Big Names and Heroes
I’ve been thinking about heroes today. I hate to hear about a Christian hero who has told the world how to live and then falls with a loud, banging crash that seems for a while like what happened at Lexington and Concord in 1775–a “shot heard ’round the world.”
I thought about saying, “The hardest thing about something like this happening is . . . ” But, actually, there are so many hard things. Unbelievers gloat when a Christian hero falls. That’s a hard thing. The story gets in the news. That’s a hard thing, too. The hero’s family gets hurt; young Christians get disillusioned. Those are even harder things.
God warned us long ago: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help” (Psalm 146:3m KJV). Few modern heroes are actually princes, but people treat them like they are. We need to realize that people are just that. People are people. Pedestals are all right for statues, but real, live human beings don’t do so well on pedestals. People can get shaky up there. When they fall, they often pull others down as they go.
God has used people to teach His truths at least since the time of Noah. Think of Moses and Jeremiah and Paul. Paul was even able to say, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” But, when we listen to people we must be diligent to be like the Bereans: “. . . for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11).
Learning from people can be a very good thing. but we need to remember that only God is worthy of our ultimate trust and worship. People who tell other people what to do and then get all mixed up themselves have been around for at least 2,000 years. Jesus said this about the Pharisees: “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger” (Matthew 22:2-4, NASB). It is so easy for a teacher to give their listeners grains of truth from God’s word and then add their own ideas to it. Those who are eager to follow God sometimes end up swallowing man-made rules along with the teachings of God.
Sometimes we use another word besides hero. Sometimes we call a famous person a “big name.” Any hero or “big name” who teaches people how to live should only be heard when he or she points people to God and teaches people His way. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes” (Psalm 118:9).
in 1803 during the Lewis and Clark expedition. Ray and I saw it last week as we drove along the Great River Road.
And as far as “big names” are concerned, there is really only one:
Being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself by becoming obedient
to the point of death, even death on a cross.
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:8, NASB