Heroics

Rhona Cathcart September 07, 2024 3 5

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Galatians 2: 14 (NIVUK)

14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, ‘You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?

In my acting days, it was always much more fun to play a villain than a hero. This is just as well, as I was virtually never cast as the the young, innocent ingenue!

It’s curious, isn’t it, how the bad guys in fiction often seem more interesting than the good guys. In real life, as philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out, evil can appear in quite ordinary, even banal, guises.

I suspect one reason fictional heroes can seem dull is that they tend to be very sure of themselves and are often exasperatingly right all the time. Fictional villains are allowed more flaws and mistakes and that makes it easier for us to identity with them.

One of the things I love about the Bible is that its heroes often wear their flaws quite openly. Peter (Cephas) was Jesus’ ‘rock’, but he wasn’t always firm in sticking to his principles. However, our texts don’t let him get away with it. Up pops Paul to call him to account, thereby balancing our knowledge of Peter from the Gospels and Acts.

I suspect Paul was hard work sometimes. He had plenty of his own flaws to keep him interesting! It’s important to read his letters as a whole, as well as his recorded deeds in Acts if we want to have a chance of understanding this passionate, complex, contradictory man.

But whatever his flaws, like all true heroes he stuck to what he knew was his mission and purpose, namely to make sure that everyone — Jew or Gentile — knew that nothing could separate them from God’s love through Jesus.

Prayer:

Unifying God

Most of us aren’t heroes

Most of us aren’t villains

Most of us are a bit of both.

Thank you that you neither ignore our flaws nor condemn us for them.

Instead you show us all that is true, all that is honourable, all that is just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent.

You show us Jesus. You show us love.

Amen