Captain America the leader of the Avengers is idealistically my favorite Marvel hero, however, as the epitome of a hero for us to copy he is also the hardest to relate with. Captain America embodies all of the values of character that we should strive for, but can become an unreachable standard. He is willing to take a beating for what is right, he takes care of those who are less fortunate than himself. He quickly takes risks on his life for others. Even as a wimpy asthmatic that is continually turned down from military service Rogers before he takes part in the experiment that makes him Captain America, he wants to fight bullies.
Culturally, people do not relate with Captain America as much because of his near perfect character. We often relate more with those who are flawed, like Tony Stark in Iron Man. Christians often also see a standard of perfection that we believe we cannot attain because of our sin. It is true that we cannot attain perfection here on this earth, but Captain America: The First Avenger does not teach us to reach for perfection, but goodness.
As Christians watching the movie, we can see in him the character that we should be striving for as followers of Christ. We are not taught in the films that we can be perfect, but that we should be good. In the seen before his procedure, Dr. Abraham Erskine tells him, not to be, “a perfect soldier, but a good man.” When questioned as to why he would choose the scrawny Rogers, Dr. Erskine responds, “why did I choose someone weak? Because a weak man knows the value of strength, the value of power. And he also knows compassion.”
In these few words the Dr. is speaking in line with the life we are to live as followers of Christ. We are to live well and do good for Christ. We are to live humble lives of sacrifice. As Christ humbled himself and understood meekness, so should we. We are supposed to be willing to give of ourselves to stop evil and promote good.
We will never be perfect. We won’t be perfect soldiers or followers of Christ, but we by the power and faith of Christ do good and can be good men and women. As we build our crowns, they may be broken, but crowns none the less.
Broken Crowns 