HEROES

According to Wikipedia, since the year 2000 there have been 49 comic book movies made. Thirty-four more super hero movies are in the works. Why such an influx of heroes? One seemingly obvious answer is money. People will pay to see these, so they are being produced rapidly. The Dark Knight Rises, the final film in the Dark Knight trilogy, made over half a billion dollars. Many filmmaking companies are scrambling to produce the same type of results. And who could blame them?

We are a culture obsessed with heroes. Whether comic book stars on the big screen or celebrities or professional athletes, we all idolize someone. We all are looking for a hero, someone who would change everything for us. That one person that would give us what we are really longing for. We are starved for this.

So too were the people of Israel in the Old Testament book of 1^st Samuel. Every day their enemy would parade their 9-foot hero named Goliath out to the battlefield to challenge one of God’s people to fight him. Day after day he came, day after day he went with no one to fight. Israel had no hero to fight for them. Until one day.

One day, a shepherd boy named David arrived to bring supplies to his brothers who were soldiers for Israel. He was not old enough or strong enough to fight so he was on sheep duty at his father’s house. While David was there he overheard the challenge from Goliath, the Philistine hero, & waited in expectation as one of Israel’s best & brightest would go out to fight in the name of the Lord. But no one went. No one went out to fight. No one but David.

David went to the king to volunteer and was met with laughs. How could a shepherd boy defeat a military champion? It’s suicide. Not only for David but also for the whole army of Israel. But David made his case. He pleaded with the king to allow him to make this pagan hero eat his words. He argued with the king by telling of how the Lord had strengthened him to kill bears & lions with his bare hands in order to protect the sheep under his care.

Reluctantly the king gave his blessing. David took with him just 5 rocks & a sling to fight the giant. And as unimpressive as he appeared in comparison to the mighty Goliath, God was with David, & David defeated the giant with one throw of his sling. One rock, one hit, one dead giant. God’s people were saved & God’s enemies were defeated. David was the hero!

Most of the time when this story is shared, we are David & God is with us to destroy the “giants” in our lives. But is this the meaning of the story? Are we the hero here? Or do we need a hero to rescue us?

We are not the hero in the story. We are the trembling Israelite army unable to do anything about the enemy before us. We are not David here. We are not the hero. We are the ones in need of a hero. David did for his people what they couldn’t do for themselves. He defeated the enemy that they couldn’t defeat on their own. He replaced fear with victory, shame with celebration!

But David isn’t the real hero here either. Well, he is & he isn’t. David died & Israel continued to need more & more heroes. Until one day, the Hero to end all heroes appeared. David is a picture of the real hero we all need. Why are we longing for heroes? Why can’t we get enough? Because deep down we all need a Savior. We all know we need a hero, we need to be rescued. We are trembling in the presence of our Enemy. Victory is nowhere in sight. We are helpless to change our situation on our own.  God himself steps in through his son Jesus who takes our place, fights our enemy, & wins the battle that we could never win.

We are all searching for a hero & longing for someone to give us what our hearts really need. Jesus is everything we need. He is the hero. He has won the victory. He has replaced fear with victory, shame with celebration. He is the hero & he is all we need.