Behind Bars With The Lord of the Rings: Part 3, The Heroes of the Story

In the prison bible study, after we talked about the ring and the temptations of power, we turned to the issue of heroism.

"Who are the heroes of this story?" I asked.

Well, there are lots of heroes in The Lord of the Rings. There's Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolos, Gimli, Faramir, Elrond, Éowyn, Treebeard. To name a few.

But the men in the study knew the right answer to the question.

"The hobbits," they answered, "the hobbits are the heroes."

"Correct!" I said, "But consider this: Think about how strange the hobbits are as heroes."

"Think about all the superhero movies that are being made," I continued. "All those superheros have some super power or ability. Superman, the X-men, Spiderman, Captain America, Flash, Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk. These superheros are, well, super. These superheros are above us, better than us. They can even fly.

"Now consider the hobbits. The hobbits are the weakest characters in the movie. They are small. They have no superpowers like Gandalf. They can't fight like the men, elves and dwarves. And yet, the hobbits are the heroes.

"Think about that," I said to the men, "think about how in The Lord of the Rings the weak become the heroes, how the weakest ones in the story overcome the strongest ones. Think about how of all the people in Middle Earth that it's the hobbits--the hobbits!--who defeat the Dark Lord.

"Can you see how very Christian this movie is? If you ever doubt it, just look at the heroes in the Marvel and DC movies and compare them with the hobbits of The Lord of the Rings.

"As it says in 1 Corinthians:

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important"