Jesus – our Hero on the Cross

Each October, we commemorate historical men and women of our nation whose outstanding heroism shaped and formed our collective consciousness as a unique people and whose legacies have helped direct the course of our pilgrimage as a nation down to the present day.

The annual bestowal of national awards serves to rekindle the spirit of our original heroes portrayed in the exemplary lives of Jamaican citizens today. Notwithstanding their laudable accomplishments, there is one hero who outranks them all: Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus is the quintessential hero whose spirit, words, actions, life, and death have ignited the Christian imagination for millennia.

But wasn’t Jesus accused of infidelity to his people’s religious laws and traditions? Didn’t his followers abandon him in utter fear and confusion when he was arrested and tortured for defying the Roman and Jewish authorities? Didn’t he fail to bring about His kingdom? What then makes him a hero?

Jesus stirred the imagination of the thousands who longed for an authentic protagonist of their hopes and dreams.

Jesus was the voice that articulated the cries for justice and mercy from those deprived of these basic goods for human flourishing.

Jesus was the prophet who courageously proclaimed truth to power in ways no Pharisee, scribe, high priest, or Levite had ever done. He fulfilled the ideals and expectations of the ancient prophets and patriarchs. He brought the Laws of Moses to completion with His greatest Commandment of Love.

Jesus was the rabbi who preached and taught with a conviction and confidence that eclipsed that of the scribes and pharisees.

As a profoundly humane person, Jesus showed humility, empathy, and passion in ways no other man had ever shown by washing the feet of His followers, weeping at the death of His friend Lazarus, allowing women to get close to Him, which presaged women’s rightful place alongside men, unimagined anywhere on Earth.

Jesus was the first advocate of children’s rights when he said,“Let the children come on to me, for it is to such as these the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

Jesus mixed and mingled with all levels of society, unfettered by the scrutiny and negativity of his critics.

By feeding the multitudes with five loaves and two fish, Jesus introduced the concept of economies of scale, telling his disciples“You feed them yourselves.”

On the day of his arrest and at the hours of his trial and final condemnation, Jesus showed the mettle of a true hero who suffers and dies for his people. And not only his people, but for all the peoples of the world!

On the cross, Jesus delivered up the most searing sermon to excite the hearts and minds of men with: “Father forgiven them, for they know not what they do.”

Jesus is our Hero on the Cross, embodying, par excellence, the noblest ideal “greater love hath no man, than to lay down his life for his friends.”And the Father awarded him the highest Order of Distinction by raising Him on to eternal life.

Fr Hayden Augustine MOP