An Unlikely Hero

My dear friends in Christ,

On May 1, 2008, Army Reserve 2^nd lieutenant Nathan Lund received the Soldier’s Medal for bravery and selfless performance in the face of danger. On August 1, 2007, Nathan maneuvered through smoke, dust, exploding vehicles, and tons of hanging debris in a valiant search for and rescue of critically injured survivors of the 35W bridge collapse. His wife Christine, a nurse, also assisted in caring for survivors. Both of them are considered heroes by our nation. If someone had said a month earlier to Nathan and Christine, “You’re going to be heroes for rescuing people after a terrible accident,” they probably would have said, “You’re crazy!” Unlikely heroes aren’t selected and prepared ahead of time for acts of heroism. They just do them. As we listen to God’s Word today, we’re going to see two unlikely heroes that God chose to carry out all of his plans.

The people of Israel didn’t need a hero. They already had one leading them. King Saul had crushed the enemies who had oppressed and terrorized them. He rescued an entire city from the army that besieged it. With the help of his son Jonathan they routed the Philistines. The Bible summarizes Saul’s heroic acts. "He fought valiantly and defeated them… delivering Israel from the hands of those who had plundered them." (1 Samuel 14:48).

There was just one problem with Israel’s reigning hero. Saul had disobeyed some of God’s direct commands. Instead of allowing the prophet Samuel to make the sacrifices before battle, Saul’s impatience led him to carry out the sacrifices before Samuel arrived. After the battle came to an end, Saul and his soldiers were to destroy everything that belonged to the opposing army. Saul kept some of the cattle and flocks, and allowed the enemy king to live—in direct disobedience to the LORD’s instructions. Because of Saul’s disobedience, the LORD sent Samuel to tell him, "But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command" (1 Samuel 13:14).

Here in 1 Samuel 16, the LORD told Samuel that it was time to anoint the one who would succeed Saul. Samuel wasn’t all that excited about the LORD’s plan. He knew how fiery Saul’s temper could become. He was afraid that Saul would have him killed. The LORD told Samuel to follow the plan. Samuel would go to Bethlehem and sacrifice to the LORD. Saul would assume the LORD had told Samuel to hold a special worship service, and ignore him. In safety, the LORD would show Samuel the one he had chosen. When Samuel arrived, he had everyone prepare themselves for the sacrifice and invited Jesse and his sons to participate.

When they arrived, Samuel saw the oldest, Eliab. He was tall and good-looking. Samuel thought, "Surely the Lord’s anointed stands here before the LORD" (1 Samuel 16:6). Then the LORD told Samuel where the measure of an unlikely hero could be found. "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). The LORD hadn’t chosen a man who would look good on the throne. He chose the one who was a man after his own heart. Eliab wasn’t the one. Neither were the next two brothers. Samuel met all 7 sons, but the LORD had not chosen any of them.

Samuel asked Jesse if there were any more sons. Jesse replied, "There is still the youngest, but he is tending the sheep" (1 Samuel 16:11). When the boy arrived, Samuel noted that he was ruddy—his skin was healthy and reddish, probably from being out in the sun all day long. He was handsome, and his eyes were bright and lively. The LORD told Samuel, "Rise and anoint him; he is the one" (1 Samuel 16:12). When Samuel anointed David with oil, the LORD designated him as Israel’s next hero.

Pretty unlikely hero, isn’t he? David was the youngest of 8 brothers. David was the brother sent out to watch the sheep. Outwardly, he appeared to be the least likely to serve as Israel’s next king. Who could imagine the work the LORD would accomplish through this humble shepherd? The last verse of our text says, "From that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power" (1 Samuel 16:13).

This shepherd-boy would stand before 9 foot tall Goliath, the Philistine champion, and declare, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands" (1 Samuel 17:45-47). This shepherd-boy would go on to become the greatest warrior-king Israel had ever seen, a humble leader, and a talented poet and musician. God made this unlikely candidate a powerful hero, someone to look up to, someone to imitate.

