ORDINARY HEROES

ORDINARY HEROES



         A person isn’t great of or in him or herself, but it’s what he or she does that sets him or her apart from the ordinary.



         We look at heroes as those who have done great exploits on the battlefield, or have battled against extreme odds.



         A soldier is an ordinary person, but pitted against extreme odds in defense of his or her unit could change their status from ordinary to great.



         A fireman answers the call, goes into a burning building, and saves the lives of people trapped by the fire.



         Men and women have sought cures for the common and uncommon health conditions, and are accorded a hero’s status for the polio vaccine, pasteurization, and any number of medical breakthroughs in the twentieth century.



         Think about for one moment, the heroes of our Sunday school lessons.  The greatest heroes of the Bible were ordinary men and women who faced extraordinary situations.



         Nothing set David apart from the rest of Israel until he used a slingshot against Goliath.  God used Elijah to destroy the prophets of Baal.  The Bible says he was a man subject to the same passions as we are.  When confronted by Jezebel, he fled to the wilderness where God showed him again who was more powerful.  Elisha was the servant who washed the hands of Elijah.  Yet when he asked for the double portion from Elijah the Bible records twice as many miracles as Elijah.  Daniel refused to pray to anyone other than God, and became lion food, but God rescued him, and his accusers became lion food instead.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were faithful to God to the point of death in a fiery furnace.  Mordecai saved the life of the king, and was elevated to a position of power, despite that Haman sought his life and all the lives of the Jews.  Esther sought an audience from the king in order to save her people.  The list is endless of men and women who became great because they stood up for what they believed in, and they believed in God.



         The Man greater than them all is Jesus.



         He was the Son of God, but that isn’t why He is great.  Nor is it the fact that He can heal the sick, make the blind to see, or heal the lame.



         He isn’t great because He walked on water, calmed a storm, or payed taxes from a coin found in the mouth of a fish.



         He isn’t great because he fed four or five thousand people plus women and children with a few loaves of bread and some fish, and He isn’t great because He raised the dead.



         No.  What made Jesus great is that He, being sinless, took our sins on Himself.  He allowed Himself to be nailed to a wooden cross after He was whipped beyond recognition, spit upon, the hair of His beard pulled out, and a crown of thorns pressed into His skull.  He laid no charge against anyone who put Him there.  Instead He loved them while He hung there as the ultimate sacrifice for sin, and after carrying our sins on his back, He laid down His life, so He could take it up again on the third day.  No other man in history was raised from the dead in the manner Jesus was.  No other man in history rose from this earth back to heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us and promised to return in the same manner He left.



         He lived, He loved, He died, He rose again, and He’s coming back.



         That is what makes Jesus great.  That is why men fight wars in His name.  Why we sing praises to Him, why we dedicate our lives and our children to Him.  For an ordinary man would not be worthy of the accolades that we give to the One who is greater than all.  To the One who gave His life that we might live.



John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  (KJV)