This Christmas, we once more remember the birth of the One Who died in payment for the penalty for our sins. The purest for the filthiest.  His life for our salvation.  His love for our forgiveness.

Although not all believed Him, He still spoke the truth.  And to those who believe His words and His very person, He gives the gift of eternal life.

If everybody agreed with the Lord Jesus, there wouldn’t have been the Cross.  He spoke of things many didn’t want to hear, and they thought they could silence Him by execution.

But the words He had spoken took wing in the hearts and minds of those who listened to Him and believed in Him.  And the message of the Cross on which He was nailed to die echoed loud and clear down the centuries. 

In this same holiday season, the Filipinos also remember the execution of another person who communicated boldly the truth so that our people’s minds and hearts would be set ablaze, fired up enough to break from the shackles of centuries of oppressive colonization.  His name is Jose Rizal, whose executioners didn’t allow him to see another new year. 

His execution on December 30, 1896 was one of the catalysts of the Philippine Revolution against the Spanish colonial authorities. His executioners, no one remembers except in infamy.  But Rizal’s written words live on.  He continues to be relevant to our nation, and his words have become fundamental in the conscience of the Filipino.

Jesus Christ.  Jose Rizal.  We call them heroes.  We extol them.  But during their times, they were considered subversive and were executed as criminals.

Jesus Christ didn’t take up a sword.  On the contrary, He was pierced with a sword as He hung on the Cross.  Jose Rizal didn’t take up a rifle.  On the contrary, he was executed by a firing squad.  Yet these men caused revolutions that were needed to set people free.  Their weapon was truth spoken despite threat to their lives.  They shook people out of their slumber, their fear, their surrendered state, and they gave views that opposed the status quo.

These days, we have new heroes – Filipino journalists killed because they were out in the field seeking for the truth and wanting to get the truth published.  To speak and write the truth comes at a high price, sometimes one’s very life. Why can’t we just plainly hear and respond positively to the truth?

Must truth make a hero? 

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