The Ultimate Desire of All Nations

The legend of Robin Hood is one of the most enduring stories in Old English folklore. The idea of a common man and his band of righteous renegades battling corrupt leadership on behalf of the exploited poor will never lose its appeal. It will be told and re-told. The world loves its heroes and superheroes and they are never far from our collective conscience whether they are in our imaginations, books or on the big screen. 

Heroes, especially flawed ones, are pretty much the basis of the stories we tell, read and watch, and the human family is all about its stories both real and fiction. Hollywood has created a monolithic industry based on them. Virtually every movie that has ever come out is about good versus evil in some way with good winning, at least most of the time. This is true of Superman and Batman right on down to Pippi Longstocking and Bugs Bunny. 

The Bible itself is a book of stories filled mostly with historical accounts as well as lesson-stories called parables. In fact, the Bible is not just a book, it is a collection of books - a library - revealing to us the greatest story ever told. From beginning to end it is about its central figure, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End of all things, Jesus Christ. We are introduced to Him in the first sentence of the Bible, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." All creation was as good as goodness could be until sin entered it via the serpent with the permission of man. Hence began God's plan for conquest over sin (Genesis 3:15) and the titanic, multi-layered struggle between good and evil. This is a battle that is ingrained in the heart of every man, woman and child who has ever lived. Every day we live it somehow and every day, regardless of our claims to the contrary, we confess the Good behind the good and the unseen Truth behind the truth we see. This is because God has placed in each person a conscience, an awareness of this Good and a certainty of its existence, however murky. Even when we suppress it, we are acknowledging it because if it didn't exist, there would be nothing to suppress.

We need our heroes. They inspire us to battle our world's villains and our demons within. In echoes from our pre-fallen humanity, we love the innocent and want to see them prevail. And we want to see evil trounced. Let us consider, though, that our heroes themselves are just mere heart-echoes of the Hero of heroes. Our deep-seated desire for victory is really a desire for His ultimate victory, a victory already won by Him. This is what we are acting out and can't stop acting out... and this is how even our sinful world, with all its insolence and misery, ultimately bears witness to its very good Maker. Pity on us if we assume that goodness is not His but our own.