How the Avengers Helped Me Understand the Bible

I’ve been working at an adventure camp for months, facilitating groups through teambuilding challenges. It’s a fun experience, more enjoyable for the fact that every crowd is different, forcing me to develop innovative ways of doing my job. Being a fairly confident person, I entered the position thinking I could share my astounding knowledge of teamwork (though where I thought I’d gained that knowledge, I’m not sure). The more groups I led, however, the more I realized that I do not have a good understanding of teamwork. What makes a good team? What are the key components? Why do some groups arrive stellar, some groups become stellar, and other groups leave worse than when they started?

As with most of the life, the clues to the solution are in the Bible, but as I read and re-read 2 Corinthians 12, sometimes even to the groups I was leading, I still felt like I was missing something. I couldn’t quite grasp it; it was as if I was missing the keystone before I could finish the arch.

The Avengers gave me the keystone.

I have a superhero weakness and despite my frugality, this was a motion picture event I wouldn’t miss on the big screen! Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, and Hawkeye, all in one giant bad-guy-fighting movie? I’m so there. I was expecting a night of enjoying action, courage, and witty dialogue as the team joined forces; little did I realize I would also receive a spiritual lesson.

For the Avengers are the essence of 2 Corinthians 12. They have a “variety of gifts” but work for the same goal (vs. 4); these gifts are manifested “for the common good,” of both humankind and of their SHIELD team (vs. 7). They are the perfect team, a body consisting “not of one member but of many” (vs. 14). The Avengers without Iron Man would be grounded; without the Hulk, would be weakened; without Cap, would be leaderless; without the Black Widow, would be uninformed; without Hawkeye, would be blind; without Thor, would be unable to bring Loki to the true justice he deserves.

If Iron Man were to say, ‘Because I am smarter than you all, I do not belong to the team,’ that would not make him any less part of the team. If Thor were to say ‘Because I am a demi-god, I do not belong to the team,’ that would not make him any less part of the team. If the whole team were the Hulk, where would be the desire to obey orders? If the whole team were Captain America, where would be the technological wisdom needed to fight Loki?

Yet despite all the gifts, the gathering of a “band of freaks” who just happened to have the skills to save the world, the Avengers lose a battle, lose their prisoner, and don’t save the world for the first three-quarters of the movie. Bruce Banner hides from the world, fearful of taunts and tests, of his own capacity for power and evil. Captain America also hides, unwilling and perhaps unable to adapt to this new and difficult world where the Stars and Stripes are “old-fashioned.” Tony Stark expresses disdain for Cap’s sense of duty, mocks Thor’s manner of dress, and dances around Bruce attempting to bring out the Hulk. Watching the Avengers baiting and backbiting each other, pursuing petty differences instead of joining forces, allowing Loki to gain the upper hand because they refuse to work as a team is frustrating. Forget individual heroics: why can’t they just all get along?

But the team is so composed that there would be no division but that the members would have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

It takes the sacrifice of a formerly minor character to help the Avengers find their mojo as a team. “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends,” say Jesus in John 15.13, and that’s exactly what Phil Coulson does, even implying that perhaps it would take a sacrifice to help these gifted individuals see their need for each other. Despite all their gifts, the Avengers must experience this sacrificial love—and the sorrow that comes with such sacrifice—before they cast aside their individualities to become a team. Likewise, Paul says, we as Christians should desire the higher spiritual gifts, but there is “a still more excellent way”: love. Love is what creates a team; without love, there is only selfish ambition, chaos, and in-fighting.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy or boat; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all thing, endures all things. Love never fails.

There’s a reason that 2 Corinthians 13, the ultimate chapter on love, follows 2 Corinthians 12, the ultimate chapter on the body (the “team”) of Christ. Love is the key to teamwork. Continually re-reading chapter 12 in an attempt to understand teamwork was futile without the additional piece of chapter 13; watching The Avengers finally made that connection for me. And that is how the Avengers helped me to understand the Bible.