Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: April 2003

Heroes?

Commenting on the daring raid to recapture Private Jessica Lynch in Southern Iraq, Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson said that "America doesn't leave its heroes behind, never has, never will." Whilst this may be true of American military strategy, at least in the public eye, it is not a general rule. We do leave our heroes behind, with monotonous regularity. Sometimes we leave them behind because they go out of fashion or fall from grace. At other times, our own changing perspective makes yesterday's heroes look like today's embarrassment. How many Views readers have a stash of old pop posters put away somewhere out of sight but not entirely out of mind?

As the early Church grappled for ways to describe the selfless life and sacrificial death of Jesus, remarkably little use was made of the heroic images which the Greek world could have given them. Why was this? Surely it was because the life and death of Jesus was of a different order to any other form of self-sacrifice, either before or since. His lifelong awareness of his own death, together with his generous prayer for his own executors set him apart. To describe him as a hero might also have meant that one day he would be left behind for another one.

Set against the bloody backdrop of warfare in the Gulf, there will be many acts of simple kindness and outstanding bravery. Goodness will stand out amongst the destruction, like the silence of a makeshift burial service against the noise of battle. To depict those who show goodness as heroes would be an oversimplification. All men and women are capable of great good and great evil. None of them are capable of goodness all the time.

For Christians, the only true hero is Jesus, although he would doubtless eschew such a title. Whatever they call him, the most important thing is that they don't leave him behind! As events unfold in Iraq, the prayers of thousands are with those who suffer on every side.