What '10,000 Angels' Teaches About Masculinity

Setting the gurus straight

After deconstructing the world and trying to rebuild it in our own image, we humans are starting to realize that some of those leftover parts and pieces might actually be more important than we first thought.

Masculinity in particular has received such attention, as it became clear we had no idea what to do with men after spending so much time pushing feminism’s goals. So, masculinity is having a resurgence of sorts as countless online gurus court the hearts of young men with their messages of what it means to be a man.

But as the Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, Rivelino types and guru-adjacent types like Joe Rogan and Chris Williamson all offer visions of what masculinity can be, we have the ultimate answer:

Masculinity finds its perfect embodiment in the life of Jesus Christ

However, we can’t just say that. We have to get specific. And it’s in the specifics that this often gets mixed up.

The reason many Christian young men are turning to the gurus is because they were either never given any direction about how to be men, or because the version of “Christ-like masculinity” they were taught proved to not be masculine at all.

Jesus has been recast as a yes man, a leader who doesn’t actually lead, but rather just makes suggestions about how your life could be better and hopes you listen. His Sermon on the Mount has been reconfigured to condemn and contradict the great masculine men of old, such as Joshua and David (as I covered here). The “way of the cross” has come to mean being a lovable loser, doing the “this is fine” meme as the world burns down around you.

On the other side of the coin, we join up with C.S. Lewis’ fire department and warn against the excesses of strength and decisiveness, making any outward manifestation of God-given masculine traits worthy of suspicion. “Yes, God says the husband is the head of the home, BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN…”

In this feminist-indoctrinated world, many are starting to see right through that. Telling caged young men that words like “power,” “strength,” and “winning” are evil doesn’t help them, because it isn’t true. For this reason, some, under the impression that this is all Christianity has to offer men, have assumed it to be a flawed religion. This critique goes all the way back to Friedrich Nietzsche, who said:

Assuming that the violated, the oppressed, the suffering, unfree, unsure-of-themselves and tired should moralize: what would their moral valuations have in common? Probably a pessimistic suspicion towards the whole human condition would find expression, perhaps a condemnation of man together with his condition.

The slave looks at the virtues of the powerful with resentment: he has scepticism and mistrust, he has refinement of mistrust toward every ‘good’ that is honoured there – he would like to convince himself that happiness is not genuine even there. (Nietzsche, Genealogy of Morals, p. 159)

Though I have many fundamental disagreements with the German philosopher, he has a point here. Weakness for the sake of weakness is not a virtue.

So the Nietzschean critique set against the soft masculinity preached today results in a false choice in which masculinity is either an unbridled self-fulfillment, or a caged, feckless, “yes, ma’am-ism.” In other words, it looks something like this.

We don’t have to accept a “nobody can tell me what to do” machismo or a wimpy, butt of the joke, perfectly safe masculinity.

Looking at the different facets of Jesus’ character sets us straight on this issue. There’s no better embodiment of this than the words we often sing, drawn from Christ’s words in Matthew 26:53—

He could have called ten thousand angels
To destroy the world and set Him free.
He could have called ten thousand angels,
But He died alone, for you and me.

Jesus was not a limp-wristed scooter rider who came to get stuffed in a locker. As He said in John 10:18, nobody could take His life from Him. At any point He had the power to call legions of angels to end His suffering. He had that power before the cross, and after the cross He proclaimed “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”

At the same time, neither was He the meme’s self-willed tough guy or Nietzsche’s Übermensch. He emptied Himself, learning obedience from the things He suffered. He did exactly what the Father commanded.

This is the model we must teach our men today.

We need men who are strong, competent, and decisive, while at the same time self-disciplined, loving, and considerate of others. The Christ-like man is neither the free bird nor the caged rabbit as the meme depicts. He must be a creature capable of powerful accomplishments, yet under control.

Sacrifice isn’t sacrifice if you don’t have the option to choose another way. So, we need men strong enough to have a choice, and virtuous enough to choose sacrifice. We need men discipled to live by the ethic found in the chorus of Ten Thousand Angels.

For more on this, check out The Men’s Excellence Project and subscribe to get the latest info on an event that’s in the works.

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Notes

• Central Oklahoma friends! I’ll be in the area the last Sunday of the year (12/29). If you need a fill in or want to give your preacher a day off to end the year, send me a message.

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