In my writing about the Twilight series, as I thought about how Edward Cullen is the perfect man, I realized that the only real perfect man who has ever existed is Jesus Christ. And I started to realize how the two are alike, from a woman’s point of view.
1. THE ULTIMATE ROMANTIC. Jesus Christ is the ultimate romantic — the love of his life is the Bride–all of the Christians who have ever lived–the church. All of history is about how Jesus fulfilled the plan of His Father, to bring forth the Bride and win her over. He underwent rejection, torture and death in order to win her. His sole focus of romantic love and intent is on His bride. All of us who belong to Him have been pursued by Him personally, and won over to Him. His love and devotion is singular and intense. Edward Cullen embodies these traits as well, though on a human level. His pursuit of and devotion to Bella is singular and intense. He cannot stay away from her. He watches over her and can’t keep his eyes off of her. He pursues her, protects her, puts all of his focus and thoughts on her. He is willing to die for her, or to live the loneliest life he can imagine, a life without her, if it is the best for her (Twilight 2). There is no doubt whatsoever that neither Jesus nor Edward will ever stop loving their love, the very reason for their existence.
2. A FATHER, A LOVER, A BROTHER, A FRIEND. Both Jesus Christ and Edward Cullen embody these roles. Like a father, Edward lifts Bella onto his toes to help her dance. He is protective of her, he watches over her, he lifts her up over a stoop when her foot is in a cast. Jesus Christ is one with the Father, God, who is a father to all of us. He too provides for our needs, protects us, and is absolutely dependable and trustworthy. Both Jesus and Edward also fulfill the role of lover. Edward waits until the right time to be a lover to Bella, through marriage. Jesus is the Groom to his lovely Bride, the church everywhere. The Biblical book of Revelation describes how at the end of times, there will be a great wedding feast as this holy lover is united to His Bride in the Other Realm. Both men end the loneliness of their bride, bringing completeness to her. Both are also at times a brother or a friend. Someone she can absolutely trust and confide in. Both listen with rapt attention to whatever she wants to talk about, for as long as she wants – a perfect best friend.
3. A RIVETING ATTRACTION. Both Jesus Christ and Edward are designed to pull you in, to attract you to him, forever. Both have a magnetism to them that makes them irresistible. When he is in the room, everyone notices and are drawn, whether they realize it or not. Everyone knows who this man is, everyone is affected by his pull. He really sees you and knows you. You cannot stay away.
4. HE IS IN YOUR HEAD. This is an obvious one, with a flaw – Edward cannot read Bella’s thoughts. But he can read everyone else, as does Jesus Christ. They are both in your head. They know what you are thinking, and they understand you. Even so, they both want you to share everything with them, all of your thoughts, hopes and dreams. Edward of course needs Bella to do this because he cannot read her thoughts. Jesus can but loves to sit with rapt attention as He listens to every detail of our lives and thoughts.
5. HE IS UNPREDICTABLE. This is the reason both Jesus and Edward keeps her woman on her toes. You may know the man, but you don’t know what he is going to do next. They both come from such a different culture, and their behavior is so totally based on a pure, selfless love and devotion to their lady. Edward is addicted to Bella. The Bride of Christ belongs to Christ, He is in her, she is in Him, there is not a tiny atom of separation, they are one. Jesus follows the voice and direction of His Father, and guides His bride in the same manner, expecting her to trust Him completely. Edward lives only for Bella, and expects her to understand his total love for her in all his actions.
6. HE IS FROM ANOTHER WORLD. For Bella, discovering Edward was discovering a whole new world, a world she could barely conceive of. She wants to know all about it. Jesus brings to us His world, the spirit world, the Other Realm. This is His world and He is able to bring some of it to His Bride on this earth, which she drinks up as eagerly as Bella. Of course, Edward’s world is dark, dangerous and has a lot of evil in it. The world of Jesus is pure light and love, containing no evil (though He also tells us of the place in the spiritual world where evil dwells). Under this section we can also mention that both Jesus and Edward live forever (unless Edward gets himself killed) and are intimately familiar with history, having lived through it (Edward only as far back as 1918).
7. HE KNOWS HOW TO HAVE FUN. Both Jesus and Edward know how to play, to laugh, to have fun. Jesus liked to play with children and was full of joy. Edward takes time for fun (baseball games), leisure (books and music) and beauty (enjoying nature, making music). They both carry the weight of the world yet both know how to lighten up and have fun once in a while.
8. TREASURING SILENCE. Both Jesus and Edward know how to be still, to treasure solitude and silence. They know how to speak and move deliberately. Neither one rushes about or is hyper. They embody strength, wisdom and stillness.
9. DANGEROUS. Both Jesus and Edward are extremely dangerous. Edward can kill easily enough if he needs to. While Jesus was on earth He had the ability to call down legions of angels to fight for Him, if He wished. Though they keep careful control over this capability, just the fact that they are so dangerous (but under control) appeals strongly to a woman’s sensibilities.
10. HOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT. There is one major difference between the two, and that is that Edward has the capability of being evil, whereas Jesus can only be good, because He is goodness itself. Edward admits that he has killed before, and presumably he drank his victim’s blood as well. He is very careful to keep this under control, and strives to always be and do good. Jesus, on the other hand, is goodness itself, yet He willingly took on all of evil which has ever existed or will exist into Himself so that He could destroy it for good. So I guess you could say that in that moment even Jesus was evil, because He took it all onto Himself, which is why God had to forsake Him on the cross. So this is in actuality another similarity – it is possible for the man to be evil. With Jesus it was a one-time thing, with Edward it is a constant struggle.
There you have it, an interesting comparison of two perfect men – one real, one fictional. We can only dream of Edward in our imagination, but Jesus is real and can belong to each one of us. He is the ultimate real perfect man.