The Attempt to Cheat Death aka Fallen Humanity Syndrome

There is a lie that persists in our culture, that if there is a God and to be honest we aren't convinced, (because the world is such a mess, and of course that would have to be his fault not ours) but if there is then he/she/it is concerned with sins like sexual lusts, greed, witchcraft, anger, drunkenness and the like and that so long as I don't fall into those kinds of sins I'm doing OK thanks very much. In essence, they are the kinds of things that people often associate with night and darkness.

However, as the following video will illustrate (five parts: 50mins), through seemingly harmless pursuits of the daytime like scientific enquiry, humans are desperate to liberate themselves from their limitations so they can:

1. Have the supremacy over each other (get them before they get you) and

2. Stick two fingers up at the God who has set these limits on them

and thus set themselves up in his position,

This is seen most evidently in the desire to cheat death:

Perhaps a representative for the human race is Syndrome from The Incredibles. Syndrome isn't a real deal super hero, he's a counterfeit one. The sad truth is that he will never be a real super hero, not in the same way that Mr Incredible is.

Unlike Mr Incredible, Syndrome has no powers of his own. He manipulates technology to give him his power and in so doing, develops a delusional sense of his own greatness and a murderous desire to rid the world of real super heroes and set himself up as the greatest (counterfeit) hero of all.

Of course, as in all Hollywood feel good films, he doesn't win and the superheroes save the day.

In all this, Syndrome is a brilliant description of a fallen, tragic and evil humanity - desperate to be truly super, desperate to play god.

He is tragic in the sense of desperately emotionally needy - the kind of person that if you got to know on a one to one level you would feel very sorry for.

Yet, he is desperately wicked in that if you saw a list of his deeds you would claim him a lunatic and be clambering for him to be brought to justice for the evils he perpetrates.

We fallen humans are the evil super villains of the cosmos, led astray by the devil, wanting to rid ourselves of our heavenly father and make ourselves gods, but we cannot, no matter how hard we try. We may feign certain elements of divinity for a time, but in the end we fail and instead, bring a curse on the created order. We are both evil and pitiful.

Jesus never came to improve a flailing, but essentially good, humanity, he came to save and transform a fallen, tragic and wicked one. The cross is not the greatest symbol of self-improvement by invention, but the declaration that this world order stands condemned and a new one is coming, not by the design of man, but by the will and power of God. Blessed are all those who take refuge in this Jesus for he alone will surely make them immortal.