Hero Worship

I remember before graduating seminary talking to my wife about heroes.  I was wondering if there was any culture, any civilization, that did not have some kind of heroic myths that were passed from generation to generation.  Granted, I don't know every culture that has ever existed, and though my background is in history, most of my historical studies have been constrained to Medieval Europe, and have been more focused on technology, philosophy, and religion than stories.  But, every civilization I can think of, from the ancient Greeks to the medieval Chinese, to the American Indians, all of them had stories about heroes.  The heroes could differ from situation to situation, sometimes a man and sometimes a woman, sometimes a great warrior and sometimes a cunning trickster, but they were all heroes.

It seems to me a hero has to do at least two things in order to be a hero.  A hero has to accomplish some great task that others were incapable of achieving, and a hero has to save either a person or a group of people.  More than that though, the task accomplished has to be somehow attached to the act of saving.  What I mean is that a hero cannot perform some incredible feat of evil, and then go on to save a group of people in a minor act and still be considered a hero.  A true hero has to achieve an act of great nobility, and it must be the noble act which saves people.

I told my wife that Hamlet, I think, is a great example of a hero (though a tragic one).  Think of Hamlet, a man who is born to a position of power and authority, who has that taken from him by a conniving and wicked uncle.  Then, as his father's apparition confronts Hamlet with what has happened Hamlet realizes that he has basically two options: he can commit suicide, or he can try and avenge his father.  To avenge his father Hamlet acts crazy, tries to drive away Ophelia, though he is unsuccessful, and ultimately dies.  Yes, Hamlet is a tragic character, and his death could have been avoided, but he accomplishes a great good in that he slays his father's murderer and he rids the throne of Denmark of the stain that would have tainted it had Claudius lived.

I started thinking about heroes again because of the prevalence of comic book movies.  I liked comics when I was growing up.  I enjoyed Spider Man, X-Men, and any number of other heroes.  I didn't care for the sometimes sermonizing and patronizing way some of the stories were written, but I liked the characters.  Every kid imagines having amazing powers, but what I liked about the comics I read was that despite the characters' amazing powers, they always had a powerful evil they had to fight against.  It was never enough that they had to fight some external foe, they always had some internal struggle they had to face at the same time, and conquering the latter would often lead to conquering the former.

It seems like that same formula is common with most heroes.  Hercules became great because of the great deeds he performed, but he performed those great deeds because of his sometimes stupid actions.  For instance, in one telling of the story of Hercules rescuing Alcestis, he traveled to Hades and wrestled with Thanatos (death) because he had been drinking instead of mourning with his friend.  Similarly, it was because Hercules had been overcome with madness and had slain his own children that he was sentenced to perform the 10 labors (that became 12).  Hercules great deeds were in response to his own failings, so that his actions were overcoming his personal faults.

I bring this up because it seems like we all need a hero.  We need to believe in someone who demonstrates that men can overcome their own limitations and achieve greatness.  We need to believe that we can strive to be like that person; we can be better than we are and do something great.  We may think heroes are just myths, but it is the ideal of the hero that inspires us to try when it seems like all hope is lost.

As I thought about the heroes that have come down to us, and the heroes we have created I began to wonder something.  Obviously, heroes live from generation to generation not just because they teach us, but because they inspire us, we want to believe in the heroic, even if we don't believe in a specific hero.  But why?  Why do we believe in the heroic?  I wonder if it isn't because that is the way we were made by God, I wonder if he did not build the desire for heroes into us.

If God did build in that desire for heroes it would make a lot of sense.  After all, one of the historic teachings of Christianity is that God calls all men to come to him for salvation.  And what greater hero story can we have than the story of Christ himself?  God took on the form of man, he took on the weakness and needs of humanity, faced temptation, refused to sin, and despite it all he was killed by men who were sold out to wickedness.  But, even in the face of defeat, Christ rose from the dead, he rose and became the victor, though to every appearance he was the greatest loser of all time.

Because of the death and resurrection of Christ we can be better than we are without him.  God gives us the Holy Spirit, so that we can live victoriously despite every defeat we seem to suffer.  We have a true hero, who demonstrates to us that we can be heroic too.  Not that we achieve anything apart from Christ, but we can do all things through him who died upon the cross for us.  We long for heroes because we need a hero, we need someone who really can rescue us from every danger, even death itself.

I guess my point is that hero worship is okay.  It is good for culture to have heroes, to believe that the sacrifice of one can be sufficient to rescue many.  When people understand this they are more prepared to understand the gospel of Christ.  We don't need to rage against the imperfect hero, but we need to point people to the perfect that inspires all other imitations.  Christ is the archetype of the hero, suffering, a man like us, yet powerful, more than we could ever be, God himself in human form, our savior, our true and perfect hero.  Hero worship is okay, when we are worshiping the one who really is our hero.