As a younger kid, I grew up admiring OJ Simpson, the great Buffalo Bills running back who was a star track and field athlete at USC and a Heisman Trophy winning football player. He was blessed with special talents, and was very handsome, wealthy, and seemed to be one of those people who had all the gifts. Then, in 1994, he was arrested for the murder of his former wife Nicole and a friend of hers, Ron Goldman. District attorney Gil Garcetti said it was, "the falling of an American hero." It felt a little like that to me.
Some people say you should never meet your heroes because they will always disappoint you. I have had that experience on a few occasions.
Heroes emerge because we need them. When there is a great tragedy in the world, like a depression or world war, we look to someone like President Franklin Roosevelt to lead us out of it. Yet, Roosevelt bowed to public hysteria and confined thousands of Japanese Americans to relocation camps where there were no criminal charges and no trials. That is a stain on our history. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson owned slaves. All of these leaders were fallible human beings who did great things in spite of their failings.
Jesus Christ is the hero I want to meet in person, and have no fear that He will disappoint me.
"1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."
As I was going through my divorce, I remember feeling very alone as well meaning people tried to pick apart my life and figure out how I had brought this tragedy upon myself. I am sure many of you have had the same experience.
"11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
In other words, Jesus suffered in every possible way that we will suffer so that He would gain a deep understanding of our pain and know how to help us. This includes the pain of separation from God, of physical sicknesses resulting from the fall, of an eternity in outer darkness. That is why Jesus is our hero. We could not have suffered these things for ourselves and probably wouldn't even try. When Alma really understood the enormity of his own sins, he exclaimed, "Oh, thought I, that I could be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my deeds" (Alma 36:16.)
If you are one of Jesus' disciples and have undergone a tragedy in this life--if a tower has metaphorically fallen upon you--it is not because you are more sinful than anyone else. Like everyone, you need to repent, and so do I. And you need to recognize that no good thing that comes into your life is the result of you being better than anyone else. God's eternal truth is that the tower will not fall on you. Why? Because Jesus Christ pushed you out of the way and let it fall on Him instead.
Mid-singles are not unique in their need for Jesus Christ. In some ways, mid-singles in the church are like the prostitutes and thieves and tax collectors Jesus hung around with. (See,e.g. Mark 2:15-17.) We are the people who can no longer present an image of perfection or Latter-day Saint idealism. Everyone needs Him, but the more recognizable sinners knew it and the self-righteous Pharisees did not.