April 16 - The True Man of Steel

The True Man of Steel

”When it came close to the time for his Ascension, he gathered up his courage and steeled himself for the journey to Jerusalem.” Luke 9:51 (Message)

Most may not be familiar with Joseph Campbell but his influence continues to this day.  Campbell taught in relative obscurity for many years until Bill Moyer discovered him and did a series on public television documentaries about Campbell's ideas about mythology and comparative religions, and thus elevated him into a semi-celebrity status. Most of it posthumously since Campbell died shortly after that television series. The book that caught Moyers’ attention was a book entitled, The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Incidentally, it also caught George Lucas's attention and was the inspiration for his film series, Star Wars…and many other Superheroes and noted characters which have this same underlying theme.  The thesis of that book is that the same story appears over and over again in the entire world's literature and truly originates in the Bible.  He called that story, The Hero's Quest as he suggested that the plot is always the same.

A hero must make a solitary journey, sometimes to climb a mountain to get the prize, sometimes to go to the cave to slay the dragon, or sometimes to journey the gates of the forbidden city.   See the pattern in our favorite stories…Luke Skywalker, Shrek fighting the dragon, Superman thwarting Lex Luther, Popeye defeating Bluto (after a can of spinach), Lord of the Rings, and “300” Spartans taking on the evil empire.  Whatever the symbol for that stronghold of the powers that threaten to undo us, the powers of evil, the powers that threaten to take away meaning and goodness in life, the powers that seem too strong for us and threaten to overwhelm us, the hero is the person who faces those powers, enters the struggle, prepared to give his or her life, and then comes out of it a new person, with a new life. He said those stories are everywhere. They are a part of every culture. In Greece, you see it as the Golden Fleece. In Britain, it is King Arthur’s legends and the Holy Grail. And in the Bible, it is the story of Gideon taking on the Midianites with the original “300.”  In some cases, it is Moses, leaving the comfort and security of shepherding in Midian to go to Egypt and confront Pharaoh. Or it is David, leaving the simple life of a shepherd boy and going out to meet the giant Goliath.

But the grandest of all stories is Jesus, Himself, leaving the safety of Galilee, and heading for Jerusalem with the will to face and overcome the cross, the enemy and all of hell’s fury.  After all, hell hath no fury like a scorned enemy.  For 3 ½ years, Jesus had been with the disciples teaching, performing miracles, healing and walking with a sinless nature before the Father…all with an intentional end in mind; a victory for you and me. Luke 9:51 puts it this way, ”When it came close to the time for His Ascension, He gathered up His courage and steeled Himself for the journey to Jerusalem.”  He had the cross in mind long before anyone else did.   And oh what a week it was.  Back then, these seven days were called Passover, as it is still called today by the Jews. Christians around the world know these seven days as Holy Week or the Passion Week.  

John Reed, was an American journalist who wrote a famous eyewitness account of the 1917 Russian Revolution titled, Ten Days That Shook The World. I suggest that what happened during that eventful week from Palm Sunday to Easter shook the world in a far greater fashion than any other human revolution. This one week in the life of Jesus our Lord changed our relationship to God and our understanding of the nature of God. It was The Week (actually eight days) That Week Shook The World. Here’s how they unfold:

1. On Sunday: On the first of the seven days, Jesus rode into Jerusalem
    on a donkey to the shouts of Hosanna, fulfilling an old prophecy in
    Zechariah 9:9.
2. On Monday:  He walked into the Jerusalem Temple overturning
    tables. 
3. On Tuesday:  Jesus taught in parables, warned the people against the

    Pharisees, and predicted the destruction of the Temple.
4. On Wednesday: The fourth day, we know nothing. The Gospel writers are

    silent. Perhaps it was a day of rest for Him and His weary and worried

    disciples.
5. On Thursday:  In an upper room, Jesus celebrated the Passover

     meal with His disciples. But He gave it a new meaning. No longer would His

     followers remember the Exodus from Egypt in the breaking of bread but they

     would remember His broken body and shed blood. Later that evening in the

     Garden of Gethsemane He agonized in prayer at what lay ahead for Him.
6. On Friday:  On the fifth day, following betrayal, arrest, imprisonment,
     desertion, false trials, denial, condemnation, beatings and sentencing, Jesus

     carried His own cross to The Place of the Skull, where He was crucified with

     two other prisoners.
7. On Saturday: Jesus lay dead in a tomb bought by a rich man named Joseph.
8. On Sunday: On Easter, the stone had been rolled away. Jesus was alive. He

     appeared to Mary, to Peter, to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and to

     the 11 disciples gathered in a locked room. His resurrection was established

     as a fact.

Finally, He comes spends the next 40 days before His Ascension telling His followers, “Now it’s your turn.” One author wrote, “Christians struggle to move out of the gospels and into the book of Acts in their personal lives.” We must move from the passive role of belief…to an active role of world changers.  Much like Campbell’s Hero With A Thousand Faces, we yield to The Hero With One Mission…salvation and transformation to millions who fall before Him in praise.  What else can we do than to worship this Man…the original “Man of Steel?”

Terry Risser

Reflections:

1)   During this Passion Week, take a few moments to quietly thank Him for His willingness to offer His all for you and me.

2)   Turn over whatever challenge you might face to the One who faced every challenge.

Consider reading the Word today:

 

Copyright 2014- Terry Risser