Suicide Squad and Hero Worship

We look up to our heroes, right? That's what we are supposed to do; I mean that's what they are there for isn't it? They are the ones that are supposed to be the gleaming example of how we can conquer over the dark times in our life. Heroes are supposed to be the ones that challenge us in our core to level up past what we are facing. Wow, start off on a positive note why don't ya; am I right? But, I think there is something to be ask here on what happens to us when our heroes fail? What happens to our core when we have someone that we look up to that lets us down or does something that breaks our faith in them? Really, it's devastating.... You're whole world feels like it is shook and you can feel directionless. The game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League hits this idea further, when you play as a villain and you are needing to take down heroes (Batman, Superman, The Flash, etc.) because they have been corrupted and are destroying the world. Like, that's just flipping the world upside down; where the bad guys are good and the good guys are bad. What's going on here?!?!?!

I feel like Paul would understand that feeling of having your world flip upside down when he met Jesus. After all the guy's mission was to hunt down the Christians and well... shut them down from sharing about Jesus by any means! Paul's mindset is that Jesus was a false teacher that was misleading his people (Jews) from the right path, until he meets Jesus face to face to see that Jesus is legit who he claimed to be. At that point Paul does a 180 and becomes the biggest advocate for Jesus to the point of going out to reach the Gentiles (Romans, Greeks, etc.) so that he can flip their world for Jesus. Yet, here in lies a problem that Paul later on addresses.  When you lead people into knowing Jesus, there can be a hero worship that happens because they are taking what you are teaching them and putting it into their lives. You become the example that people try to emulate and then they affiliate themselves to you.  This is why there is a warning to teachers that they will be judged more harshly when they meet Jesus at the end of time (James 3:1). 1 Corinthians 3 starts off with Paul being compared to Apollos (another Christian missionary) and his disciples and comparing who is better or more right in sharing Jesus. But, Paul says in verse 5 that it doesn't matter; they are both servants of God sharing the Good news and that really what matters is that Jesus is the foundation of it all (verse 11)! Paul was not looking for hero worship, he was focused on helping people focus on Jesus and following Him.

We are no different than the Corinthians.  We can get into this hero mentality of raising leaders higher than Jesus sometimes. Then when they fail, fall or goof (they are human after all), our faith gets broken and typically people leave the faith because their foundation was in someone other than Jesus. Jesus is the only person who is fully reliable to stand on and trust in. He is the only hero that will never let us down or is incorruptible.

Are you following someone so much so that if there was something that came out about them it would shatter your faith? How are you going to make Jesus the foundation of your faith and the example to focus on (Hebrews 12:2)? How are you cutting out the fake hero worship and focus on worshipping the true hero?

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