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We Want Our Gods to Walk Amongst Us…Until They Do
Posted by Roger Dickinson on 17 October 2024, 09:50 SAST
Throughout history, human beings have longed for divine intervention. We’ve imagined gods, heroes, and supernatural beings who could suddenly appear or come down from their heavenly realms to walk amongst us, help us face the trials and struggles of daily life, and ultimately 'save us"!
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We crave the strength, wisdom, and power of those who are better than us, to fix what we cannot. We want them to tell us what do, when to do it and how - so we don't need to!
We treat sports stars, actors and genius entrepreneurs in the same way these days.
But it doesn't stop there...
Swop out 'gods', for your boss, pastor, political candidates
But when they do—when gods descend, heroes rise, or leaders emerge—we often reject them, turning against those who remind us of our limitations. This paradoxical cycle is as old as humanity itself, echoed in myth, history, and modern culture.
The human obsession with their god - real or imagined comes a long way
In ancient Greek mythology, the gods were not distant or detached. They walked among mortals, intervening in human affairs with alarming regularity. Zeus, Hera, Athena, and others meddled in wars, punished or rewarded humans, and sometimes even loved them.
Some of their interactions were...well...let's say strange at best, horrific at worst. Rape, kidnapping, incest, having vultures eat your liver for eternity!
Humans prayed to them for favour, offering sacrifices and praise in hopes of protection, blessings, or vengeance against enemies.
Yet, when these gods did show up, mortals often came to regret their presence. When the gods like Hera, Demeter, Ares or Dionysus showed their true colours they were quickly despised and rejected by humans.
Jesus: Only 5 days between Palm Sunday and Good Friday!
This theme is not confined to myth. Although significantly different to the Greek examples, the life of Jesus offers a powerful reflection of this human tendency to desire divine intervention, yet ultimately reject it when it arrives. On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem to the adulation of crowds. They hailed Him as a king, laying palm branches before Him, hoping that He would liberate them from Roman rule and restore their national pride. They wanted a hero—a messiah who would bring justice and victory, much like a king leading his people to triumph.
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Yet, just five days later, those same crowds turned on Him. When Jesus failed to meet their expectations of political revolution and military might, the people rejected Him. Instead of delivering them from their earthly oppressors, He preached love, forgiveness, and a kingdom that was "not of this world." The crowds, disillusioned, cried for His crucifixion. The irony is profound: they wanted a saviour to walk among them, but when He did, they chose to destroy Him.
The Modern Pantheon: Stars, Leaders, and Heroes
Fast forward to the modern world, and we see the same dynamic at play in our obsession with celebrities, sports stars, political figures, and business moguls. We elevate these individuals, projecting onto them the qualities of gods and heroes. They become the vessels for our hopes, the ones we expect to solve our problems, entertain us, or inspire us to greater heights.
Take sports stars like LeBron James or Cristiano Ronaldo. We adore their talent and strength, expecting them to carry the weight of our collective aspirations—be it national pride or the success of our favourite teams. Yet, when they falter, the same fans who once idolized them turn on them, quick to criticize, cancel and tear them down. Pop stars and actors live under similar scrutiny. They are celebrated as near-mythic figures but are also subject to fierce backlash the moment they reveal their humanity or fail to meet our impossible standards.
For evidence just go to your favourite social media platfrom.
X (Twitter) seems to do this tearing down better than the others.
Politicians and business leaders fare no better. Take Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates as examples, get hailed as visionaries. But when their decisions are controversial or their plans stumble, the same public that once lauded them as geniuses, are eager to denounce them. Barack Obama or Donald Trump, (or pick any political leader) depending on one’s political perspective, are either seen as saviours or the embodiment of failed leadership—often by the very same electorate that once voted them into power.
Now take a step closer to home and see how we treat our bosses or managers, pastors or priests or local leaders in the same way.
Hero one minute- zero the next!
Pay my salary and give me a raise - I'll love you forever. Be a day late with that very same salary - and my life falls apart and so does my love for you.
Inspire me spiritually and I'll bow at your feet. Say or preach something I don't like, ask me to be uncomfortable - and suddenly...well...I aint bowing!
What does this all reveal? There’s something deeply human in our desire for larger-than-life figures to walk amongst us, to bring order to our chaos. We crave their intervention when the world feels too overwhelming for us to handle alone. Yet, when these figures do arrive, whether divine or human, we are quick to reject them the moment they fail to live up to our expectations or, worse, reveal our own limitations.
Ultimately, the problem isn’t with the gods, heroes, or leaders we create—it’s with the unrealistic expectations we place on them. And with Us!
We want them to be perfect, to fix what we can’t, and to bear the weight of our hopes. But when they do come down to walk amongst us, we find that their power, wisdom, or fame doesn’t remove our struggles.
Instead, it reflects the complexity of life back at us, reminding us that no hero—divine or human—can make everything right.
The real challenge is firstly learning to accept their humanity and their limitations.
But maybe...more importantly the lesson here is, to not give over our agency and responsibility to others - gods or otherwise!
Selah!
