Avengers: Age of Ultron


        In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlett Witch, makes her MCU debut. Although the character is known as a hero, she doesn’t start off that way. She starts off as a villain. She and her twin brother, Pietro, volunteered for experiments done by Baron Strucker, a well-known Hydra scientist, for the goal of human enhancement. She and Pietro survived their apartment building being bombed with Stark weapons when they were 10, causing them to desire revenge against Stark. Combining all this with her ability to move objects at her own will and control others’ minds made her a formidable foe against the Avengers. She and Pietro decided to side with Ultron because of their common hate for Stark. That was until she read the mind of Ultron’s new creation revealing his plan to end all life on earth and replace it with his own robots. This caused her and her brother to join the Avengers to stop Ultron from achieving this plan. Once they changed sides, she and Pietro became great allies to the Avengers. They helped bring a great victory against Ultron.


Wanda’s story in this film is a lot like that of Saul of the New Testament. He started off as an enemy of God. He persecuted Christians by imprisoning and even killing them, even with the approval of the Sanhedrin. He even approved of the stoning of Stephen, the first recorded Christian martyr (Acts 7:54-8:3). So, you can imagine that if there was anybody on earth that the Lord hated at the time, it was Saul. But the Lord didn’t hate him. He actually loved Saul so much so as to show him what exactly he was doing. In Acts 9, Saul has an encounter with Jesus himself. This encounter is the turning point that made Saul one of the greatest evangelists and Christian leaders. Eventually, he becomes more popularly known as Paul. He gave us half of the New Testament. Only God can bring such radical transformation to a hard heart.


Like Saul, Wanda started off believing that she was on the side of good, seeking to right a perceived wrong. Once each of them was shown the error of their ways, they saw that they needed to change sides. Grace was given to each of them and, in turn, they gave forth grace to the ones which they had formerly hated. It is grace that can cause people to see the error(s) of their ways. And this grace causes us to extend grace to all, even those we have once seen as our most fierce enemy.


Who or what have you been seeing as your enemy lately? Have they been extending grace to you? Will you start extending grace to them, even if they haven’t been doing the same? Who has seen you as their enemy lately? How can you extend grace to them and will you start now if you already haven’t? Will you accept God’s grace that he has extended to you on the cross? How can you extend that grace to others to bring them to redemption through Christ Jesus?

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