Will Salvation Come Through This Man?

Did you listen to the news today?

I used to divide the world into two camps:

People who need to be saved and know they need to be saved

and

People who need to be saved and don’t know they need to be saved.

Lately, I’m rethinking this notion. I don’t know if my theory has been wrong or if people, particularly American people, are generally waking up to the fact that they are in trouble and need deliverance.

From hourly news updates, to music, to movies from the White House to the homeless shelters, people seem to be crying Hosanna – Save Us, Save us now! Everyone appears to be recognizing a general state of societal distress.

The problem is that we’re all throwing palms at the feet of different Messiahs.

Some look to politics and politicians for salvation. Others to enlightenment and education. Many look to financial security and ordered lives. Some to therapy, physical excellence, and nutritional purity. Others look to family, community, service, volunteerism, achievement, romance, music, religious experiences, traditions, ethnic identification, fame, or to self.

Hosanna, we cry, Hosanna! Save Us, Save us now!

Our society seems to be drowning and in a state of panic, we tend to fight back and even submerge the very ones who attempt our rescue. One after another they brave the surf claiming to know how to deliver us only to be dragged under by the very people they thought they could save. (Maybe that’s why it was vital for Jesus to show us that He can walk on water.)

I try not to listen to the news first thing in the morning but it was unavoidable today. As I heard the headlines, I could feel my heart thump and flutter like a bird trapped in a glass cage.

I could feel the Hosannas rise from a dark and helpless place inside me like the vault deep underground where the Chilean miners await their rescue – Who will save us? My spirit wailed in the streets of my subconscious.

It took the effort of the entire morning to remind myself that the Savior has already come. His salvation is not limited to the spiritual world but is a complete salvation. The Kingdom of God is and is to come.

These aren’t just words, this is truth that is strong enough to release me from my glass cage, leave it in shards around me and free my spirit to soar free even in the midst of great trouble.

Psalm 37 repeats this phrase “Do not fret.” As I’ve mentioned before, I have more frets than a guitar factory. The Psalmist warns, “Do not fret, it leads only to evil.”

I’m sorry, but it’s realllllllyy hard not to fret. Some days, I have to read this Psalm over and over. The Psalmist ends with these words:

“Wait for the LORD and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land; when the wicked are cut off, you will see it. I have seen a wicked and ruthless man flourishing like a green tree in its native soil, but he soon passed away and was no more; though I looked for him, he could not be found. Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace. But all sinners will be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off. The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.” Psalm 37: 34-40 NIV

I like verse 34 in The Message version: “Wait passionately for GOD, don’t leave the path. He’ll give you your place in the sun while you watch the wicked lose it.”

How much easier it is to wait “passionately” for God than to simply wait! That turns waiting into an act of devotion. I take no pleasure or comfort in watching the wicked lose it but I sure do want a place in the sun for me and for those I love.

I know my salvation will not come from the White House or from Ben Bernanke. Nor will it come from radio talk hosts or gurus, world travel or the next Christian bestseller.

Salvation has come to my household. Jesus is the answer to all of my Hosannas. He does not rise and fall like the stock market or public opinion or box office numbers. He was and is and is to come.

Hosanna! Hosanna in the Highest! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

It was true on the streets of Jerusalem then. It is true today on Main Street, on Wall Street, on Pennsylvania Ave. and on the street where you live. The Messiah has come.

To whom are you crying Hosanna today? Better be sure it’s someone who can walk on water.