: If he started playing in the NFL, he\u2019d be suspended for several lifetimes for taking performance-enhancing drugs.<\/p>\n

To paraphrase Rogers himself, there\u2019s only one God, and he doesn\u2019t dress like that.<\/p>\n

But while Cap isn\u2019t precisely a Christ figure, his whole narrative, from the first movie to the last, has been defined by sacrifice. And the biggest sacrifices he\u2019s made have been for one of the biggest sinners around: Bucky Barnes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan in Captain America: Civil War<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We meet Steve and Bucky (played by Sebastian Stan)\u00a0in Captain America: The First Avenger<\/em>, as World War II rages. Bucky\u2019s the strong, handsome hero then. Steve\u2019s the quintessential wimp from the old Charles Atlas ads<\/a>. But they\u2019re still inseparable: Best friends for life. And when Steve bulks up courtesy Erskine\u2019s mysterious formula, Bucky signs up to be part of Captain America\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou ready to follow Captain America into the jaws of death?\u201d Steve jokes.<\/p>\n

\u201cHell, no!\u201d Bucky says. \u201cThe little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight. I\u2019m following him<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually, those jaws of death seem to close on Bucky: He falls to his doom during a fight on a train, plummeting hundreds of feet to the bottom of a snowy crevasse.<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t<\/em> die. He was captured instead and turned into the fearsome Winter Soldier, a Hydra assassin with a metal arm and a brain emptied of everything that made him Bucky Barnes. And when both show up in the 21st Century (in the aptly titled Captain America: Winter Soldier<\/em>, the Winter Soldier has just one thing on his mind: to kill Captain America.<\/p>\n

But Steve\u2019s still too dumb to run away from a fight\u2014even if it\u2019s a fight to save the brain and soul of a man so far gone. When he confronts his old friend, Cap refuses to battle him. \u201cYou\u2019re my friend,\u201d he tells him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re my mission!\u201d the Winter Soldier shouts as he hits Cap again and again. \u201cYou are my mission!<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThen finish it,\u201d Steve says. \u201c\u2018Cause I\u2019m with you \u2019til the end of the line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Captain America may not be an explicit Christ figure, but this is unquestionably a Christ-like action. In The First Avenger<\/em>, Bucky fell\u2014from a train, literally, but from grace, figuratively\u2014into sin and hell and a sort of living death. His mind is co-opted and twisted (as sin twists us all) into a thing so unlike what he once was, and what he was created to be.<\/p>\n

And then comes his \u201csavior,\u201d an old friend who knows him like no other\u2014who knows what he once was and could be again\u2014and is willing and ready to lay down his life in the hopes of saving a lost soul. There\u2019s no guarantee that the old Bucky will understand the sacrifice, or embrace his real nature. The decision is his to make. But it\u2019s a risk Cap takes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m mindful of John 15:13, from the New Living Translation of the Bible: There is no greater love than to lay down one\u2019s life for one\u2019s friends.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Captain America shield art, courtesy Disney and Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s not the first time Captain America has been ready to sacrifice his all for others. In some respects, he actually \u201cdies\u201d in the first movie, crash-landing an aircraft into the Arctic Ocean to save millions of lives. He spends decades down there, literally frozen in time. We know he\u2019d sacrifice his life for others because he\u2019d already done so. And near the end of Winter Soldier, he tells anyone who follows him that they might have to do the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know I\u2019m asking a lot,\u201d he says. \u201cBut the price of freedom is high. It always has been. And it\u2019s a price I\u2019m willing to pay. And if I\u2019m the only one, then so be it. But I\u2019m willing to bet I\u2019m not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Course, it\u2019s a rare superhero that isn\u2019t willing to sacrifice his life for others, right? That\u2019s what superheroes do. But in Captain America: Civil War<\/em>, he goes even beyond that.<\/p>\n

Again, Bucky\/Winter Soldier is at the center of Cap\u2019s story. He\u2019s been accused of the bombing of a United Nations building\u2014a bombing that kills several folks, including T\u2019Chaka, king of the African nation of Wakanda. Cap wants to apprehend Bucky himself, knowing it\u2019s the only way that Bucky\u2019ll make it out of the situation alive. But when he learns that Bucky was framed, Cap doesn\u2019t just lay down his life, but his reputation.<\/p>\n

That may sound insignificant, but I don\u2019t think it is. Most of us probably have people we\u2019d die for. But how hard would it be to live in shame for them? To lose our friends, our jobs, everything we\u2019ve worked so hard for. Ecclesiastes 7:1 tells us that \u201cA good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth.\u201d See, once you\u2019re dead, your reputation is set. Losing that reputation and watching it go? That\u2019d be tough.<\/p>\n

And keep in mind, this is Captain America we\u2019re talking about\u2014a man whose spent his whole life being a role model. That\u2019s who he is. Why, even in Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/em>, we see Cap serving up a handful of cheesy PSAs.<\/p>\n

How hard would it be for a guy like Cap, whose spent his whole life as a spokesman for American truth, values and the rule of law, to break that law, shatter his rep and sunder his relations with the Avengers\u2014the team he led through two world-endangering crises?<\/p>\n

We see another reflection of Jesus in that, by the way. It wasn\u2019t enough for Jesus to just die for us, apparently: He needed to suffer<\/em> for us, and not just physically. The gospels make a big deal of how Jesus was tormented and jeered and spit upon. The crown of thorns was intended to be a painful mockery of who Christ was (in Rome\u2019s eyes) pretending to be. His walk to the cross was intended to be a walk of shame. Here\u2019s your false king<\/em>, it said. Here\u2019s your Messiah<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In Civil War<\/em>, we see the symbol for law and order become a renegade from it. But those are the sacrifices he risked and made when he chose to follow a higher law.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already written about how I kinda sided with Iron Man in Civil War<\/em>. But Steve Rogers\u2019 decision (can we still even call\u00a0 him Captain America?) is defensible, too. \u201cWhoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin,\u201d James 4:17 tells us. \u201cBlessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness\u2019 sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,\u201d we read in Matthew 5:10.<\/p>\n

Steve Rogers has endured persecution. He\u2019s always risked everything to do what he believes is right. He\u2019s sacrificed for his country, for his friends, and for his sacred ideals numerous times.<\/p>\n

And I believe he\u2019ll do so again, and soon. Given Cap\u2019s history, given his ethos, given the themes that undergird his whole being, how could it be any other way?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Captain America Not-so-secret alias: Steve Rogers Starred in: Captain America: The First Avenger; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Captain America: Civil War Appeared in: The Avengers; Avengers: Age of Ultron; Spider-Man: Homecoming Special abilities: Super-strong; Super-fast; Has a super Frisbee. Captain America is my favorite superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And he has to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":2639,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[165,149,52,25,12],"class_list":["post-2630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movies","category-superheroes","tag-avengers","tag-captain-america","tag-christianity","tag-freedom","tag-marvel"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Captain America Must Die<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Captain America is my favorite superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And he has to go. 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