Readiness in Regards to Sacrifice

In the season 4 episode of Smallville, "Scare", a toxin is accidently released into the air from LuthorCorp. It puts people into a nightmare like state in which they're asleep, and their heart-rates stay at a dangerously high level. It's only a matter of time before their bodies give out and they die. Lex is under the impression that the toxin was contained at the plant, so he has a group of specialists at LuthorCorp taking care of his employees, and keeps the incident hidden.

A cure, which hasn't been tested, might be the only thing that can save them, so knowing they don't have much time, and against the advice of the head of the project, Lex decides to give the potential cure to an infected employee. He also decides to administer it himself, rather than have someone else do it to avoid risking infection, again, against the advice of the project director.

Well, when the employee receives the "cure," he immediately wakes up, grabs Lex tearing his lab-suit and exposing him to the toxin, and then dies. Lex eventually finds out that it has, in fact, leaked into the air, and that people unconnected with LuthorCorp are going to die unless they produce an effective cure. When the new modified cure is ready, the project director wants, again, to test it on animals first. Lex knows there is no time, people will die, and not wanting to risk taking another employee's life, he, without consulting the project director, takes the seringe, looks the people in the room with him in the eyes, and injects himself with the fluid. Well, the fluid, since it was derived from some of the same stuff the toxin is, causes lex to enter the nightmare state immediately, but he eventually wakes up, so they know it works and they can now use it to save those people infected.

It impressed me that he had the guts to do something like that. I mean, the last guy who had been injected with an untested cure died. I guess he felt responsible, so if anyone should die it should be him. It was a time of crisis, and desperate times call for desperate measures. Self-sacrifice is something we should all be ready for. We never know when the day may come when we're called to risk our lives for the people we love, or in fact give our lives. Since Christ did it for us, we should be ready to do the same.