Submitted by Todd Murphy
The word "Savior" is now somewhat foreighn to modern colloquial speech. It is not a subject that comes up much. It does not seem important.
Understandably, we do not think of ourselves as seeking a savior. But I think the quest for redemption, the search for salvation is a staple of human existence. Every person is looking for a savior. Idolatry, in the biblical sense, is only the attempt to find a savior in anything other than the one God provided.
Don't think so? Ask yourself what you are struggling with. What is ailing, impeding you or just down right important to you? Behind that thing you will find a false savior. What you foolishly place your faith and hope in.
Most of us do not have the self-awareness to see it. Why are you so driven to success or perfection? Because if you obtain it it will save you from your feelings of inadequacy and silent self-loathing. Why is another so driven toward a substance abuse? Because it momentarily swoops in as a savior to rescue you from your overwhelming anxiety.
Since the Newtown tragedy the media has swarmed with the cry for political saviors. What are those political saviors? They are new laws or the cry for new leaders who will come in with a strong hand and plan to vanquish evil and make us safe.
The idea of a political leader punishing evil is a biblical idea. In Romans 13:4 Paul says of political leaders, For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.
But this does not change the fact that we naively think that we really can obtain peace and safety this side of eternity. In the last few elections, the country was split down the middle in hopes that their candidate would bring in the peace and security we all seek. In fact, one candidate even campaigned on the biblical premise of "Hope" though falling so short of it.
Are we any safer? Can we have any more hope? The slick campaign failed to stop the Colorado shooting and the Newtown massacre. Nor is it stopping AIDS or genocide, and sexual trafficking of children. The previous president with his conservative and tendency to "live by the sword" failed at it too. Both Democrats and Republicans keep making promises that a human savior just cannot keep.
In ancient Israel God's people found themselves at a dangerous crossroads as well. They lived in the shadow of a threat. No, it was not the terrorists of today, WMD's and deranged psychopaths who shoot children. It was amilitaristic imperial nation known as Assyria who was threatening the entire middle east.
What did Israel want to do? The same things we are -- to look to other political entities to save them. They wanted to trust in an alliance between King Rezin of Syria and Remaliah the King of Israel. But God promised them that Assyria would rise up over them and take them away the way a great river floods its banks (Isaiah 8:5-8).
This is to say, the search for a savior is the right thing. The bad part is that we always look for our savior in all the wrong places. We look for it in laws, politics, our careers, relationships, sex, substances, and the one that fails us more than any other, ourselves.
It is in this context God makes a promise to this people, For to us a child is born to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonder Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6-7) God promised a child of the line of David who would come and establish a kingdom in peace and righteousness. It would be a kingdom without end. Yes, Jesus is quite a political saviour, but not the way we think of him. He is about justice, safety, and peace for his people. But it is not here yet, it is coming.
When we celebrate the incarnation of Jesus during Christmas and Epiphany, we need to understand that the birth of Jesus (whenever that happened) was about laying the foundation stone for that kingdom. It is not here yet; it is being built one life at a time.
So many will ask, why does he not bring it in now? Well, that is because he is merciful. You see, we are not really prepared for seeing the consequences of real peace and righteousness in the earth. Out of Jesus' second coming will be immeasurable beauty, blindingly so. But that will only come through judgement of what is evil. What we are so unprepared to consider is that we are part of that evil.
The funny thing about it is this: Even though most people believe in God, for some reason we find it harder to believe the promises of the Gospel than to trust fallen men who prove their unreliability consistently. They let us down again and again. What reason do we rationally have left to trust human leaders? Did you notice the last preseidential campaign literally had "lost" its "hope?" Yes, no talk of "hope" anymore. Why? Because it would have insulted and shamed us for our naivete four years before.
As we celebrate Christmas and Epiphany with our families and friends, I want you to be thinking about "hope." Not a fleeting one. But a real one that comes in the form of a child born in Bethlehem. This is the child of Isaiah 9, the one upon whom the weight of the government will be on his shoulders, the one who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of peace. It is in this child we have a savior upon which to practice hope. As Paul says in Romans 8:24-25, For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await for it with patience. We have a hope in what we cannot see. What we cannot see is the promise of the Kingdom of righteousness without end. And that strength begins in the weakness of an infant born to a virgin in a manger.
So what is Christmas about? It is about God giving us what we are all already looking for, a Savior. Only He sends it in a package that is too hard to comprehend, too good to be true, too seemingly weak to accept, and all to easy to reject: a child.
