{"id":1612,"date":"2011-11-23T06:20:53","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T11:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=1612"},"modified":"2011-11-24T10:01:58","modified_gmt":"2011-11-24T15:01:58","slug":"a-hero-with-a-rescue-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2011\/11\/a-hero-with-a-rescue-plan.html","title":{"rendered":"Christmas: A Hero With A Rescue Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

G.I. Joe: \u201cLet\u2019s Realize Things Are Bad, But I Have a Rescue Plan…\u201d
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I don\u2019t know any men who grew up wanting a Barbie doll.\u00a0 Men want to grow up to be Gallant. \u00a0Whether it\u2019s the Woody the Cowboy, He-Man, Luke Skywalker, Six Million Dollar Man, G.I. Joe, Clint Eastwood or Captain Jim West. We wanted a hero. We wanted to be a Hero who could save the day. Someone who recognized the evil, the bad guys, and the problems in life. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I had all the Star Wars figures. I had He-man. I had GI Joe. \u00a0I even had the Six Million Dollar Man who had this \u201cbionic eye\u201d you could look through to see across the yard. But the desire for a hero is multi-generational,\u00a0 my dad loved the TV show The Wild Wild West. \u00a0\u00a0As a kid, he wanted a gun like Captain West.\u00a0 Captain West would be surrounded by bad guys, his hands in the air, and there was no way out… and then, he would push out his belly button, and his belt buckle would open, flip out a small gun hidden within the belt buckle and automatically shoot the bad guy in front of him. \u00a0\u00a0My dad got the cap gun version of this as a kid. He wore that belt all the time. He\u2019d push out his belly and his little cap gun would spin out and shoot the bad guys.
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Heroes offer problems and solutions. \u00a0The Bible would be depressing and worthless if it could diagnose the problem, but NOT the solution.\u00a0\u00a0 A real hero knows what to do. A real hero can resource us form our problem. In Isaiah chapter 9, a rather famous Christmas passage describes a gallant Christmas hero. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This is the hero who is the Light in the Darkness. There is a Hero with a Rescue Plan.<\/p>\n

6 For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.<\/em><\/p>\n

Usually when you hear this verse, we hear about the \u201cchild\u201d the Counselor, the \u201cwonderful\u201d and the Peace part…. and those parts are true, but what is being described here is something gallant. Powerful. Something Mighty… He is the \u201cMighty God.\u201d He is one who is so strong, the entire government of the world is on His shoulders. He will be the one who can finally fix the problems of injustice. He will finally deal a death blow to selfishness, cruelty, pain, death, suffering, greed, and betrayal. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Notice the next parts of the verse…<\/p>\n

7 Of the increase of His government and peace \u00a0There will be no end, \u00a0Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, \u00a0To order it and establish it with judgment and justice \u00a0From that time forward, even forever.<\/em><\/p>\n

Look again at these words:\u00a0 Throne,\u00a0 Kingdom, Justice,\u00a0 and Judgment. \u00a0\u00a0This is describing a time when a mighty king… a good and gallant king comes to earth.<\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis was an atheist. A Modern Man. Good and Evil are Relative. And he was talking with J.R. Tolkien, a Christ-follower and author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. \u00a0Yet C.S. Lewis was moved by this olden stories. And he asked Tolkien why he thought these stories moved people the way they did. Tolkien said that, “Even though they are not \u201chistorically true\u201d are getting at underlying realities.” They say, that this world is under an evil spell. Getting along, education, technology won\u2019t stop the evil spell. The stories point to the fact that the physical world is not all there is, there\u2019s more depth in reality. There is a supernatural, a spiritual realm, not just material. And thirdly, we need sacrificial love to save us. All human beings know these to be true and these stories, and our imaginations know that\u2026so we will never stop listening to them. C.S. Lewis, an atheist, thought that was an interesting theory, but these stories are all lies, fables, legends. They are untrue. Tolkien said, One is not a lie\u2026 \u201cThe world is under an evil spell, we must realize things are bad, we need a Rescuer. A Hero to fix these things. \u00a0The King comes to earth, takes on the evil forces, goes to the cross, looks defeated, but conquers death and promises to return to conquer and restore everything\u2026\u201d At the end is miraculous grace, joy, sacrifice and a real rescue plan for humanity. \u00a0\u00a0Lewis said, “I never thought of it that way. I never heard anyone explain the Bible like that, as another one of ‘those stories!’\u201d J.R.Tolken said, “No this is not one of the those stories, but THE story that all the others point to: Jesus is the Hero with a Rescue Plan. \u00a0He is the One who says, \u201cLet\u2019s realize things are bad, but I have a rescue plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Legends are built on this idea that there once was a good king, but he left, we long for him to return.. Robin Hood…Narnia… Someday the king will come again…JR Tolkien drew on that for third installment, “The return of the King.” \u00a0King Arthur legends say he had written on his tombstone, “Here lies Arthur, the once and future King.” What does that mean? Modern era literary critics don’t like these ongoing themes. Some king is coming back, to save the world. That kind of literature was supposed to die out. Tolkien was told that his stories, his fairy tales, wouldn’t work… The idea that a king would come back to kill the dragon and destroy the evil king. Tolkien wanted to bring back this fantasy literature, and the critics of his time said, it would not work, the epic battle of good and evil was too old thinking. We modern people know that good and evil are relative concepts and ideas. Sophisticated, educated intellectuals would like to believe that this literature genre is pass\u00e9. \u00a0In their arrogance, they want to believe that we don\u2019t need a Savior, we jut need to be \u201ctrue to ourselves\u2026\u201d In fact, the opposite has happened. At the core of all of us is a sense, a hope, a reality, that there once was a world with a good king, but something has happened. And evil is afoot. We long for, pray for, hope for a king to come and restore everything\u2026<\/p>\n

WE CAN BE GRATEFUL FOR A HERO WITH A RESCUE SOLUTION.<\/p>\n

1 Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed, \u00a02 The people who walked in darkness \u00a0Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, \u00a0Upon them a light has shined.<\/em><\/p>\n

When you know you have a gallant hero who not only defines the problem, but can rescue us from it, you are grateful. \u00a0You are grateful you have a solution to this mess. \u00a0You are grateful that you know how the story ends.\u00a0\u00a0 You are grateful you know the problem AND the solution. \u00a0\u00a0There is a light that can penetrate the darkness. \u00a0Notice the Past tense… when God solves everything, fixes our world, and repairs our bodies in the future, we will look back at ourselves as those who \u201cwalked<\/strong>\u201d in the darkness… and the gloom used to be on us… But now we walk in light. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We can know the end of the story. We have a Hero who offers a full and final solution to life.<\/p>\n

Isaiah even tells us exactly where our Hero will come from:\u00a0 By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, \u00a0In Galilee of the Gentiles. This light will come from Galilee… A land despised by everyone. There was a phrase, \u201cCan anything good come out of Nazarus?\u201d \u00a0Nothing great will ever or could ever come out of Galilee. \u00a0\u00a0Our society knows where hope is and hope isn\u2019t. \u00a0\u00a0The world says, there is a hopeless place that nothing good can ever come out of.\u00a0 Christmas reminds us that \u201cno situation is hopeless. No darkness is too dark. Nothing is beyond hope or repair. \u00a0NO situation is beyond this rescue plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

1. \u201cLet\u2019s NOT Pretend THings Are Good.\u201d \u00a0Like Chatty Cathy
\n2. \u201cLet\u2019s Realize Things Are Bad, But be Grateful for the Rescue Plan.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0G.I.Joe.<\/p>\n