More than Superheroes

Captain America Post 2: Loyalty

Captain-America-The-Winter-Soldier

Who do you trust? That can be an intriguing question to think about. It naturally leads to other questions. Why do you trust that person? Are they honest with you? What have they done to show themselves to be trustworthy? Are you sure that they will always be there for you? Hopefully you have people that you trust. This life is tough enough but could you imagine what it would be like without having friends and family that we could trust. That would be awful.

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America is struggling with trust issues. He has always been loyal to the United States but his loyalty is tested as a number of issues shake him. He is working for SHIELD – a covert government agency that works to stop threats around the world. He quickly learns that Nick Fury has been keeping secrets from him. This is hard for him because he wants to trust Fury.

Fury goes on to tell him about a new project that SHIELD is working on. They are building three new Helicarriers which will go throughout the world and eliminate threats. These Helicarriers are going to use a computer program to figure out national security threats and terminate those threats even before they have done anything wrong. Cap struggles with this because he views this as the worst kind of abuse of power. He thinks that it is infringing on people’s freedoms.

Captain America wants to serve his country, he wants to be loyal, but this new program is difficult for him. He soon realizes that the entire situation was actually an evil plot by HYDRA. Led by Alexander Pierce, HYDRA had infiltrated the ranks of SHIELD and was going to use the Helicarriers to eliminate the good guys – Captain America and anyone who supports his worldview. HYDRA has done something in their plot that is going to really test Cap’s loyalties. They have recruited the Winter Soldier.

Captain-America-2-The-Winter-Soldier-TrailerThe Winter Soldier is actually Cap’s best friend from World War 2. Bucky Barnes had been captured during World War 2, placed in suspended animation, received a high-tech mechanical arm, and was brainwashed to become a lethal killing machine. Captain America doesn’t learn about this until he is in the middle of a fight with Winter Soldier. As they exchange blows, Winter Soldier’s facemask comes off and Cap sees his friend.

Cap now has two goals. He needs to stop HYDRA by destroying those Helicarriers and he has to save his friend. During the final battle, Cap has to fight Bucky. Cap does not want to harm Bucky because he loves his friend and he knows that if Bucky wasn’t brainwashed, he would never be doing these evil acts. At one point, Bucky is pinned under some metal bars. Captain frees him but Bucky attacks him. Bucky is ready to kill Cap because that’s his mission. Cap doesn’t fight back. He can’t. He won’t. He’s not going to kill his friend. He’s loyal to Bucky.

As Bucky is beating him to a pulp, Cap tells him that he has vowed to stay with him until the end. He is so loyal to his friend that he would rather die than kill Bucky. This information shakes Bucky to his core. He doesn’t remember who he is yet but he still helps Captain America. This loyalty shown by Captain America is exactly what makes him the hero that so many people know and love. He is so loyal that he will do whatever he can to save his friends.

You are all set to make it to the top of levitra professional samples corporate ladder. The diseases like impotence are very serious problems, and in this case, increased pressure causes pain that manifests in the middle or right viagra shipping http://valsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Valson_Shareholding-Pattern_June-2019.pdf upper abdominal region. Internet addicts may be generic tadalafil uk very expensive to the organization about the work-life balance themes in Growing the Distance. low priced cialis Kamagra jelly is a gel form of tablet, available in many delicious fruity flavors. This fact about Captain America illustrates a few things about our spiritual condition. Think about our own loyalties. Often we are more loyal to people in this world than we are to God. Jesus told us that the summary of the law is this, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27). But we are much more likely to love our neighbors, our friends, and our own self, with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind than we are to love God.

Think about how much Cap loved Bucky. Do we love our friends like that? We might not be willing to let them beat us to death but there are definitely times that we are more loyal to our friends than we are to God. We see our friends living in ways that the Bible tells us is sinful and what do we do? Do we speak to them about what God’s commands say? We probably don’t. You see, we don’t want them to get mad at us. We want to keep their friendship. So we don’t do what God wants us to do. We are more concerned with keeping an earthly friendship than we are concerned about our relationship with God.

Soon enough, we begin to think that there is nothing wrong with those sins of our friends. We indulge a little bit ourselves. We begin to get dragged down. We go further and further away from God. Sometimes our loyalty to our friends has a really high price. If we are not careful, it may even cost us our faith and our relationship with our God. We have to remember that saving a friendship may be a terrible thing if it means sacrificing our eternity with our God.

When we think about a hero like Captain America we would love to think that he would act like him if we were faced with a difficult situation. But the truth is that by nature we are more like the Winter Soldier. Our sinful hearts are captive to sin and the devil knows how to use us to fight against God and God’s people. When sin takes hold of us, we have a tough time remembering what God has done to redeem us. Christ’s loyalty to us is incredible. He took a beating to show us the extent of his love. He was willing to die and did die in our place. Because of what Jesus did for us, we have been brought back into God’s family. We know who we are.

Even though we know that we are redeemed children of God, there are times that we are still tempted to be disloyal to our Lord Jesus. Even when we do things that are right, many of our actions are tainted with the wrong motivation. We don’t tend to put Christ first or even others before ourselves. Far too often our loyalties our to ourselves. And yet, Christ’s loyalty continues. We are forgiven. We are blessed with an identity that says we are part of his family. We have that room in heaven. His loyalty is truly limitless.

Even though there have been times that we have been disloyal to God, God is loyal to us. He did everything necessary to save us. He won the victory that does so much more than spare our earthly life. He has won us a victory which gives us eternal life. Jesus let himself suffer and die so that we would have the ultimate victory. 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 says, “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Captain America is certainly heroic in the efforts that he went through to save his friend. But from a Christian perspective, Cap can only save Bucky’s earthly life. Captain America cannot save him from his sin. We need to remember this when we think about our relationships with our friends. Is our relationship only focused on this life? Or is it focused on our eternity? Jesus Christ has won the greatest victory. He gives the blessings of that victory with all who believe in him. In him, there is forgiveness and eternal life. Take his loyalty to us and share it with others.

winter soldierCaptain America History

Captain America Winter Soldier is an outstanding story from 2005 written by Ed Brubaker. There are many elements that were included in the recent movie. It was an incredible idea to bring back Bucky Barnes as the brainwashed Winter Soldier. Bucky had been a sidekick in the early years of Captain America comics. By bringing him back as Winter Soldier, it added a whole new element to the character. If you loved the movie, you’ll love the comic (just keep in mind that there are going to be some differences – for example, the Red Skull is in the comic). It definitely shows how loyal Captain America is to his friends. Cap is very loyal to Bucky.

I am a Lutheran pastor who is currently serving at Trinity in Belle Plaine, MN. My wife is Megan and my daughter is Elizabeth "Libby". I have two dogs (Labradors) - Samson and Charlie. In my spare time, I train for and run in marathons, I cheer for the Green Bay Packers, and I love the Comic Book genre of entertainment.

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