Thor Part 1: Is He Worthy?

What do you know about the Norse gods? If you’re like me, probably not much. To be honest, most of what I know comes not from myths and legends, but from comic books. There are a few people that are important to know. Odin is the chief god, and is referred to as the all-father. He is the King of Asgard, the realm of the gods. Odin has two sons – Thor and Loki. Thor is the god of thunder and he wields the hammer Mjolnir. He can summon lightning with the aid of his hammer. Loki is the god of mischief. He uses trickery and deception to achieve is goals.

When we meet Thor in his first film, he is about to become the king of Asgard. He is smug, brash, and immature. He wants to be king but he lacks the wisdom that is necessary for such a position. When three Frost Giants sneak into the weapons vault of Asgard, Thor’s response is that they should declare war on the Frost Giants. This would destroy the many years of peace between Asgard and the Frost Giants.

Odin orders him to do nothing, rather than retaliate, but Thor doesn’t listen. Along with his brother Loki and some of their warrior friends, they travel to Jotunheim, the realm of the Frost Giants. Thor went looking for a fight. Thor fights an incredible battle against the Frost Giants, but is careless in his attack. He puts the lives of his friends in danger and his actions threatened to cause an all-out war between the Frost Giants and the Asgardians. Odin intervenes to prevent the war, but after returning to Asgard, he banishes Thor for his actions. He sends both Thor and his hammer Mjolnir to earth. Odin puts an enchantment on the hammer so that only a “worthy” person would be able to pick it up. After a short time on earth, Thor finds Mjolnir but he is unable to lift it because he has not shown his worthiness. He has not yet learned from his mistakes.

Similar to what we see in Thor, we are not worthy sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. We have despised his commands. We have sought our own way. We have been rash in our decisions. We deserve to be banished because of our misdeeds. God’s Word though tells us that we need to be worthy. If we show ourselves to be worthy, we will get something far better than a special hammer. If we are worthy, we get to enter heaven. How do we become worthy?

We need to be perfect. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This means that we need to be completely without sin. That is the standard that God’s law sets down. Think about the commandments: You shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not commit adultery, honor your father and mother, you shall have no other gods, and the rest. Our Holy God demands perfection. Sin is offensive to him. Sin is repulsive to God. If we haven’t perfectly kept the commandments every minute of every day for our entire life then we have no right to stand before God.

But can we be perfect? It seems like such a daunting task. Perhaps if we simply do our best, then God will be pleased with us and look favorably upon our efforts. That’s what Thor did. He kept striving to prove his worth and eventually he did prove it. Maybe we should do something similar. Isn’t that what the world and our life tells us. If we do something, we will be rewarded. If our children finish all of their supper, we reward them with dessert. If we eat healthy and exercise, we lose weight. When we are nice and caring toward others, we gain many friends. When we work hard and diligently at our jobs, then we get a raise or a promotion.

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Even think about Matthew 5:48 again. It says “Be perfect.” It does not say, “Become perfect through your best efforts.” It says that we should be perfect right now if we expect God to consider us worthy of heaven. Right now, we are tainted by sin. Right now, we have not carried out all our works based on a perfect love for God. Right now, we have been born with a sinful heart and we have sinned against God in thought, word and deed. Every time we do not obey the law perfectly, we show ourselves to be unworthy before a holy and just God. We deserve to be cast out of his presence for all eternity. We ought to be condemned to the fires of Hell for just one of our sins. But we have committed so many more than that. We are truly unworthy.

So what hope do we have? On our own, we have no hope. Unlike Thor, one act of valor and selflessness is not going to cut it to get us back into the good graces of our heavenly Father. That will not prove our worth to him. We need the One who descended to dwell among mortals not as a punishment but as a payment. We need not one who powerfully wields an enchanted hammer, but the One who allowed a soldier’s hammer to wield him powerless on the cross. We need not one who would flex his perfectly toned muscles but the One whose bloodied and torn muscles would lead to our perfection.

We need someone to be worthy for us. That is what we receive from Jesus. In Jesus we find hope. Listen to Romans 5:19, “For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.” When Adam fell into sin, we all inherited sin. We are all born sinners. There is only one exception. Jesus was born sinless. Jesus is that one man who perfectly obeyed the law in our place. Through his obedience we are made worthy. Through Jesus we will inherit heaven.

In the movie, Thor proves his worthiness to wield Mjolnir when he was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of others. He understands that being a wise leader is about serving others. When it comes to our worthiness before God we do not have to prove our worthiness. We could never do that. We sin too much. But Jesus was worthy for us. He was perfect in our place. The incredible thing about our faith is that God gives us credit for what Jesus did. Before God, we are worthy to enter heaven. After we see how Jesus has made us worthy, we are encouraged in our faith so that we can show God’s love to others with a spirit of gentleness and humility. Through faith, we grow in love and serve others with the message of worthiness that comes from Jesus. Thor was trying to prove himself worthy of being the King of Asgard. We don’t have to prove ourselves worthy of heaven. Through Jesus, we will be like kings and queens as we enjoy the heavenly kingdom.

Thor History

Thor’s first appearance was in Journey into Mystery #83 From August 1962. The comic start with a man named Donald Blake. This man discovers Mjolnir in a cave. When he picks up the hammer, he is transformed into Thor. Thor drives off an alien invasion of earth. Today, the alter-ego of Don Blake doesn’t appear very often. It turns out that it was actually a test for Thor that Odin put in place for him. If you pay close attention in the first Thor movie, the name Don Blake is used a couple times.

So far Thor has appeared in three movies: Thor, The Avengers, and Thor: The Dark World.