Heroic Losers

"Man has set for himself the goal of conquering the world but in the process loses his soul."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

When I was a child, possibly the late 1970's, there was a movie on television about the Elephant Man. To this day, I have never seen the movie - my mother evidently thought the Hollywood make-up artists had done too good of a job and made the actor too grotesque for a young boy.

Elephant Man

Although I don't remember much, I do remember hearing one line out of the movie spoken by the Elephant Man himself, 'I am not an animal. I am a man!'

While few think of the Elephant Man or his form today, in his time he stood as the extreme example of the great divide among mankind between humanity's winners and losers.
He was one of life's greatest losers - that is, according to the world, but not according to God.

The beautiful have always enjoyed rewards beyond the reach of the ugly.
The strong have always dominated the weak and wavering.
It is against this reality on Earth that God's Kingdom flies a flag of Divine Opposition.

In nature, animals will breed according to the beauty of the mate or its dominance; males will often kill any competitors for female affection.
In nature, animals will abandon their sick and lame.
Yet, unlike the rest of the world or what some scientist may tell you, we are not just mere animals because humans transcend that instinct.
And the reason we do is because we alone are the image bearers of God Himself.

Jesus was the first leader in history to recognize and develop the intrinsic value within every person; He was the first to conquer the world with a small group of "Heroic Losers."
When Jesus told stories, He did not honor the strong or the great; instead, He honored those on whom the visible world would place little value - the poor, the persecuted and social rejects.
Today some within the Church would call them, 'the wrong people.'

But to Jesus, they were exactly the right people to take His Gospel forward and within just a couple of centuries, they had indeed conquered the world for Christ.
It was these who chose the foolish things of the world and thereby became wise unto God.

John Merrick was the man better known as the 'Elephant Man.'
What most do not realize is that Merrick was literate and nearly an expert in the classics.
He wrote very little during his life, but what he did write left a message that he had found home in the Christian faith.
And rightly so, for the Christian faith is the faith which tends to gather outcasts.

The Lord has never and will never look only at what man sees on the outside.
God made this clear when David was anointed as His chosen King.

Scripture: 1 Sam 16:7
But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

This is still true today and our churches should remember this - our power and strength comes not from our own wisdom, our own manipulation; it comes from God Himself and it is because of His Will that we are able to stand against the world.
We should all remember - God has chosen us from where we are because He sees our heart and knows what we are capable of doing.

The people who did know John Merrick marveled that such a pure heart and gentle soul could live in a monster's body.
They failed to realize what we must learn about ourselves; we are all monsters within, it is just that nobody can see our true deformities.

Except God - and He called us to redeem those qualities into something valuable and heroic in His Kingdom.

What we can see on the outside, in the visible world, generally overpower and overwhelm those things of the invisible world, which are more meaningful but we cannot see.
Yet, it has been this way since the time of the Early Church.

Three centuries after Christ's ascension, Rome had become a Christian Empire and many felt Christians had become complacent.
This led some leaders to question if those who had grown cold in their faith were really Christians at all.

"We admire wealth equally with them (non-Christians) and even more. We have the same horror of death, the same dread of poverty...equally fond of glory...How then can they believe."

~ John Chrysostom

Physical or material qualities do not matter in the eternal realm of things - that was the point Chrysostom was making and millions of ministers have attempted to drive home since.
In my life, it dawned on my when I was sick and believed to be dying that in all the funerals I had officiated over the years, not once had I ever heard anyone eulogize the deceased and mention a bank account or their muscle tone.
The reason they are not mentioned is because these qualities will not endure.

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He instructed them to pray that God's will would be done, 'on earth as it is in Heaven.'
It is only through the Christian serving the Lord, that this can be accomplished; it is accomplished by setting aside what the world values and finding what God values, for God can see the heart.

Jesus sought the sick, not the healthy; He found the sinner, not those who were pure and righteous.
We must seek to do the same.

Jesse Jackson was once on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi; finding a very unusual sight.
He observed this student, who was obviously an athlete, standing about 6'8" tall hanging out with and caring for a female student who happened to be much, much shorter.
In fact, this person was what we would have called a midget years ago, topping out at the nosebleed height of 3'3".
In observing them, he could tell they knew each other and approached them; as it turned out they were brother and sister.
And when Jackson asked them about their relationship and if it seemed odd, given the height difference, the young man said: 
"Those of us who God makes 6'8" have to look out for those he makes 3'3".

That is the role of the Body of Christ, reaching for and lifting those who are hurting, lost and in need of the healing power of God on their souls to the Lord in compassion and grace.

As Christians we are the people who are the outcasts of society, and we always have room for one more.
The world may think we are crazy or off our rockers, believing that there is nothing of value in those who are rejected by society; but the truth is that we have become foolish and in doing so, we have become wise like those who came before us in the Early Church.

To paraphrase Fredrich Buechner, I would rather choose the lunacy of Jesus Christ sooner than the grim sanity of the world. 

Until next time, God's Speed to 130th AW/SFS deployed in theater; praying for all of you and a safe return.
Be sure to win one for the good guys.