Behold the MAN

Betio. On November 20, 1943, this tiny island in the Tarawa Atoll was hell on earth, both for the Japanese who garrisoned it and the Americans who stormed ashore. A place no man or woman would go by choice. Tough U. S. Marines, young, strong men, who just hours before had been laughing, joking, boasting of what they would do on the morrow, cowered now behind the doors of their landing craft, praying that there would be some malfunction, that the door wouldn't open, that their craft would have to return to the mothership.

Men, real men, who had stared death calmly in the face a thousand times in imagination, a dozen times in reality, hunkered down and vomited on themselves. And their prayers were not answered affirmatively. Their craft ran up to within a hundred yards of the beach, and the terror-stricken pilots cut the engines and dropped the ramps, screaming at their human cargo to "GO! GO! GO! Get off!" And men whose only wish was to be anywhere else in the world jumped into the reddening water and swam, waded, slogged their way, dodging bullets and mortar shells, watching buddies and strangers being cut in half, listening to the screams of the dying.

Amid the terror and the carnage a few men stood tall, seemingly unafraid. Lieutenant William Deane Hawkins was one of these. They say he rode his amtrac into battle standing tall like the legendary Hector of Troy in his chariot. Friends said he never expected to survive the war. On the 21st, after destroying several gun emplacements, he was nailed by a mortar and died. After the battle the Betio airstrip was named Hawkins Field in his honor.*

As the son of a World War II soldier I grew up with definite mental images of what a real man is: Tough, strong, ready to fight and kill to defend his country. The boys in our neighborhood played Soldier, Cops and Robbers, and Cowboys and Indians, killing and wreaking mayhem by the hour. We had little time for the girls, who liked to play House, inviting their dolls to tea parties, and picking up their toys and hugging and kissing them, and telling them "I love you."

Then my mother started taking me to Sabbath school where the ladies in charge of the Kindergarten talked about Jesus and love and other things that didn't interest me. They also taught me to sing "Jesus Loves Me." Men never went into that room. They didn't talk or sing about loving anyone, as far as I knew.

I soon discovered that other children in our neighborhood knew the song too, and sometimes they would sing it as we played on the swing set in our back yard. But the boys--who were all older than I--always sang the last line of the first stanza "He is weak, but they are strong!"

I didn't think it was right to do that. But it helped to confirm in my mind that being a boy, and growing into a man, was about being strong, not about loving people. This Jesus must not have been a real man. And certainly not someone a real man would want for a friend. Even after I gave my heart to the Lord at age 18, I spent much of my time reading about the Old Testament God--a man's kind of a God, who spoke by fire and sword--who taught David "to make war," and strengthened his arms so that he could "bend a bow of bronze" (Psalm 18:34 NKJV).

Only recently have I begun to focus more on Jesus, and to discover in Him the manliest of men. He too, left the mothership standing tall, going to a battlefield where He knew the best possible outcome would be a painful but victorious death; where He knew the worst could happen--He could lose the kingdom forever. But He chose to go, not as a tough strong, and well-armed warrior, but as a defenseless baby. He rode up the beach to storm the bastion of the enemy, not inside an armored vehicle, or high-tech helicopter, but sheathed in the womb of a defenseless virgin.

He stood tall until the enemy drew Him into his sights and nailed Him.

That took courage. Real courage. And Jesus was a man's Man. In articles I'll post at this location, I'd like to share insights I've gained about Him recently as I've looked at how He dealt with things like lust, greed, pride, and fear that still war against men and destroy them. He stood through it all, and He wants to help real men, and women, today stand tall through it all. I invite you to come with me, as we behold the MAN!

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*Lieutenant Hawkins' story is told in Reader's Digest Illustrated Story of World War II (Pleasantville: Reader's Digest Association, 1969), pp. 237-248.

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