The Sign of Jonah: Heroes with Defects

As we continue looking at the hero’s journey, we begin to find that that heroes come in several flavors:

● The archetypal hero is without flaws and always makes the right choice. He is Jesus; he is Superman who can handle any obstacle; he is the classic cowboy in the white hat who shoots the bad guy, kisses the girl, and rides off into the sunset.


● The antihero is not the opposite of the hero (certainly not the villain) but rather a hero who deviates significantly from the pattern of the archetypal hero and yet is still the hero. He is Jonah who refuses the initial call and despises the Ninevites even after they repent; he is Batman, a hero with a dark side; he is the vigilante cowboy (like most Clint Eastwood westerns) who is wanted by the law, even as he brings his version of justice to a lawless West.


● The tragic hero is one having the potential to be a hero who makes a critical mistake leading to his downfall; frequently, not always, the hero’s flaw is pride, or arrogance. He is Saul who is anointed king, but simply cannot wait on God’s timing; he is Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) who takes justice into his own hands; he is Little Bill, the sheriff in Unforgiven, who misses many chances to bring justice in the town he is supposed to protect.


What sort of “heroes” do we find in our stories today?


In ancient Greece, Orpheus, son of the muse Calliope, was called “the father of song” and was the master of the lyre. Ancient poets claimed that he could charm wild animals, coax trees and rocks to dance, and even convince rivers to change their course.


The most famous story about Orpheus is the death of his wife Eurydice. Orpheus loved his wife, and would play songs for her while she danced in the meadows. However, one day a satyr spied Eurydice dancing and chased after her, and in her haste to escape, she stepped on a poisonous snake, which bit her on the heel and she died. Orpheus was devastated, and in his grief the songs that he sang were so poignant, so mournful, that all the gods wept. They told him to go to the underworld to bring her back.


Orpheus, a mortal, journeyed to the underworld charming all the demons and monsters along the way with his songs until he stood before Hades, god of the underworld, and his wife Persephone. Their hearts were softened by his music, and they permitted him to retrieve Eurydice and take her back to the surface—on the condition that he would walk in front of her and not turn to look at her until they had both returned to the upper world. All was well—until Orpheus reached the surface, and in his passion and love for Eurydice, he forgot his charge, turned and looked, only to see her vanish and return to the underworld forever.


By one account, Orpheus was so distraught that he poured out his grief in song. During his throes of grief and song, a band of maenads (e.g. party girls; literally, “the raving ones”) came upon him. As was their custom, they tried to kill him with sticks and stones, but his music was so beautiful the sticks and stones refused to touch him. Enraged by this, the maenads shrieked loudly so as to not hear his music. Thus immune to his charms, they charged him, dismembered his body and threw it in the river, even as his head and lyre continued to play.


Read Genesis 19


Lot and his family receive a call—an urgent summons to leave town, a chance to escape the inhospitable and unrighteous world they call home and go to a better, safer, place. How will their hero’s journey turn out?


Lot is generally considered a joke. Lot tries to do the right thing, but somehow always get it wrong in the end. In the inhospitable land of Sodom, Lot offers the angels asylum; in fact, he persists after their initial rejection and finally they accept. (Did he suspect what would happen is they remained overnight in the square?) He attempts to dissuade the gang that comes to his door, but then everything goes amiss. Ironically, he offers up his two married daughters, perhaps indicating the low regard he had for his daughters and certainly foreshadowing the disastrous end of the chapter.


Lot is a joke to his son-in-law (v14). Moreover, despite the repeated warnings by the angels, in the end they must physically escort Lot, his wife, and his daughters out of the city (v16) Don’t miss the aside at the end of this verse “for the Lord was merciful to them.” Throughout this story, God brings good in spite of the weakness—and sin—of those who claim to follow him.


Lot’s weakness is a continual joke throughout the story. Even after he is escorted from the city and told to flee, he says he cannot make it to the mountains. He asks for a small town to be spared so he can flee to it. Ironically, Lot in his weakness saves more lives than Abraham in his righteousness could save in Gen 18. Abraham could not save Sodom, but Lot saved Zoar through God’s mercy.


At this point in the life of this church, what might God be able to do with us in our weakness, our smallness, that he did not do when we were larger, more prosperous, and (on the surface) more righteous?


As they flee, burning sulfur rains down on the town, and Lot’s wife forgets (or ignores?) the warning of the angels and looks back. She is looking back to her past. She is looking back at her family which stayed behind. She is looking back at her doom.


At this point in the life of this church, I counsel you not to look back. I am leaving, but nothing good will come of looking back to what was. You will not help the new pastor by looking back to how things were under Pastor Chip.


We the survivors make it to a cave, Lot’s daughters back a grave mistake. They understandably think the world is destroyed—all they can see are smoldering ruins of the valley—and they take it upon themselves to preserve the human race. Their sin is on of arrogance, thinking that the future depends on them and not on the mercy of God.


At this point in the life of this church, I counsel you not to think the future depends on you. The future of this church is on God’s hands. Wait on his timing. Wait on his mercy. Do not trust in your understanding, but on the power of God to make things happen.


The power of God to bring good from our weakness and error is incalculable. Consider this: from the incest of Lot and his daughters came Ruth, a Moabitess and the ancestor of David, and Naamah, an Ammonite, the mother of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. Therefore, it can be said that Jesus is not just a son of Abraham, but of Lot.


Point to Ponder


So what kind of heroes are Lot, his wife, and his daughters: antiheroes or tragic heroes?


Benediction


I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-6)