While watching a couple of reruns yesterday, I found a common thread. The shows were based on different concepts, but each had a hero as a central figure. In one show, Stargate Atlantis, one of the main characters, John Shepherd repeatedly risks his life to save others. In the other show, Quantum Leap, Sam Beckett goes from life to life setting right what once went wrong. The two characters function as messiahs or saviors.
Both men have a clear sense of right and wrong, both are willing to risk life and limb to see right overcome wrong. Even though both seem to possess a definite moral compass, they also have their faults and their flaws. They make mistakes. In a world that has grown increasingly relativistic, where what's right for you is right for you, but what is right for me is right for me, people are increasingly uncomfortable with a flawless hero. They just can't relate.
The world knows it needs a hero or heroes. We can recognize that something in the world isn't they way it's supposed to be. When we hear about children being molested, or young women being trafficked as sex slaves, or husbands beating their wives, or lives being destroyed by drugs and alcohol; something deep within us groans for justice. We wish that something would make the world a better place. We want someone to come in and rescue us.
We want that someone to be like us, but not just like us. We want them to understand our struggles, but to rise above them. We wanted them to have tasted temptation, but to still be able to resist it. We want a hero who is stronger, smarter, and braver than we are, but we don't want him to judge us for our weakness, foolishness, or timidness. He (or she in a lot of modern stories) has to be able to do what we cannot.
Some heroes are superhuman, some just represent the best of humanity. The superhuman hero is, generally, otherworldly such as an alien or angelic being; or they are of this world, but advanced. They advancement comes through mutation, scientific misadventure, or contact with the otherworldly. Those who are neither otherworldly nor advanced are still above average. Characters like Batman, John Shepherd, and Sam Beckett are intelligent, clever, and intuitive. They instinctively know when something is wrong. Their spidey-senses tingle (without actually possessing spidey-sense). These heroes seem to be a contradictory pairing of invulnerability and vulnerability, strength and weakness, selfish and self-sacrificing. We know even before they do that they will do the right thing.
It should make us overly curious that literature, movies, and television is littered with heroes. The presence of them in our imaginations, and the longing for them in our hearts tells us that these images are ingrained in the human experience. We were meant to have these desires, because we are in need of rescue. Evolutionists would say that these instincts are their to propel us toward keeping our species alive. We are programmed to look for heroes to rescue us. However, if survival of the fittest was all that mattered, we would want to be hero, not follow one. Looking for someone outside of ourselves to rescue us doesn't ensure the survival of a species, it diminishes it.
But if man exists for something greater than the survival of his species, then looking for a rescuer does indeed preserve mankind. We sense that we need rescue, because on a subconscious level we understand all is not as it should be. We know that we need someone to step in and set things right again.
All these other heroes are shadows of the One True Hero: Jesus Christ. He alone is able to step into our world and make things right. We long for heroes, because our souls long for him (even though we don't always understand this). The author of Hebrews reminds us, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:15-16).
So the next time your watching t.v. or a movie or reading a good book, and you find your heart unable to contain its excitement at the victory of the hero, just remember something. Remember than another hero, the True Hero, attained victory long ago when he died on the cross and rose from the dead. Jesus Christ is the rescuer you need, every other hero exists to help you remember that.
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