“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13
There was something strangely sad about seeing Spider-Man swinging beautifully through New York while Peter Parker has nobody waiting for him when he gets home.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day begins where No Way Home left Peter: alive, heroic, admired, and forgotten. Everyone has forgotten who Peter Parker is, including MJ and Ned. He continues protecting New York, but underneath the mask is a young man carrying grief, loneliness and the painful consequences of a sacrifice he freely chose. Then a mysterious enemy appears, Peter himself begins experiencing unsettling changes, and the wall-crawler discovers that some battles cannot simply be solved by punching harder. Thankfully. New York probably has enough damaged buildings already.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the filmmaker behind Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, the film gives us a noticeably more mature Spider-Man. Tom Holland delivers perhaps his most emotionally demanding performance as Peter, while Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Mark Ruffalo, Sadie Sink, Michael Mando and Florence Pugh add colour, and considerable chaos, to his world.
But underneath all the webs, villains and Hulk-sized complications, Brand New Day asks a surprisingly Christian question:
What does it really mean to sacrifice yourself for someone you love?
Peter believes he knows the answer.
At one point he says:
“Spider-Man has to do the hard thing even if it breaks Peter’s heart.”
It sounds heroic. It also sounds very Christian. And strangely, it may be only half-Christian.
Jesus tells His disciples in John 15:13: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
We normally hear “lay down one’s life” and immediately think of dying for someone. Certainly, the Cross gives these words their fullest meaning. Jesus literally gives His life for us.
But look carefully at the context. Jesus says these words while sitting with His friends.
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.”
Christian sacrifice therefore begins not simply with losing your life, but with giving your life.
There is a difference.
Peter keeps sacrificing, but somewhere along the way sacrifice becomes isolation. He convinces himself that loving MJ and Ned means disappearing from their lives. He decides what is best for them without allowing them to share his burden.
Director Cretton has fascinatingly suggested that Peter misunderstands Aunt May’s lesson about responsibility: he thinks responsibility means sacrifice, yet forgets that he also has a responsibility toward Peter Parker himself. And suddenly Spider-Man becomes uncomfortable Gospel territory.
Because sometimes we do exactly the same thing.
We say: “I don’t want to trouble anyone.” “I’ll manage.” “They already have enough problems.”
“I can handle this myself.” This all sounds noble. Sometimes it is pride wearing a halo.
Jesus never lived that way.
Yes, Jesus went alone into the desert. He prayed alone on the mountains. But He also gathered twelve people around Himself. He ate with friends. He visited homes. He wept with Martha and Mary. In Gethsemane, on the night before He died, He actually asked Peter, James and John: “Remain here and keep watch with me.”
The Son of God asked His friends to stay.
Think about that.
Christianity does not teach us to become superheroes who need nobody. Christianity teaches us to become a Body. Even Jesus carried the Cross, and Simon of Cyrene was permitted to carry it with Him. Maybe that is one of the deepest lessons Peter Parker still has to learn.
His greatest danger is not the villain possessing bodies. It is the belief that because he loves people, he must live without them.
One of the movie’s most touching moments comes when Peter finally admits:
“I’ve decided I’m not going to do this alone anymore.”
Perhaps that is the real Brand New Day.
Not a new costume. Not stronger powers. Not another MCU doorway conveniently opening into seventeen future films.
A new understanding of love. Sacrifice is not always walking away. Sometimes sacrifice means staying. Sometimes love means allowing another person to see you without the mask. Sometimes courage means saying, “I need you.”
The Cross itself teaches us this strange truth. Christ stretches His arms outward, not inward. One arm reaches toward God; the other toward humanity. The Cross is sacrifice, but it is also a relationship. And perhaps that is why Spider-Man continues to touch us after all these years.
Behind the extraordinary powers is an ordinary human longing: to love and to be loved.
Peter can climb walls, stop criminals and swing between skyscrapers. Yet perhaps his hardest act of heroism is simply allowing someone else into his life.
And maybe ours is too.
A question to carry home:
Are there people I have pushed away in the name of “sacrifice,” when God may actually be asking me to love them by letting them walk beside me?