As amazing and unlikely a hero as David was, he could fall just as far and fast as he had risen to his position. He let his fame and power go to his head. He took advantage of a married woman, Bathsheba, and she became pregnant. Instead of admitting what he had done he plotted to have her husband—a faithful friend and soldier—murdered on the battlefield. The great king fell hard, so hard that the LORD’s prophet told him that he would die. David admitted that he had sinned against the LORD, and the LORD forgave him, but the unlikely hero had fallen.

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? We live in a society filled with heroes and role models who fall as easily as Saul and David. Tiger Woods and his troubles have been fodder for all the talk-radio stations.  He’s an example of a hero who doesn’t look very heroic, a victim of his position and sinful weakness. It’s easy to compare ourselves to King David, or Tiger Woods and feel pretty good about ourselves. After all, we haven’t fallen like they have. We aren’t as bad as they are.

Our lives look pretty good on the outside. We aren’t murderers like King David or unfaithful to our spouses like Tiger Woods. Don’t forget the LORD’s words to Samuel: “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). On the outside, we look like people who are kind and loving to each other. God sees our hearts—the anger, hurtful thoughts and snide comments that lurk beneath the surface, things that he calls murder. On the outside, we are faithful people who don’t give in to sinful desires. God sees our hearts—the place where lust can hide and no one else can see. On the outside we’re happy children who quietly and efficiently do what mom and dad ask us to do. God sees our hearts—the reluctance and stubborn resistance to mom and dad’s requests. God sees it all, and he doesn’t find anything good. He sees the hearts he saw at the time of the Flood: "The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time" (Genesis 6:5).

David was an unlikely hero in God’s family of believers. As great as he was, he couldn’t rescue himself from his sinful heart. He certainly can’t rescue us. Why would God choose such an unlikely hero? God used David as part of his greater plan. He would send another unlikely hero, one of David’s own descendants. Jesus, a young man from the house and line of David, stood on the shores of the Jordan River. His hands were rough and calloused from working in his father’s carpenter shop. He was a small-town boy from the northern province of Galilee—nothing heroic could come from there. He was the man Isaiah portrayed in chapter 53:  "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2). Jesus didn’t look like a hero.

Jesus still doesn’t look like a hero to the world. Even though many consider him a historical asterisk, a teacher whose time came and went, do you remember what the LORD told Samuel and us?  “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). Even though Jesus appeared to be an unlikely hero, the LORD knew better. When Jesus came up out of the water, the LORD made sure everyone knew who they were looking at. "The Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased’" (Luke 3:22). God had chosen another unlikely hero for service. Samuel had poured oil on David’s head. But, the LORD poured water and the Spirit on Jesus’ head. He marked him as the “Chosen One,” the Messiah.

Jesus is the hero who replaced David as the true Shepherd of God’s people. He said, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). Jesus laid down his life on the cross because he saw what we were like on the inside. He saw our anger, our lust, our stubborn streaks, and the evil that lives there. Jesus was willing to die so that our sins could be forgiven! Don’t forget that Jesus is the hero who would go to battle and destroy all of our enemies. The Bible tells us, "Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15). We don’t have to fear the devil and his temptations. Jesus has defeated him. We don’t have to be afraid of death. Jesus already went there and came back, alive!

That’s the kind of hero we need for 2010 and beyond. There’s an e-mail circulating right now with the prediction from a so-called terrorism expert that terrorists will launch another attack on American soil in the next few months. The e-mail is inaccurate, but we live under the constant threat of death. We don’t know what day will be our last. We don’t have to be afraid, no matter what bad news is out there today. We have a hero who can take care of us!

I asked the 8^th grade on Friday to define “hero.” They answered, “Someone who selflessly sacrifices to help someone else.” Isn’t that Jesus? The most unlikely hero of all? He selflessly sacrificed himself on the cross for the world. He rescued David, the unlikely hero king of Israel. He rescued the people David served, the descendants who came after him. He came to rescue us, and that makes him the greatest unlikely hero. Amen.