Everyone loves a hero. And what better weekend to talk about heroes than the anniversary of our Nation's Independence. The history of the United States is filled with tales of heroism from men and women who have fought valiantly and with great personal sacrifice to preserve the freedoms that we celebrated just yesterday. The many wars and conflicts that our nation has been involved in has proved time and again that the men and women who defend our nation are heroes in the truest sense of the word.
And it's a good thing, because there have been many an occasion when we have depended upon our heroes. It has often been the bravery of a few that has been the salvation of the many – it has often been the willingness of the few to risk personal harm and injury in the interest of protecting the rest of us. It is good that we show them respect and gratitude.
The fact of the matter is that the world needs its heroes. The reason we celebrate them, the reason we love to tell their stories, the reason that we honor them and revere them, the reason that we need them is quite simple. The world needs heroes because the world needs saving. Heroes step in when the world gets dangerous, when the world becomes treacherous. Heroes do that job that the rest of us cannot do. The world needs saving from itself.
With as much as we all love to recognize and honor our heroes, as much as we love to celebrate their heroism, it is ironic that when the hero of heroes came along, no one was able to recognize him. With all the hope, all the longing, all the desire for a hero, you would think that when the One True Hero actually does show up, that people would flock to him, get behind him, honor him and follow him.
Yet that is not what we find in our text. When Jesus, the Hero of heroes arrives, when he shows up at his home town no less, he isn't given a “Heroes welcome”, he isn't received with open arms, a ticker tape parade, and the key to the city. Instead people are scandalized by him. They are turned off. They turn up their noses. They turn their backs on the Hero that God sent to save the world from itself, that God sent to save the world from its sin. It is strange that this hero would be so un-reconizable to them. Then again, truth be told, this hero is often un-recognizable to us.
Take the account given in our text. The hero is Jesus. Jesus is the one sent by God to defeat Satan, to pay the debt of our sin, and to be the salvation of the entire Human Race. Yet here in our text he seems barely capable of even saving himself.
Often when we consider the work and the ministry of Jesus, the thing that stands our to us is the fact that He performed so many miracles. He healed the sick, he turned water into wine, he walked on water, and he fed thousand with only a few loaves of bread and fish. We know that he did these things because he was the God's son – God in the flesh, a miraculous joining of human and divine substance.
If Jesus is God and if God can do anything, than why in the world does our text tell us that Jesus couldn't do any miracles. Here he is at his home town, he didn't receive the warmest of receptions, people doubted him, rejected him, and refused to believe in him; and so the Gospel writer includes in his recounting of these events that Jesus was unable to do any miracles. Seems rather un-heroic, does it not? Aren't heroes supposed to be heroes regardless of what everybody else thinks? Aren't heroes supposed to be heroes by virtue of their own character and power? Jesus seems to be rather un-heroic, does he not?
Yes. But this exactly the kind of Hero that Jesus came to be. Jesus didn't come to win us through his power and strength. Jesus did not come to defeat our enemies through earthly power and might, by showing everyone all the really cool tricks he could do. Jesus came to be a man of sorrows. Jesus came to be stricken smitten and afflicted. Jesus came to die. Jesus was God in the flesh, But Jesus was God hidden behind human weakness, un-heroic, anti-heroic so that he could die in our place on the cross for our sin.
We have lots of heroes who will save us from each other. We need these heroes. We need police men, firemen, soldiers and warriors who will step in when a conflict arises, when a dangerous situation arises, when there is a need for the skill and the strength and the training to perform these tasks to preserve life. We need these men and women who will save sinners from other sinners. God gives these heroes in common everyday people. Any one of us could step into that role at any moment. That was not the kind of hero Jesus came to be. Jesus did not come to save sinners from each other. Jesus came to save sinners from themselves.
Our biggest enemy that any one of us faces is not somewhere out there in the world around us – the biggest enemy we face is the sinner that lives inside of us. We are our own worst enemy. We are sinners. We are weak. We are doomed to death and destruction because of the sin that lives within us. We need a hero who can save us from ourselves. Jesus is that hero.
When it comes right down to it, our ultimate need is not a hero who carries a gun or a sword or a shield, or even a fire hose. Our ultimate need is a hero who carries a cross. And that is exactly the kind of hero that Jesus is. Doesn't look very heroic on the outside, but hidden beneath the outer weakness and underneath the surface failures is the son of God who came to save the world from sin.
You see, most heroes win their victories by defeating their most bitter of enemies. The go into battle and they overpower the opposition. Had Jesus been that kind of a hero he would have been the death of you and me. We, after all, were his enemies. We were the ones who stood opposed to him. We were the ones who would have wanted to be rid of him. Take the account in our text. Jesus came to his hometown crowd to offer to them the forgiveness he came to bring and they rejected him, they were offended by him, they were scandalized by him. They wanted to be rid of him. We would treat him the same way. So instead of coming to defeat his enemies, he came to become his enemies. Jesus came to be one of us, the be one with us so that he could die in our place. Jesus was weak, he was offensive, he was scandalous because it was necessary so that he could die for us.
And die he did. Jesus stood in our place as his own enemy and he died our death. He died in our place as those who stand opposed to God, as those who hate God, as those who are God's enemies and he received from God the punishment that we deserved. He suffered at the hands of sinful men, but as our great hymn suggests, the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke of justice – the stroke weighted down upon him by God himself.
The heroism of Jesus is a heroism that often goes largely un-recognized. Jesus didn't come with great earthly power and might, he didn't come with outward power and strength to defeat his enemies. Jesus came to become his enemies and then to be defeated for them on their behalf in their place so that they might be friends with God.
For you and for me there is peace with God. Our hero has been defeated for us. He has taken our weakness and he has taken our punishment so that we might live. It is in him that we have peace with God.
Amen.
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