Perhaps I watch too much TV. Ok, I’m sure I do, but this week was pretty incredible. If there was one thing that stuck out to me this week though, it’s this, we love heroes. There’s something about the offer of one person to give their life on behalf of another that gets us every time. Three examples from the primetime line up this week come to mind.
First (spoiler alert), Nathan and Peter Petrelli from Heroes. We were all convinced that Nathan was resigned to letting the bomb go off, and in our eyes this made him a villain. But when he flew down at the last minute, embraced Peter and flew him out of the city, all of our previous grievances with the character went out the window. It was the first truly selfless thing he had done all season. Next, there was Charlie Pace from Lost (once again, spoiler alert). Charlie gave his life this week so that the people he loved could be rescued. In that moment Charlie became more than a pathetic ex-druggie and wanna-be surrogate father. He became a savior, a hero.
Finally, there is Wesely Autrey, a real life hero. This week he went on Deal or No Deal. This guy actually threw himself on someone who had fallen on the tracks in front of an oncoming train in the New York City subway. Unfortunately, Wesely only won $25 (he turned down an offer of over $300,000). Despite his poor game play they did send him home with a new car.
I say all this to point out the fact that we are moved by acts of selfless, sacrificial love. There’s just something about it. Jesus said as much when he said, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13 (NIV)
I think we love these guys so much because we see in them something that we hope to be. We all want to be the hero. All of us want to save the day. I also think we intuitively know that behind our veneers of self-sufficiency, we’re all hoping someone will save us. What do you think?
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