Lesson from Tony Stark's Sacrifice

Entertainment Weekly contends that Tony Stark was the backbone of the whole of the Avengers movie series. Tony Stark starts off as a bad boy billionaire who is a chronic self-promoter looking for adulation from the world around him - being handsome, brilliant and rich, he gets all the adulation he wants. But what makes the Avengers ending so satisfying is to see his story arch change, from a narcissistic over achiever to developing the ethic of self-giving love, ultimately becoming a martyr for the cause.

One of the most moving scenes in Avengers End Game is Tony Stark snapping his fingers with the Infinity stones in his gauntlet. This of course kills him. I love the way the scene of Tony Stark snapping his fingers was setup. Tony Stark, grabs the infinity stones from Thanos. He knows that if he snaps his fingers, the power from the infinity stones will kill him. Just at that moment he looks up at Doctor Strange who nods at him affirming that his snapping his fingers is the only way they can win against Thanos. Tony now has to chose, was he ready to give up his life for the sake of saving half the human beings on planet earth? Can he leave his wife and young child in order to save billions of human lives?

Tony takes a moment to ponder the choice before him. He then says, "I am Iron-man." Gets a determined look on his face, and snaps his fingers signing his death warrant. He decides he will sacrifice his life. In this he becomes the Christ figure who gives up his life to save other lives.

Tony Stark's cultural conditioning is his billionaire life style of self-promotion. His challenge was to go against his cultural conditioning of self-promotion to embrace the value of self-giving love. To go against his cultural conditioning, he needed to be affirmed in his identity. He needed to know who he was - he was Iron-man who had the unique gift of protecting people and saving lives. If at this critical moment of decision he gave up that identity to save his own life, allowing others to die, he couldn't live with himself. So at the critical juncture of decision making he takes a moment to root himself in his identity, as Iron-man, and then makes the fatal Christ-like choice to save the world by giving his life away. Tony saying, "I am Iron-man," to remind himself who he is, is critical to his giving up his life.

People who are Christ follower are called to be Christ-like in giving up their own life, to die to their self. Whether it is the toothpaste we buy or the car we drive or the restaurant we go to, the culture tempts us to live by the ethic of self-promotion. In Luke 9:23 Jesus says that anyone who is his disciple will have to take up the cross. Christ followers are to live by a counter cultural ethic of taking up the cross and work along side Christ in bringing the healing of the crucified Lord to people. This kind of living involves making decisions that goes against the cultural values. In order for us to live this kind of self-giving life of love, we have to be rooted in our identity in Christ. When we are rooted in our identity in Christ, we will have the courage and conviction, as His disciple, then we will take up the cross.

If we are not rooted in our identity in Christ as His disciple, we will not be able to live out the self-giving ethic of the Christ-like life. This rooting of identity in Christ is important because our identity is the energizing force for our action. When the actions we do is not easy to come, our identity becomes our motivating force just as it did for Tony Stark when he had to chose to give up his life to save planet earth. Next time you face a tough choice, going against the values of the culture, whether it be finding time to pray or going the extra mile for a friend, or to listen without arguing, take a breath, appropriating Tony Stark, remind yourself, "I am a disciples of Christ," and way of Christ-like self giving love.

Rooting one's identity as a disciple of Christ energizes the choice to living the counter-cultural values of Christ-like self giving love.