This past semester I had “History of Christianity 1″ which follows church history from just after the time of the apostles through to the Middle Ages. In the first class, shared a little bit of how he got involved in studying church history. When he was in seminary, he was excited to study church history so that he might read and learn about the great heroes of the faith – those who had triumphantly walked before him for the sake of the cross. But he said something funny happened. Studying church history didn’t reveal these great heroes. Rather, it revealed frail, sinful human beings. Augustine was a sex addict. Christian churches fell into terrible heresies (Gnosticism and Marcionism especially). Of all the events in the church, probably none are worse than the Crusades. Listen to these words from Pope Innocent III following the 4th Crusade. “You (Crusades) have spared nothing that is sacred, neither age nor sex. You have given yourselves up to prostitution, to adultery and to debauchery in the face of the world. You have glutted your passions not only on married women, but upon…virgins dedicated to the Savior.” That’s right – Christian Crusaders raped NUNS!

The point is simple – church history is not filled with these noble, upright defenders of the faith – it is filled with frail, sinful people. But here is the joy for you and me – God works through sinful people to accomplish his good purposes! The Bible reveals the same pattern – David, Moses, Peter, Abraham, Jacob, Isaac, Paul and Matthew (and so many more). All of these men were sinful people used by a Holy God to accomplish his good purposes.

Here’s the particular reason I am wrestling with this right now. In January, my pastor is doing a series on “Heroes” where the main point of the series is that a hero is someone with clarity and courage. Clarity to see what is right and the courage to do it.

I am preaching one of the weeks of this series, but merely restating the call to clarity and courage seems to fall pitifully short to me. All the so-called “heroes” in the history of the church have failed miserably – and often when it mattered the most.

But there is one who had the clarity to see what was right and the courage to do it – Jesus Christ. The night he was arrested, he was wrestling with God in prayer and cried out, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Lk 22:42). Jesus saw the path that lied before him – persecution and execution. He was in anguish. He had the clarity. But he also had the courage. As Heb 12:2 powerfully proclaims, “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Jesus is the ultimate hero of the story. He had the clarity of future glory before him and the courage to endure terrible hardship because of it. And now, that Jesus, the Christ, dwells in us as believers giving us the clarity and courage to follow hard after him.

So I return to my initial question, what is a hero? A hero is a man or woman who, in confession and awe, falls to their knees knowing that the God of all the universe is using them to accomplish his good purposes.