The Hero

I've been thinking a lot about heroes recently.  You can't think of the 4th of July in the United States without remembering all the men (and, recently, women) who sacrificed their lives so that we could remain free from tyranny.  We do a Veteran's Day assembly every year at my school, and we invite dads and grandpas to come up to the front and share what it means to be a veteran from their perspective.  Some of them even wear their uniforms--it's always a favorite time for parents, students and teachers alike.

This begs the question, then--what is a hero?  What makes someone heroic?  Hollywood loves to answer this question, and in the past several years has given us superhero movies in partial answer to this question.  Because I have older boys, I often go to the superhero movies with them.  I have to admit, I've always liked superheroes; perhaps it was because I watched Wonder Woman in the 70s, and the actress in that TV show's first name was the same as mine.  I liked then how superheroes were portrayed--selfless, thinking of others, doing what needed to be done, even at personal cost.  Today's superheroes are a bit more complicated, but many still embody this ideal somewhat--and I think that's what makes their stories compelling. 

The other night, I got another glimpse of how Hollywood views the word "hero," from a television program called, "The Hero," hosted by Chris "The Rock" Johnson.  I've always thought that watching reality TV was a bit like waiting for a train wreck to happen--everyone knows that someone is going to do something to mess up the positive intent of the show, because of human nature, and they tune in to watch the fireworks.  If you haven't seen this particular show, a team has been assembled and given challenges to complete, and what is supposed to happen is that the money is supposed to go into a communal pot to be divided by those who complete the show's insane challenges.  But, to throw a wrench in things, contestants are offered an aptly named "temptation:" extra money that they alone will keep, sometimes at the cost of valuable minutes to complete a hero challenge.  I must say that when someone succumbed to the "temptation," the reaction was mostly indignant--and as more contestants took money for themselves, these so-called heroes hurled hateful words and screamed at one another.  Really, I found few of the contestants to be worthy of the title, simply because of how they treated one another, so the show's title is somewhat of an oxymoron. 

The fact is, though, that we all are like the contestants on the reality show in this way--none of us measures up to hero status.  What I referred to earlier as human nature is what the Bible calls sin, and none of us on our own can rescue ourselves from our self-indulgent and self-destructive tendencies.  We absolutely need a hero--and God sent us one.  His name is Jesus Christ.  And he died for all of those things about us that we would be horrified to watch if someone came in and videotaped our lives for all to see.   He alone is worthy of the title of hero--but He gives us a new life when we accept his sacrificial death and resurrection, and then we can go into the world and point them to Jesus, showing them what a true hero looks like--and acts like.  He is the only one worthy of a hero's status, and one day, He will come victorious again.  In a world short of heroes, that's cause to rejoice!