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Heroes and Villains (Philippians 3:10-16)
It has been observed that "No man is a hero
to his valet". These days who has a valet? But the point is well
made and might as easily be applied to a man's family and closest friends,
the point being that those closest to him know him too well to cast
him in the role of hero. Yet we love heroes and the greater their distance
from us the greater our regard. Bertholt Brecht wrote, "Pity the
land that needs heroes". We do need heroes however, it seems to
me, if only to have something to aspire to, someone whose virtues we
would emulate, whose example inspires us to greater thing. I can agree
with Brecht in one sense, however, in that we can make our heroes into
paragons and lose all perspective, robbing ourselves of any real opportunity
to ever aspire, reach out and achieve (How often have you heard someone
say, "Oh, I could never be a Paul?"). That is when we need to come again
to the perspective of the valet and see the humanity in our heroes.
Last time, I looked at Paul's example in declaring with confidence his
true position and calling in Christ. Do you have Paul's confidence to
boast, within the limits of the field to which God has called you? Can
you confidently declare that you are, "A Christian,
a servant of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, sent not from men nor by
men, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, set apart for the gospel
of God"? The trouble we have with this is
the idea that, "I could never be like Paul!" However, as I pointed
out last week, Paul did not see himself as having "arrived" but knew he
was still "on the way".
In this passage we can see that Paul shares our ambitions:
I want to know Christ and the power of
his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming
like him in death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from
the dead
Isn't this what we seek? Don't we wish to know Christ and the power
of the resurrection? Become like him in his death and, somehow, attain
the resurrection from the dead? Aren't we so like Paul? Oh, but how
we struggle sometimes and wonder if we will ever…
Paul continues:
Not that I have already obtained all
this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold
of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
How much more like Paul we seem to be than we thought.
But one thing I do: Forgetting what is
behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal
to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
The question is, do we do this one thing? If not, why not? I suspect
it is because we still see ourselves as villains and Paul as a hero.
Philip Yancey has written about how words can be very deceptive inasmuch
as they often portray the spiritual life of another so confidently that
we can forget that our heroes suffer the same insecurities, doubts and
terrors common to us all. The life of any writer can appear better than
it is and can gain even greater stature in the imagination of the reader
than is the case in real life. The same goes for all our heroes who
so easily vanish in the process of telling the tale of their lives behind
the figure of 'hero of the faith.'
But look closely at the heroes of Hebrews 11 and see for yourself how
flawed these men were, Jacob the swindler, Moses the murderer, David
the adulterer, to name a few. People whose ambitions surely reflect
our own, but who proved as human as you or I, and just as much in need
of a Saviour.
Our heroes are more like us than we might imagine. They share our godly
ambitions, they aspire to great things for God, but they suffer insecurities
and doubt and know that they, like us, have yet to arrive. What does
mark them out perhaps is that they, like Paul, forget
what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, press on towards
the goal to win the prize for which God has called [them] heavenwards
in Christ Jesus.
We need heroes and that is no bad thing. But we also need perspective and
to realise that, just as they are so like us then we can reasonably aspire
to be like them for we share the same ambitions, suffer similar weaknesses
and serve the same God who is Lord of all. As we consider those heroes of
whom we are especially fond, the Reformers perhaps, the Puritans, the Anabaptists,
the early church, we need to exercise that perspective that helps us in
our aspirations instead of stopping us in our tracks. Then we will be able
to confidently press on toward the goal.