Editors' Note: In a survey in the United States by a university professor, three hundred and forty students were asked to name their top five heroes. The most frequent first choices were the students' own parents. Among the other ten most frequently named were the students' own grandfathers, Christ Jesus, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, and Abraham Lincoln.

According to "Where Have All The Heroes Gone?" The New York Times, July 31, 1985.

My initial interest in the life of Christ Jesus grew out of a fascination with his so-called miracles. When I began to learn in a Christian Science Sunday School that we could actually do the works he did—indeed, that we were expected to—I became intrigued with the prospect of performing such marvelous feats.

This was not surprising. As a youngster I spent hours daydreaming about characters who had extraordinary abilities, like comic book heroes. To a preadolescent what could be more exciting than tremendous strength, incredible speed, invincible power?

Later, as a teen-ager, I discovered in Jesus a real hero. Though not about to dump my comic book collection, I definitely was ready for something more than fantasy—something beyond fictional hero worship.

I was ready to learn of Christ, although I didn't realize this at once.

In her discussion of Jesus and the Christ in the Christian Science textbook, Mrs. Eddy states, "The corporeal man Jesus was human." ^{Science and Health, p. 332.} But were his abilities human or superhuman, I wondered? Again, Mrs. Eddy writes, "The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate the one Mind which makes and governs man and the universe." ^{Ibid., p. 539.} This is where the Christ comes in, presenting the true idea of man as God's spiritual expression. Jesus embodied the Christ, and it was this link with divinity that gave him the power he so abundantly demonstrated.

By consistently identifying himself, and others, as God's offspring, Jesus was able to bring a sense of dominion and harmony to apparently hopeless situations, regardless of what material evidence had to be changed. This included healing the sick, freeing the sinner, even raising the dead. Oftentimes these changes appeared to others to be miraculous. And no doubt some thought of Jesus as a kind of superman. Yet he himself said: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." ^{John 5:19.}

That Jesus had no interest in mere exhibitions of physical prowess was confirmed in his early wilderness experience (see Matt. 4:1-11). His purpose on earth was to bear witness to Truth, to God's allness and man's perfection as His offspring. Jesus' works ranged from restoration to resurrection, but they all pointed to the eternal fact of divine sonship—his sonship and ours. The Master's "Follow me" was not so much an invitation as a command. He knew man's abilities were God-given and expected their full demonstration.

In time I began to see that allegiance to the Master based simply on a desire to perform miracles would be pointless. My early interest in Jesus' career, focused primarily on the outward signs, kept my discipleship shallow. In effect, I thought he was just another hero to replace my comic book heroes. It wasn't until I began to take more seriously the demand to "worship the Father in spirit and in truth" ^{John 4:23.} that I caught a glimpse of true power as spiritual, the very expression of God, omnipotent Being. This carried me beyond captivation with miracles to a growing recognition of the authentic heroism in Jesus' life. And that was the action of Christ, the evidence of divine power in human experience.

Consider the unfaithful woman brought before Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. His simple response not only rescued her from the probability of a violent death but opened the way to freedom from the inevitable suffering of a sinful life. Jesus' compassion always revealed man's true innocence, whether that innocence was obscured by adultery or paralysis or blindness. ^{See John 8:1-11; 5:1-9, 14; 9:1-7.} And when we have, in a degree, this same Christly discernment of man's spirituality, we can follow in the Master's footsteps. We find we can love the neighborhood misfit as we behold not a mortal but God's perfect child. We are ready to exchange superficial contentment with passing grades and the "right" friends for spiritual satisfaction with values anchored in Mind's government. We seek the radiance of spiritual wholeness and let that embrace our needs for health and strength.

The challenges Jesus faced have some similarities to those confronting us today: identity crisis, loneliness, envy, fear, temptation. That he met challenges on a purely spiritual basis assured him a unique position. He was a hero, but his heroism was holy in motive and effect. And his expectation that his followers would do the works he did can inspire the kind of discipleship that goes beyond hero worship to genuine emulation. To that end Jesus promised that the Father would send the Comforter which would teach all things. ^{See John 14:26 .}

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, identified this Comforter as divine Science, and presented it to mankind as Christian Science, the complete statement of spiritual being and its method of demonstration. Jesus came not to promote a life style—traditional or alternative, Eastern or Western—but to reveal man's original and eternal oneness with God. And maybe we can say that our deepening receptivity to the Science of his works leads to a kind of spiritual heroism. Such holy heroism, whether shown in Jesus' works or our own, following his example, confirms the sublime message of God's love expressed in daily lives. And therein lies the hope for lifting not only ourselves but all mankind out of the self-defeating beliefs of material existence to the apprehension of true spiritual being.