Some spiritual thoughts about Avengers: Age of Ultron

“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” I have to admit that I don’t know the source of that quote but I have heard it many times. As the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron unfolded on the screen, that saying fit with the actions of Tony Stark. You could rephrase it as “The road to humanity’s destruction is paved with good intentions” and it fits even better with what happened.

After taking down a Hydra base, Tony sees a vision of the eventual destruction of the Avengers. Because of the vision he feels like he needs to develop something that will save Earth from new threats. He thinks back to the alien invasion that caused the Avengers to come together and he seeks to protect humanity from any possible future invasions. He thinks that he has a way for the Earth to be safe and the Avengers wouldn’t need to fight the battles.

As he studies Loki’s scepter, Tony works on an idea that would essentially allow the Avengers to retire. Bruce Banner helps Tony to work on the Ultron Artificial Intelligence Program. The idea is that Ultron would be able to achieve World peace. Ultron could attack and defeat any potential threats to Earth. This would make the Avengers unnecessary and they could stop risking their lives in battle. In essence, Iron Man wants to lay down his weapons and put up his feet and relax. However, the plan completely backfires. Ultron becomes self-aware and decides that the best way to accomplish world peace is to destroy the Avengers and to ultimately destroy humanity.

Part of the problem I see is that Tony wants to take the easy way out. He doesn’t want to fight the battles anymore. He wants someone or something else to take care of it for him. I think that this is an easy temptation for Christians. We want someone else to take care of the responsibilities that God gives us. God tells us to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). But how often do we really take up God’s Word and use it in our daily life. It is easier to let someone else be the Bible expert. We are tempted to let our Bible sit on the shelf and collect dust.

God also tells Christians, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34). This tells us that we are not always going to get to take the easy way out. God calls upon us to fight the battles of our faith. He wants us to use the word of God and to live according to his commands. We don’t get to put our feet up and take it easy. We can’t retire from being God’s Spiritual Team. In a day and age of all kinds of technology, we can’t just let internet devotions and sermon podcasts take the place of our own responsibility to talk with others about Jesus.
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In Age of Ultron, Tony and the rest of the team need to take up arms to defeat Ultron. As a result of the evil robot Ultron, Iron Man and the rest of the Avengers need to use all the tools at their disposal to defeat these enemies. Iron Man needs all his intelligence and new suits of armor. They need the Hulk, his anger, and his strength. Thor wields his mighty hammer and Captain America uses his great leadership and indestructible shield. Hawkeye needs his expert marksmanship to eliminate many Ultron drones. There are even some new heroes that step up to help the Avengers. The Scarlet Witch uses her magical hex powers and her brother Quicksilver uses his super-speed. They even create a new android robot called the Vision with immense powers – flight, laser blasts, and strength. All these Superheroes need to use their powers to work together and defeat Ultron.

Christians need to take up the Sword of the Spirit to defeat the spiritual enemies around us. It starts with our own hearts. We fight those temptations to set aside our responsibilities. That is why we regularly spend time with the Word of God. Through the Word of God the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and keeps us in the true faith. He keeps us centered on the gospel joy that we have. He gives us the spiritual gifts that we need.

He gives us different ways of using the Sword of the Spirit. He might give some of us great writing skills so that we can communicate Christ’s love through letters or e-mails. He gives some of us beautiful singing voices so that we can proclaim God’s Word in song. He gives some of us the ability to speak in front of crowds as pastors and missionaries. He gives some of us gentleness so that we can comfort the sick or the grieving with the comfort of forgiveness and eternal life. There are many more ways that we share the gospel. All our spiritual gifts are the spiritual weapons we use to proclaim the love of Jesus.

Tony had a good intention when he worked on the Ultron program. He wanted world peace. The result however was a evil robot that wanted to destroy humanity. If we set aside the Word of God, I would have trouble seeing any good intention behind that. And yet the result would be similar to what happened to the Avengers. There would be eternal destruction if we lose our faith. We need the Sword of the Spirit. It shows us how gracious God has been to us to save us from our sin. It gives us the message that can save many others from destruction. Jesus has saved the world from sin. We share that message so that many may receive the gift of eternal life in heaven.

Avengers History

Ultron Unlimited is a great story from the late 90’s. I could see the influence of this story on the recent movie. In the comic, Ultron conquers the nation of Slorenia with a vast army of his robots. He commands such a large force that it looks like he is finally going to defeat the Avengers. He even captures several of them including Hank Pym. Hank Pym is the original creator of Ultron in the comics. It was a change for the movie to have Tony Stark create Ultron but it was a change that worked very well.