Lex Luthor: To Be God

"And now God bends to my will" ​

Those words spoken by Lex Luthor nearing the climax of the film, Batman V Superman, is one of my favorite lines during one of my favorite scenes of the entire film. 
The scene: Lex is on a helicopter pad with Superman, he talks about how Superman will do his bidding because of a 'special lady' that is in danger. Superman thinks he is talking about Lois, who he just saved when he is truly talking about his mother. Lex doesn't know where she is but says she will not die if he brings him the head of the bat. Lex does this in hopes of Superman being killed by Batman because Lex hates even the idea Superman brings. The idea of God.
This speaks so true of man's deepest want. To have control. To be there own god. To be God.

This want can be traced back to the Fall of man(Genesis 3). When Adam and Eve took a piece of fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In a perfect garden full of many other fruits that they were allowed to eat from, they were told not to eat from this one tree, but they ate from it. Why? Because the serpent, the most crafty beast told them a lie. "You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Genesis 3:4-5. Then Adam and Eve bit (pun intended) and fell. Why would they fall for this lie? Because they couldn't resist the idea of being on the same field as God. They wanted to be God.

With that in mind, with the beginning of this want found, we can start following it and see a pinch of it in every wrong done (sin). Now, back to Lex.

Unlike many of the past films, Lex Luthor in this film is the only one who doesn't go after land or real estate. Though, at the core of those wants, you can say it is because of a sense of control, of being God. The Batman V Superman Lex, however, goes straight to the core of it, which is the perfect way to go at it as Superman has such heavy tones of a messianic figure and needs a villain with that strong anti-god motives.

"See, what we call God depends upon our tribe, Clark Joe, 'cause God is tribal; God takes sides! No man in the sky intervened when I was a boy to deliver me from daddy's fist and abominations. I figured out way back if God is all-powerful, He cannot be all good. And if He is all good, then He cannot be all-powerful. And neither can you be." - Lex Luthor.

Just from that simple line, we can see that the point of Lex's belief was because of his abusive father. He experienced an evil that sadly far too many people know and for many brings them to his same conclusion that people usually ask "Why does a loving God allow bad things to happen?"

This question asked time and time again throughout history only to receive too many times the answer of silence. Lex here voices what all the people asking this question feel but can't describe or don't want to say. "I want to be God."

This want though is the answer to the question. It is because of the fall, of that want Adam and Eve had, that want of being God that brought sin and all the evil into the world. Any bad thing you can think of happening is because of sin. Yet, in His loving nature, even when we decided to rebel against Him. He still gave us a way back towards Him, using all our sinful mistakes to save us so we can glorify Him.

Now, with that answer we reach a much deeper question.  "What is your god?"
We all have one and will always have one. It may be obvious, money, power, sex, or more secretive, technology, friends, family, or like Lex for most of the film, yourself. However, until we give up ourselves and our fake gods and declare the one true God of the Bible our God, we will always be moving from one god to another, just like Lex who at the end of the film found himself a new god to glorify on the polar opposite of Superman, Darkseid.

So, we should learn from Lex's faults and pains as to not fall into a similar road and find ourselves at the end of life with nothing but proclaiming evil with a senseless mind and hoping we had picked the right side when deep down we know we didn't.

"The bell's already been rung. They heard it; the creatures among the stars. They'll come... He'll come. He's angry... Ding-dong... Ding-dong... Ding-dong..." 

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and the image above are the creative properties of Warner Brothers and DC Comics.