As someone who spent a large part of my childhood in very conservative denominations, I have a bit of a tense relationship with the heroes of Scripture. When I come to Scripture, I see the heroes as the people I’m supposed to emulate, but I always know in my heart how far I’d likely fall short. Thank goodness for the Gospel.

Recently, my daughter was watching a video depiction of the fiery furnace; and, as in the flannel graph depictions in my childhood, the heroes of the story somehow find the moral courage to stand firm in their faith. All the attention remains on them throughout the narrative, and the closeup at the end is always on their faithfulness, with maybe a side-note about the effect a good Christian has in changing the hearts and minds of others. I can never find myself in the superhuman trio. The ones with iron wills.

I’ve always been the kid who can see the “bad guy” in my own heart. To be honest, when I picture myself in the story, it’s Nebuchadnezzar asking me to bow, and me going along with the crowd. I stand condemned for the weakness in my heart. But praise God that the character who changed the most in this story was Nebuchadnezzar, and surely there was room for the onlookers to change as well! Maybe this story, more than a story encouraging us to emulate the heroes who served God, is a story about how the enemies of God can change. Maybe there is hope for the “bad guys”! Maybe there is hope for weak me.

God’s stories are all about the sin and weakness even heroes fall prey to. Thanks be to God, in his decisive death blow to sin, Christ came on the scene. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he stared down death, willing to take on its pain to carry out God’s plan. He entered death, taking on the consequences of our sin, and of the sin of the Nebuchadnezzars of the word. He broke the power of death, and ever since then, he’s been redeeming those who know their weakness. The ones who let go of the sin that’s been driving them, and admit their foolishness. If you, like me, can identify with Nebuchadnezzar or his thousands of too-willing followers, let’s let that pull us to the heart of Christ. He’s ready to embrace us: even in spite of our moral weakness. That hope has the power to make us strong.