Imagine for a moment that you are given the chance of a lifetime. You have been given the opportunity to write the screenplay for the next Hollywood blockbuster. You start with the hero. Who is he or she? What are they like?

Are they among the best of the best of our armed forces, trained, experienced, tough, ready to take on all challenges? Are they a lost prince or princess, denied their birthright, but guided by wizards and dragons to their ultimate destiny? Are they an ordinary person infected by radioactivity that gives them superpowers, making them able to fight crime in ways normal police cannot? Whatever you decide, I suspect several things will be true no matter what. They will be strong. They will be good looking. They will be courageous. And they will win.

Our culture has, in a lot of ways, programmed every one of us to expect this from our popular entertainments. When we read books, our minds fill in the blanks with what we think that character looks and sounds like. We are often surprised, and maybe even disappointed, when we see an actor or actress that doesn’t seem to fit our image of that hero when that book is translated to screen.

But in real life, heroes rarely fit the mold we expect of them. They are not always strong, at least not physically. They are not always good looking. Sometime their courage fails them. And how they win, well, it’s not always by riding off into the sunset victorious over the bad guys. Sometimes it’s something else.

But we at times can get confused between the hyper-stylized worlds of page and screen and the heroes therein and what makes a hero in real life. Our expectations are sometimes too high or off-base, and the hero we encounter is a bit of a surprise to us. Someone unexpected.

There is a character in our Gospel story today who falls into that very trap. The Bible doesn’t tell us a whole lot about the man named Nathaniel, but John’s Gospel gives us enough information to make some solid guesses as to who and what he is. There is talk of how he spends time “under the fig tree.” Fig trees are known for their shade; they create a nice quiet place for one to study. Many have suspected that Nathaniel is something of a scholar, perhaps studying about the very Messiah he is about to encounter.

But when his friend Philip comes to him with news that this Messiah has been found, Nathaniel scoffs. How could the hero he has been awaiting, studying about, expecting, be a mere peasant from that backwater known as Nazareth? People from Nazareth aren’t strong. They aren’t courageous. They certainly aren’t good looking. The Messiah should be from someplace important, like Jerusalem. No one from Nazareth is going to win in the end. They’re nobodies.

Curious to see this abomination that Philip has discovered, Nathaniel gives in at least to his curiosity and goes to see this Jesus of Nazareth. “An Israelite in whom there is no deceit,” Jesus says of Nathaniel, rather complimentary of Nathaniel obvious bigotry and elitism. It is true, of course. No deceit at all. Nathaniel seems to lack the tact to hide his disdain of people from Nazareth.

Disdain or no, Nathaniel’s curiosity about Jesus heightens and he asks of him, “How do know this about me?” Jesus’ answer is about the fig tree, and is a way of saying, “I know you have been looking for me, waiting for me.” And in that moment, Nathaniel’s disdain fades. He realizes he’s been wrong and that this Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the hero, he’s been awaiting.

How often do we fall into the same trap? Blinded by our own expectation of who are heroes are meant to be, do we miss seeing them when they come forth to change the world?

Tomorrow is the commemoration of Martin Luther King’s birthday. There is also an example of a hero unexpected. He was not physically strong. He was not always courageous; he had his moments of weakness. And for many, he was not good looking. So many could not see past the color of his skin. And did he win? He was gunned down by an assassin’s bullet. But he was a man, called by God, to change the world and to make this country into what it was meant to be. And he died long before he saw his dream of racial equality come to pass. But on Tuesday, the day of the Inauguration, the day after we remember Brother Martin’s legacy, we are going to take a mighty leap forward.

Heroes are not always what we expect.

Because God doesn’t care about what we expect. God looks at the heart, looks at the potential of a person, and calls them based upon those qualities. Not on their looks, their strength, their popularity, where they were born, their bloodlines, and all the other petty things we use to define heroism. God calls the unexpected to be his heroes.

And when God’s call comes to you, do not be so quick to dismiss it because you are not what you expect of a hero. Do not dismiss it because you don’t think you’re strong. Do not dismiss it because you don’t think you’re good looking. Do not dismiss it because you are afraid.

God knows what he’s doing and time and time again, he has called the unexpected to his service. He called Moses the stutterer to demand “Let my people go.” He called Saul the persecutor to take his Gospel to the Gentiles. He called Peter the fool to lead his disciples. He called David the adulterer to be king over Israel. And he called his son out of Nazareth to go to the cross to die for all the world. None of these heroes was quite what people expected. Maybe you’re not either. Maybe I’m not. But God is calling us to do remarkable things. Calling us to change lives. Calling us to change the world.

We are his heroes. And we are strong, because he makes us so. We are courageous, because he gives us his Spirit. And we are good looking, for we have been created in his image. And we will win, because Christ lived, died, and rose again. Amen.