Marvel's The Punisher: And Lessons On Spiritual Warfare, Part 3 | Author of My Faith: Encouragement for Today's Christian Woman

Marvel’s The Punisher: And Lessons On Spiritual Warfare, Part 3

Inspiration
November 12, 2018
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Welcome back to this blog series on Marvel’s The Punisher. Here’s the third lesson on spiritual warfare I learned from the series:

Lesson 3: Winning is not for the faint of heart

Frank was easily 5 or 6 inches shorter than most of the other men he was around. He wasn’t the most ripped, although he was ripped. And some of his opponents had skills he didn’t have. Yet, every one of them dreaded having to face Frank personally. So much so that when the two men he most wanted dead (Russo and Rawlins) finally did get a hold of him, they tied him down to make the fight sorely unfair.

And once Frank broke free, the sheer terror in Rawlins’ eyes was kind of funny to me (as in funny ha-ha). Rawlins had tied down, beaten him to a bloody pulp and now he was afraid for his life. Although I had seen all the series up to that point, it made me wonder what it was about Frank that scared these men so.

I believe what it was, was that Frank had a lot of heart and he had reasons for which to fight. Even when he was in the Middle East fighting for a shady handler and his cause, Frank stuck to his beliefs. Until he realized he was wrong. And I believe that was what made him deadly. The fact that he was willing to accept that he was wrong. At one point David pointed out to him how he had lost his sense of honor. Frank agreed and shows remorse. And when he lets David in a little more, David is able to help him devise a plan to help Frank right his wrongs in a sense.

You might be asking “well, how can you right wrongs when you’re killing people?” Well, I believe on some level Frank knew that killing people was wrong. But the people he killed were ones that had stripped him of the life he had prior to the atrocious acts he committed in Kandahar. And not only that, but they were still doing it to other people and they were still after Frank. Frank also knew that the broken American justice system wouldn’t protect him or really serve justice. He’d already done jail time while everyone else walked away unscathed.

I’m not saying I agree. I’m just saying that Frank believed what he believed. And he was willing to change courses when faced with the proof that he was wrong. Unlike Russo and Rawlins. I wanted to like Russo…I really did. I mean, it sounds like he had one heck of a childhood as an orphan in the foster care system. But he had opportunities to choose a different path from the one he chose. He stood by as his associates killed the family of the only real friend he had. And pushed past his misgivings when those same people tried to kill Frank. He slept with the detective to manipulate her into his scheme, and then killed her coworker/friend. Then acted like it someone else until she figured it out. And Rawlins had no misgivings or reservations about killing anyone who was going to expose his dirty operations. Long sotry short, Russo was on his way to having no conscience and Rawlins’ conscience…well, maybe he never had one.

The bottom line is that Frank had the heart to stand for what he believed in a fight. But he also had the convinction to change once he was faced with the truth.

What do you believe in and are you willing to fight for it?

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