There is a lot of buzz going on about Spider-Man lately. It brought in over $1 Billion in the box office, making it the third Marvel movie this year to do so. With this to say, the Marvel and Sony agreement have not been looking so good, and it appears that we might not see our friendly neighborhood Spidey in an MCU movie…at least anytime soon.
Spider-Man: Far From Home was an awesome movie in my opinion! The acting was great, and Jake Gyllenhaal as Mysterio was a very good cast (Even though I had been hoping for Bruce Campbell as Mysterio for like 10 years) Far From Home has been out of theaters for some time now and hitting DVD/Blu-Ray release at the end of this month. This post has some spoilers, so you are warned.
The controversy over the Sony-Marvel deal wasn’t the only thing with Spider-Man that gave us trust issues. This was a movie is packed with secrets. Peter struggles to keep his identity as Spider-Man a secret. Mysterio keeps his true powers and motives a secret. We discover a huge secret about Nick Fury in the end credits scene. It’s hard to find the truth in all of this.
Spider-Man: Far from Home is about Peter Parker’s identity, and Peter growing up and realizing who he really is. With Tony Stark gone, he struggles with the feeling if he is good enough as a superhero. He wants to fit in as a superhero, but he is also struggling to fit in with life, and finding a balance between the two is difficult.
To make things even more confusing for Peter, Mysterio shows up. This guy says and does all the right things, and he appears to be exactly what Peter was looking for to fill the void that Stark left. Of course, when it is revealed that Mysterio is a villain, Peter is once again thrown into confusion. He then has the struggle to figure out right from wrong and truth from lie, that he often can’t trust his own eyes. In the end, the only way he can defeat this foe is by forgetting his normal senses and trusting his Peter Tingles (what Aunt May calls his Spider-Sense).
We as well have trouble seeing the truth from lies at times. We can never know everything and we will never be able to see the full picture. So how do we discern what is the truth and what is a lie? While we might not have a “Spidey Sense” to help us out, we have something even better. God gives us all the resources we need to see past all the lies, but we have to be careful. Our enemy is an even better illusionist than Mysterio and his plans are far eviler.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
– Genesis 3:1-5
As we can see in the story of Adam and Eve, the devil was a liar from the very beginning, and he continues to use that tactic today. He manipulates us and twists the truth until we begin to doubt God and ourselves. He plants small little seeds that lead to our destruction. You are not alone in this temptation. Everyone is tempted, in fact, even Jesus was at one point.
Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
– Matthew 4:1-3
Satan used what could have been insecurities in Jesus to tempt Him to disobey God. Jesus was very hungry, so Satan tried to get Him to abuse His divine powers to make food. He then tempted Him by questioning His divinity and offering Him power. Jesus was perfect and did not fall for any of the devil’s tricks, but we as humans are not perfect. Jesus not only resisted the devil but also shows us how to see through his lies.
How does Jesus respond when Satan tries to tempt him?
To see through the devil’s lies, Jesus turned to what He knew was absolute truth: The Word of God. God gave us His word for us to study, the more we learn about His truth, the easier it will be for us to see through the lies. If we fill our minds with truth, then lies will not be able to get in.
Peter Parker suffered from doubt. He knew he could never live up to Iron Man, and Mysterio fed that doubt and encouraged him to do what he wanted to do. Through what seemed like friendship, he fed Peter’s doubt until Peter gave in and turned over E.D.I.T.H. Peter’s doubt stemmed from a true fact.
Spider-Man would never be Iron Man. Peter Parker could never be what Tony Stark was to the world. But the truth hiding from Peter was that Tony chose him because he was different. He had seen things in Peter he did not see in himself, and that led him to choose Peter as his successor. Satan deceives us in the same way. He plays on our doubt and often uses half-truths to make us feel worthless and less than God made us be.
It says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that Satan “disguises himself as an angel of light.” Sometimes what appears to be good things are not truthful things. The only way to counter these lies is to focus on the truth of God’s word. God created each of us as He intended and has equipped us all for the job He planned.
We read in John 15:26 Jesus says “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me..” God did not give us His written word, He also gave us a special “tingle” that is His very own Spirit. It is our “Spidey sense” to help us recognize what is real and what is not. This is the Holy Spirit, and it reminds us of the truth no matter what lies we face. We will always face lies and temptation, but with other followers of Christ and the Holy Spirit guiding us, we will never alone be alone in this.
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