It's rather interesting that all ready we have several blogs on the "kick-ass" Messiah. ^^; As soon as I read it I knew this one was gonna be an interesting topic.
It is rather intriguing this notion of what Hollywood thinks of as heroes, as well as Messiah's. Dictonary. com says that a Messiah is a "An exceptional or hoped for liberator of a country of people." This can mean a lot of different things. Peaceful liberators in the real world are often the most praised. We even have a specific award for this type of thing, the Noble Peace Prize. Peace is not a quality of weakness, rather a quality of strength, at least according to most people.
The article mentioned two things, reluctance, and bad-ass-ness. (If that's a word. I question that. xD) The first thing that came to mind to me was Aragorn, from Lord of the Rings. Interestingly, in the books, Aragorn never questioned his Royal Heritage. He was simply waiting for the opportune moment. Rather than reluctant and insecure of his position, he was patient.
In comparison to the movies, where he is reluctant to pick up the responsibility and his Royal Heritage, the books portray a much more confident leader.
Why do we have this idea that insecurity/reluctance is a more noble goal than accepting who you are?
I don't know for sure, as per usual. However, I do wonder if maybe it has something to do with a similarity factor?
http://www.crosswalk.com/family/parenting/low-self-esteem-at-crisis-levels-for-girls-11582765.html
Above is a link about self-esteem issues, which run rampant in our culture. Maybe if our Messiah is reluctant or thinks that he cannot take on this full responsibility because he's not good enough, we will feel safer. Because now he is more like us. This is someone who knows our woes, who can relate to us. Or so we think anyway.
It's an interesting paradox, because we are constantly searching for our place in this world. If this is true, which most people would agree to this, why do we go for a leader who hasn't figured this out yet? If our leader doesn't understand his place in this world, then how can he lead?
Part of being an effective leader is the knowledge that you can lead well. (which seems like a no-brainer, but it's the truth.) Something else that plays a factor I think is this idea that our leader does not want to be power hungry. This in itself is a very noble quality. There is something to be said for not accepting the power that has been given to you though. If power has been rightly given, and you do nothing with it, or are too reluctant to use it that you waste it, what good is that?
In terms of bad ass ness...hm...I'm not really sure about that one. xD I feel like that's really how you define it. Jesus Christ shook up the whole religious system back in the day. He really sort of was a super star (or kind of a rock star). If you consider the fact that Jesus brought a new idea to people that changed their entire outlook on life, as well as changed the culture forever, inspiring not just Christians, but also several other global religions, I would say that's pretty bad ass.
Over all, I feel like someone who knows that they have all of the power in the world, and then willingly gives it up to save something that they love so dearly is kind of awesome. It's so much more powerful to have a leader who knows that he has the authority and right to take charge, but decides to show mercy instead. To me, that's sort of bad ass.
Then again, that's just me. xD
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