How to Share Your Faith Using Hancock

[GloryB]

John Hancock (Will Smith) is not your clean-cut, straight-arrow superhero in the mold of Spiderman or Superman. Most definitely not. Hancock is a superhero despised by most everyone. Along with his superhuman strength and his super-sonic flying abilities, he's a drunk, sarcastic, inconsiderate bum. He recklessly wrecks untold damage on his surroundings as he goes about doing his 'stopping the bad guys' superhero thing. People, cars, buildings - they're all expendable to Hancock.

As a result, this dude is in serious need of a public image makeover.

Voila...enter the 'Publicist' on the scene to save the day. Conveniently, Hancock saves a publicist, who in turn sets about trying to 'save' Hancock by rehabilitating his public image, only to find that Hancock begins an affair with the publicist's wife. What a way to return the favor of an image makeover...All that to say, in Hancock we definitely have a fallible superhero - plenty of character flaws and shortcomings here.

Like Hancock, we all have character flaws and behavioral issues that make us likely candidates for an image makeover. But an image makeover only touches the surface, our real 'issues' go much deeper. In fact, Jesus had some pretty harsh words for those who are concerned with their outer image, rather than their inner soul. Check out his words to some of the religious leaders of his day in Matthew 23:

You're hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You're like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down its all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you're saints, but beneath the skin you're total frauds (Matthew 23:25-28, The Message).

As you can see, Jesus is basically pretty outraged that these guys are only concerned with their outer image, when what they really need is a 'soul makeover'. And a soul makeover is something only He can help us with; we don't need a publicist or marketing expert for it. We need a personal relationship with The One who offers forgiveness of sin, cleanses our souls and extends to us the free gift of a restored relationship with God, all by simply trusting in Jesus' finished work on the Cross.

We all have 'issues' that need addressing at a deeper level. Flawed superhero Hancock can serve as a springboard for talking about the spiritual dimension of those 'issues' with our friends.

Ask your friends if they, or someone they know, wrestle with self-destructive or addictive behavior like Hancock did in the movie.

rest of article:
http://www.christianpost.com/article...ng-hancock.htm
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I thought this was interesting and perhaps someone could use it.

[titus212]

I don't know.

The previews showed a little of his "apology speech", and I thought 'Cool! He is sincerely, making an effort to change'. That was before I saw the movie and his speech was given at the beginning of his "makeover" and that he didn't really mean it, at first. He was forced to say things he didn't mean, at the time. Yes, he did eventually, become the hero he was meant to be, but the speech threw me.

I guess that, alone, could be a lesson on true repentance vs. being forced to say you're sorry and not mean it. I don't know.

Varlyn (The VMan)

[GloryB]

I haven't seen the movie...so I really don't know.