Heroes do exist

So, that little movie The Avengers is doing okay, huh?
Actually, it's fantastic, but that's not why we're here this morning. Whether intentional or not, this movie brings back an ideal that has so much scriptural meaning I scant even know where to begin.

At the end of the story in The Avengers, the group of heroes is ready to sacrifice their lives to stop the evil force threatening Earth, which is led by the demonic figure from Norse mythology, Loki. In fact, during the climactic battle, one of the heroes will have to risk his own life in order to save everyone else.

This notion of sacrifice has become a frequent theme in many recent superhero stories, from Spider-Man 2 to Captain America and The Green Lantern. In fact, one might say that sacrifice is in the very DNA of nearly all stories about superheroes and heroes.

Actually, it’s such a central motif that one of the people Movieguide helped inspire with our work, film scholar Dr. Stan Williams, wrote that in many stories, not just stories with heroes in them, sacrifice is a key theme in Act 2 and 3 of many stories, including movies like The Avengers.

As such, the theme of sacrifice is part of a narrative structure that reflects the “greatest story ever told”—the story of Jesus Christ’s birth, teaching, suffering, sacrifice, death and resurrection. The whole structure may be outlined as follows:

Promise, Birth, Suffering, Sacrifice and Resurrection/Redemption.

In Luke's Gospel, the final chapter, Jesus makes sure we understand what the plan for his life was all along: “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.”  Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day ..."

Yesterday I read this story: A roofer in New Jersey reportedly jumped into a vat of nitric acid on Monday to save a co-worker who had fallen in. Martin Davis was working at Swepco Tube LLC, a metal tube manufacturing plant in Clifton, N.J., when he fell 40 feet into the tank of acid and became full submerged, fire officials said. Clifton Fire Chief Vincent Colavitti Jr. said that a fellow roofer, 51-year-old Rob Nuckols, jumped into the vat waist-high to pull Davis, 44, out. Three other workers helped Nuckols pluck Davis from the acid, which is used to clean metal tubing. Rescue workers "cut Davis out of his clothes and sprayed him with water to limit burns," Colavitti said.

I believe true heroes are much of what the world is lacking. That's why when we see sacrifice, we should celebrate with all our core. It's Jesus-like.