The term Redshirt comes from the original Star Trek series. The stars of the show often beamed down to the planet with someone wearing a red shirt and everyone watching knew that the red shirted character was not going to survive very long.
The writers of the show used Redshirts to demonstrate just how much real danger that the other characters were facing and as a result Redshirt for many has now come to define someone who is not going to survive or last very long.
Redshirt is a term I have heard used the most by sci fi fans or gamers but recently I heard it used in a few TV shows without explanation meaning that that it might have become mainstream?
It occurred to me just now that Jesus is a Redshirt. He came to our planet and was ultimately willing to lay down his life to save us.
Jesus is God, the all powerful creator of the universe. To use the Star Trek analogy, he should be the guy wearing the gold shirt but instead of coming in power, he became a fragile human (you can read more about this in It’s not fair).
The Bible uses metaphors of a lion and a lamb to describe Jesus. The image of a lion shows power and majesty in contrast to a weak and defenseless lamb that is essentially bred to die.
What kind of lion would choose to become a lamb?
Jesus who is king over all, chose to become the equivalent of a sacrificial lamb who died to save us. (You can read more about this in Jesus died on the cross, so why do we call it Good Friday?)
I would imagine that every actor who played a red shirted Star Trek character in that original series had a deep and probably desperate longing for Gold or even a blue shirt. In contrast, Jesus had the equivalent of a gold shirt and he swapped it for a red one. The great news though is that Jesus has risen and is wearing Gold again!
If you want to reflect a bit more on Jesus being a lion and a lamb, then you can listen to this song.
Honest about my faith 