This weekend the big excitment in Washington, besides the record snowfall in the mountains, (it reaches to the chair on the chairlift), was the Caucus. Record crowds poured into buildings all over Washington to give their opinion and to vote for their choice candidate.
We keep hearing over and over that this country needs a change; we need someone who can really do the job, that status quo is no longer an option. I watched as the crowds swooned over Obama and listened as the newscasters made their predictions. We went to a party later that night and everyone had an opinion on which person would rise up to make things right in our country again.
Do you realize that the exact same thing was happening in Jesus' day? Over and over, the Jews were combing the landscape for the one who would come to save them from the hated oppression of the Romans. When the person didn't end up becoming their savior, they often ended up dead, just like Jesus.
The Jews' view of a Savior or Messiah was one who would come and defeat the Romans militarily and politically, so that Israel could assume the glory days it once held. Over and over we see that the disciples didn't get what Jesus was doing. The brothers wanted to sit at Jesus' sides when Jesus' took over as the Savior. And most ironically, right before Jesus was ready to ascend to heaven, after all that the disciples had seen happen: miracles of healings, waters calmed, masses fed from one lunch, people raised from the dead, and the biggest miracle of all: Jesus coming back to life after his body was mangled to nothing on the cross.
But, after all that, they still asked him, "Lord, is this the time that you are going to restore Israel to it's rightful place?"
The disciples thought just like us as Americans. They were looking for the quick fix, for that Savior to rise up and set things right. But, Jesus was never in it to set the political landscape right. He was interested in setting our hearts right. He was interested in seeking out the poor, the disenfranchised, the lonely, the broken, the sinner. He was more intersted in partying with sinners than becoming a military giant. He was such a non-existant miliatary threat that he didn't even make the history books.
I guess my questions is, "As we go through the next 10 months, will be looking to Barak or McCain or Billary to be our Savior? or, . . . . will we realize that we have the Savior already and if we invite him to do his work, he will accomplish far more than a President ever could.
1 comment:
Looking beyond the political rhetoric, we can break the cycle of idealization and disappointment. There is no earthly savior, only some possiblities that are better than others, but none that can solve all the problems or answer all the questions. When we look to Jesus to be our Savior, the only one worthy of that trust, we can have real hope for change.
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