(Photo by Selma Komisky)

(Photo by Selma Komisky)

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WARNING:THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS AND CONTENT FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY

An Extraordinary Friendship

By Daniel Daugherty

Think about your best friend. The friend who you have known all your life. The one who knows all the embarrassing stories and quirks. The one who would rescue you from people obsessed with power and world domination, who would stop at nothing to make you a mind-controlled super soldier capable of absurd amounts of damage to their enemies…

Okay, that last one might be a bit far-fetched, I admit. UNLESS your name is Bucky Barnes, and your friend goes by Steve Rogers. If you are a Marvel fanatic like I am, you will remember that from the very beginning of the MCU, we have seen the progression of Steve and Bucky’s friendship. Both of them enlisted into the US Army during the Second World War and fought in Germany, but in quite different battles. Steve, after becoming Captain America, became an American idol. He led his troops into many battles, always coming out on top. Bucky, on the other hand, had been captured by HYDRA troops and forced into testing a “super soldier” serum.

If that were me, I probably would have given up hope that I would ever see the light of day again. Lucky for him, he was best friends with a certain captain. While Bucky was being tested on, Steve was looking for his friend. He was getting concerned since they had not seen each other. He did the work and found where HYDRA had been keeping prisoners which included Bucky. He risked his own life, just to free everyone else and his friend. This event would become a pattern for Steve and Bucky, unfortunately. Bucky would be recaptured by HYDRA and brainwashed into becoming the Winter Soldier, an assassin who would target anyone who got in HYDRA’s way. He would be at large for almost sixty years until Steve came back, after being frozen in the Atlantic Ocean. Steve knew his friend was still in the brainwashed monster that Bucky had become; he just had to remind him who he really was. The movie “Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War” were about Steve trying to free Bucky from himself and clear his friend’s name, even when Bucky did not believe in himself and did not think he could ever be freed.

Reading into it, this is really how our relationship with Jesus works as well. We might not be getting brainwashed into becoming assassins or becoming super soldiers, but we do have a friend who is willing to die for us. Jesus literally died for us in order for us to become free from sin and death. He will keep fighting and fighting for us no matter what we do. We definitely do not deserve it, and we all feel hopeless sometimes. like we can never be free from our past mistakes, but that is the beauty of being a friend of Jesus. He believes in us and loves us unconditionally, even when we mess up and fall short. We all have a friend who is willing to do the impossible for us, without any catch. All He asks is for our love and our belief in Him.

How cool would it be, though, if you were captured by enemies and Jesus just came busting through the doors and saved you? That is a pretty awesome mental picture to have!