We Need A Hero?
We need a hero? Do we really? I'm not sure we do...Okay, so a few days ago I was watching the idiot box, and I saw a preview for "The Legend Of Zorro". I'm really not keeping up on movies these days, because I had no idea this movie was coming out. But I really enjoyed the first movie: "The Mask Of Zorro" (with Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones), so I'm looking forward to the sequel. It's kind of sad, though, that they killed off Hopkins' character...the interactions between the young and old Zorro was one of the things that made the first movie so enjoyable.
So, I decided to sit down and watch "The Mask Of Zorro" again, in preparation for seeing the new movie when it comes out. The movie starts out with about 20 Spanish soldiers who are getting ready to hang some randomly selected (and innocent) citizens. There is a huge crowd of Californians standing around...
...doing nothing.
Why? Because they're all asking each other, "Do you think Zorro will come?" and "Will Zorro save the day?"
Sure enough, Zorro shows up, and while one man takes on 40 soldiers, the massive crowd (with a few small exceptions) stands around...
...doing nothing.
Well, okay, they were cheering. Which was very helpful, I'm sure.
Why weren't they doing anything? Why didn't they pitch in and help out Zorro? Why didn't they do anything in the first place?
Perhaps because they were scared. Perhaps because they were lazy. Perhaps because they figured it wasn't their place to do anything, because they weren't heroes!
So I'm not sure we really do need heroes - heroes just keep us from doing the things we know we ought to do, because we figure it's someone else's place to do it. After all, I'm not a hero...
True...there are situations when we need someone to do for us what we can't do for ourselves. Here's a good example from the Bible:
Romans 5:6-8
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Now there's an example of a time we needed a hero. We were all standing around doing nothing waiting for salvation...why?? because we were helpless. And our hero came and did for us what we could not do for ourselves.
But let's move beyond that for a moment, and consider the everyday situations of life. Poverty. Oppression. Natural disaster. What do we do about these situations? Do we do anything? Or do we stand around waiting for a hero to take charge and do everything that needs to be done?
Isaiah 58:6-8
Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
We are all the "heroes" that God has chosen to do His work; we can't count on a "hero" to come along and do the work for us. What we need is leaders who will stand beside us and do the work with us...teaching us, preparing us and - as Ephesians 4:12 says - equipping us "for the work of service".
This is one of my goals with our Nursing Home Church Services. I could go over there and do a church service myself...and be the "hero" to all the residents who never get to have a Sunday morning church service...but instead, we're taking a group of teens over, letting them get involved, leading music, doing scripture readings, running the sound system, and - before the year is over - doing some of the preaching! It is a coaching and training ground for them, so that instead of one "hero" we can have five or ten teenagers who have been equipped to do the work of service.
We already have one Hero - and I guess, if we all work toward becoming like Him, maybe that makes us heroes after all...
Posted On Sep 29, 2005 at 4:33 AM
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