Tony Stark, Peter, and the Story Arc of Christian Discipleship

WARNING: If you have not yet seen Avengers: Endgame SPOILERS AHEAD!

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In our gospel passage this past Sunday we looked at a description that Jesus gives about the kind of death that Peter would die. Jesus tells him, “Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go” (John 21:18).

The words here are a bit cryptic, which makes interpreting what exactly Jesus is getting at hard to decipher. Having just seen Avengers: Endgame, I thought it might be fun (and illuminating) to explore what Jesus predicts about Peter’s future through the story arc of Tony Stark (aka Ironman).

When we first meet Mr. Stark (ten years ago in the first Iron Man movie), he is a genius engineer, womanizing playboy, and all around smart-ass — the epitome of a self-absorbed and self-determined individual. In other words, he did what he wanted and went where he wanted. Minutes into the film he is severely wounded in an attack by a terrorist group and held captive in a remote cave. In exchange for his freedom, Stark is forced to build a Jericho missile, a weapon of mass destruction that he himself designed for the U.S. military.

While in this cave, we find that a doctor named Yinsen has also been abducted to tend to Stark’s injuries as well as serve as his personal missile building assistant. Both realize that there is no way the terrorists are going to let them go and so they hatch an escape plan. Part of this plan involves building what turns out to be the first Iron Man suit. When they finally make their break things go awry and Yinsen ends up sacrificing his life in order to give Stark the time he needs to get away. It is this act of self-sacrifice on the part of a complete stranger that sets Tony Stark on a hero’s journey that will take more than a decade to complete.

To be sure, there is a charming narcissism that is part of what makes Tony Stark Tony Stark. Indeed his most quintessential (and iconic) line comes at the end of the first movie where he announces to the world, “I am Ironman.” This comes on the heels of being told that it is best to keep his true identity under wraps. But as we noted, he does what he wants and goes where he wants. Simply staying put as Tony Stark is just not as gratifying and glamorous as ascending to superhero stardom.

If you have seen the movie you will know that this self declaration, “I am Ironman,” becomes the climactic and crowning line of Avengers: Endgame. But this time it is spoken by a man who has not remained the same Tony Stark we knew once upon a time. He is no longer possessed by a narrow obsession with his own self-interest. Or rather, it might be better said that his self-interest has since been (en)lightened, no longer weighed down by the heavy tyranny of caring always and only for himself.

We see this set up in the early part of Endgame where we find that in the 5 years since the demigod Thanos snapped half of all life out of existence, Tony Stark has made a comfortable life for himself. Having married longtime love Pepper Potts, they now live a quiet life together in a peaceful lakeside mansion with their 5-year old daughter Morgan. In a way, this is a tremendous step forward for Tony Stark. That he is able to settle down with Pepper and become a father shows a certain kind of growth and maturity from him. But more will be asked of him when Captain America and company show up with a dangerous plan to try and reverse the Snap.

Will Tony safeguard his current idyllic life or will he risk it for what is yet tenuous and uncertain? Will he take the path of least resistance or will he embark on a rescue mission fraught with peril and possibly death? Or as Jesus puts it, will he choose to save his life or lose it?

This brings us to the decisive moment that all 22 movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) have been driving towards. History is about to repeat itself, but with a vengeance. This time Thanos is hellbent on wiping every living creature out of existence, not just half. He has once again taken hold of what he needs to do it and just as he is about the snap his fingers he proclaims, “I am inevitable.”

And then comes the snap…

…but nothing happens.

What went wrong (or maybe what went right)?

Somehow Tony Stark has gained the upper hand (pun intended) and it is he who now possesses what is needed to snap Thanos out of existence. (Oh snap!) But he knows that the power released in doing so would more than likely cost him his life. With the fate of all the cosmos hanging in the balance, Tony Stark looks up at Thanos, says, “I am Ironman,” and with a snap of his fingers completes a story arc ten years in the making, taking him from egotistical megalomaniac to self-giving hero.

What Tony Stark goes through can offer us a way to interpret what Jesus says is in store for Peter. Peter, like Tony, is cocky and brash. But also like Tony, his story arc will take him from cocky and brash to humble and self-sacrificial. Who is it that will lead Peter by the hand and take him where he does not want to go? According to church history, Peter is crucified upside down. So many believe that the “someone else” who will lead him may be a soldier leading him to his crucifixion. This is certainly a legitimate interpretation. But what if we thought about it in another way? What if we looked at it in a more figurative way — that what leads Peter is something akin to conviction.

When we speak of being convicted, it is not quite the same as saying, “this is something I want to do.” To be convicted, it seems to me, is not the same as wanting to do something. But neither is it the same as doing something we don’t want to do. Conviction is a kind of unwanted wanting. It is unwanted in that it is something that often works in the opposite direction of our regular inclinations, but is nevertheless a wanting in that it compels us to act in line with a greater desire that issues from beyond us. This is the realm of what Scripture calls the will of God.

When Scripture talks about doing God’s will, it is not language that speaks on the same register as doing that which we want or that which makes us happy. But neither is it calling us to be miserable as if God only makes us do things we don’t want to do. It is speaking on the level of conviction. The journey that Tony Stark goes on moves him from a life driven by selfish desires towards a life drawn forward by conviction. The last thing Tony wants to do is leave the life he has made with Pepper and Morgan and yet he finds himself strangely compelled to open himself up to the very thing that will surely disrupt and possibly put an end to that life.

Where did such a conviction come from? One answer is that it came from Yinsen giving his life to set Tony free. Another finds its beginning in the invitation made to him to become a part of a new community (the Avengers Initiative). It is this community that offered him a way to see his life as part of a larger whole. In a way that is what God’s will consists of. In the Christian faith, this larger whole is defined by a people. Or more accurately, a people gathered around a story about a God who died to set us free. God’s will is what can be discerned within the confines of a community learning to live into this grand story given to us in Scripture. 

So back to what Jesus says to Peter. Could it be that the “someone else” Jesus references is none other than God? That for Peter and for all of us who have been made a part of Christ’s body, the Church, Christian discipleship is about the willingness to follow a God whose will it is to lead us into places where we don’t want to go; and yet find in being led to such places we are drawn out of our tendency toward self-absorption by a conviction shaped by Scripture, discerned in community. And like the story arc we have been following on screen with Tony Stark throughout the MCU, may we take heart that such convictions are not gained over night nor are they formed in a straight line. It is a bumpy ride filled with a mixture of failure and triumph lasting a lifetime. Of course, this is nowhere more evident than in the life of Peter. We know about his foibles. We read about his denials. But in the end, we also know that he becomes one who is able to die a good and honorable death. As the Gospel of John puts it, “a death that would glorify God” (John 21: 19). May our lives follow a similar story arc so that when the hour of our death comes may the same be true of us.