Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction
and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head
and a chain to adorn your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9 NIV
The movie Spider-Man: Homecoming, starts off mere months after an intense battle between the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, one that a young Peter Parker, played by Tom Holland, and who is known to the rest of us as Spider-Man, got to play a key role in. All of this was due to the work of Tony Stark, played by the still lovable Robert Downey Jr, who gave Peter a suit that is the most high-tech Spider-Man suit to date.
Yet, all the fighting fellow superheroes and brief greetings Peter got to give most of the Avengers in Germany, is just not enough for him back in New York City, in his day-to-day life as a high school student. He texts “Mr. Stark” obsessively, cancels activities with friends and classmates, all to await a special call from “Mr. Stark” about a mission, which to his dismay does not come.
So, after waiting a while, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He saves cats, retrieves stolen bicycles, leaving them for their owners to find, while also stopping a thief here and there.
Until one night, while perched on a corner-street rooftop, he sees a group of men, wearing Avengers masks, robbing ATMs inside a bank, with rather “different” forms of weaponry.
After fighting them, he sets out on a quest to find the bad guys, which by aid of going on a school trip to DC, he is, at least, able to begin to accomplish.
Where things start to go wrong though, is when he fails to let Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man, and his assistant Happy Hogan, know what’s going on. After a phone call or two, he sets out to “wing it” and save the day by himself.
While he is able to save his classmates from tragedy in DC, the same cannot be said for him back in NYC. He does attempt to save a ferry from breaking apart completely and sinking, with all passengers on board, but not without the help of “Mr. Stark.”
It is after this key event in the movie that “Mr. Stark” asks Peter to give him back his Spider-Man suit. When Peter says he’s worthless without it, Tony then replies,
“If you’re nothing without the suit, you shouldn’t have it.”
This is not only a key moment in the film, but also the whole Marvel Cinematic storyline. Tony Stark lost both his parents at a young age, and made many public and private mistakes, as a public figure and as a superhero. Therefore, he sees the importance of not only loving, but disciplining Peter, who is also without his parents and is in desperate need of guidance.
This may sound all ok, but why does a story like this matter? It matters because we all need elders, others to guide and mold us into the best men and women we can be.
Though we may not all have perfect parents, we all need father figures, or mentors in our lives, to love us when we mess up, tell us what we did wrong, and show us how to grow up and make things right again.
Yet, there may be those out there who think, “I don’t have anyone I trust! I have horrible parents! There is literally no one I can turn to.”
To all those people, I will say the following. There is Someone who is more brilliant than Tony Stark, stronger than Thor and the Hulk, and much older than Captain America, who has reigned before time began, that loves each and every one of us.
He wants to know us. He wants to cleanse us and use us. When we fall, he wants to lead us back to Him, show us freedom and a way to live better, no matter what the world may say is right.
And though, He may seem otherworldly and far away, when we call on His name, He is already there beside us. Not even Iron Man could beat that response time. 🙂
Until Next Time,
Jacob McGowen
The Adventures of A Warrior 