He said it, he meant it, and he was right

In the 1978 original Superman movie, there was a scene where poor, accident-prone Lois Lane, happens to be in a helicopter that has an improper takeoff. At the dramatic pinnacle, she ends up dangling over the edge of a skyscraper by nothing other than her handhold on her seat belt. Clark Kent (Superman's alter ego) happens to be walking by underneath, he notices the emergency situation, and leaps into action. Here's the clip on YouTube (note, Lois does a lot of screaming, and the music is loud)

https://youtu.be/394jYH82s2o

When Superman swoops up and catches Lois, he says something huge. Did you catch it? It wasn't a huge theological sermon. It wasn't at face value, or out of context, a very interesting statement. And in a million other circumstances, his comment could even be laughed at. But when and where he said it, it was incredibly profound, especially for the person he said it to. He said, "easy miss, I've got you." The key is he volunteered to position himself to say it, he said it, he meant it, and he was right. Anyone else could have said two of the three, but not been helpful.

• If someone said and meant it, but wasn't right, she'd be dead.
• If someone said it and was right, but didn't mean it, she'd probably be dead.
• If someone could have said it but didn't, would have meant it if they had said it, and really had the power to be right, she'd be dead.

Immediately after he said that to Lois, in disbelief she gives her famous reply, "You've got me! Who's got you!?" She neither understood nor believed the power he had to save her. But none-the-less, the proof was before her. His actions confirmed the truth of his words. A moment later the helicopter falls down from above, right on top of them, and Superman nonchalantly catches it. He keeps flying upward, peacefully calm, in dramatic contrast to the falling down Lois experienced moments before. As he lifts both her and the helicopter to safety, Superman looks at Lois with a whimsical expression of "no worries, I've got this, we're cool." After briefly meeting his gaze, Lois doesn't know what to do but look down in dumbstruck wonder at where she was sure she was going to have met her death only a moment ago.

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. (Some would say it often is.) Jesus made a few comments a couple of millennia ago that still resonate today, and are significantly more profound than those in the movie clip above. The movie clip has a fun soundtrack and camera angles, but Jesus's words (and deeds) were far more important. Here are some quotes from the Bible:

• John 10:30 ​WEB: “I and the Father are one.”
• John 14:6b ​WEB: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
• Mark 10:33-34 ​WEB: “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles. They will mock Him, spit on Him, scourge Him, and kill Him. On the third day He will rise again.”

Jesus volunteered to position Himself to say these things to us. He left heaven, which cannot be underestimated. Read a brief account of what He temporarily gave up in Revelation 4:2-11. Most of us wouldn't leave that for a second, let alone for multiple decades. And we wouldn't trade that setting for 5-star luxury, but Jesus traded it to live as a pauper. Long before Jerry Siegel dreamed up Superman and Joe Shuster drew him for the world in 1938, Jesus came to be the Savior of mankind. He volunteered to speak to us, He said some things, He meant them, and He was right.

• Matthew 28:5-6 ​WEB: The angel answered the women, “Don’t be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just like He said. Come, see the place where the Lord was lying.”

Jesus said many other things that cause many of us to look away, dumbstruck. His actions, especially His rising from the dead, proved the truth of His words. He said it, He meant it, and He was right. I believe Him, I hope you do too.