Powerlessness. It’s one of the worst feelings in the world. And yet, it’s something we all feel at one time or another. Something spins out of our control, or we wind up being subjected to authority we’d rather not subject ourselves to. Or we take a look at the ills of the world and feel like there’s just nothing we can do—and in the meantime, the price of gasoline just keeps going up.
But is it true? Are we really powerless through and through?
Not according to Peter Parker. The grand refrain that echoes throughout the Spider-Man trilogy, and indeed throughout our hero’s comic-book origins, are these words, spoken to Peter by his Uncle Ben: With great power comes great responsibility.
It’s such a simple sentiment, but one that is packed with ramifications out the wazoo. It becomes Peter’s touchstone, his anchor, the very reason he becomes Spider-Man in the first place. The words haunt him, and they’re made all the more powerful by the death of the man who spoke them. They lead Peter to a jarring realization: He’s been given a gift. A great gift. A gift of great power.
How is he going to use it?
He starts off using it for his own monetary gain, heading out to carve up wrestler Bone Saw McGraw in hopes of landing a cool three-Gs to buy a car and impress Mary Jane. In the ring, Peter runs circles around Bone Saw, dipping into his trademark sarcasm and generally getting full of himself. Yeah, he’s feeling pretty good about this gift of great power. This is going to impress a lot of chicks.
Then the promoter gyps him and Peter decides to exact revenge by stepping aside, shirking the great responsibility that came with his great power. He allows a criminal to rob the promoter. Of course, Peter doesn’t realize the pain his selfishness will cause.
That simple, selfish act leads to the death of his uncle. Peter wallows in his great power, skipping the “great responsibility” part, and doing so leads to unexpected heartache.
Believe it or not, though we often feel powerless, we do, in fact, have great power. The apostle Paul discussed the power available to Christians in Ephesians 1:18-21:
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
We have great power, right there—the power that lies within a message of hope, a message of love and reconciliation. A message found throughout the Bible, in places like John 3:16 and Romans 3:23, where God specifically speaks to our hearts and tells us that He loves us and desires a relationship with us.
So the question is: What’s our responsibility? What are we doing with the great power we’ve been given?
There have been a zillion books written about this power, and too often they point us in the direction of fulfilling our selfish desires. They go on and on about how we can live a great life full of prosperity and purpose and all-around awesomeness. These things aren’t bad, of course, but when we hyper-focus on ourselves and the way Christianity benefits us and only us, we start to let our responsibility slip.
The fact remains that we have a responsibility that comes with our great power. We have a responsibility to care for those around us, as evidenced in James 1:27: “Religion God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
We have a responsibility to put our selfishness to the side and live humble lives, as we see in Philippians 2:3-4: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
We have great power. What are we doing about the “responsibility” part? Are we shirking our responsibility and living a pre-dead-uncle life, living it up in a wrestling ring to score a few extra bucks and impress the girl of our dreams? Or are we taking the high road and looking to serve our fellow man?
Peter Parker eventually takes the high road, even when the going got tough. Newspaper chief J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Bugle are squarely against him, calling Spider-Man a menace to the city and demanding his arrest, even when Spidey is doing good all over the place. Yet that doesn’t deter Peter. He doesn’t say, “Forget this mess, it isn’t worth it.” On the contrary, he just keeps doing what he knows he should do, regardless of what his detractors think. He takes his great responsibility seriously and gives to the city until it, quite literally, hurts.
The question remains: What will we do with our great power? Are we brave enough to follow in Spider-Man’s footsteps?
With your great power comes a great responsibility. Are you up to the challenge?