We are all in need of a Saviour

We are all in need of a saviour….

Some of us need saving from communists, from fascists, foreign countries, racists, oppressors, systems, situations … many of us have addictions, failings and self defeating situations. … 

We all need a saviour….

In the gospel we hear of a nation, the chosen people, one beaten and bruised and cast down.   Waiting on the promise, of freedom, of self determination … From a hilltop with Abraham and a mountain to Moses, God had promised a covenant.  There  would be a promised land, and Israel would be ruled by the descendants of that promise.   But Israel broke the covenant over and over and over….  We rejected prophet rule and got the desert, and judges rule and got Kings with their wars, and finally we have Babylonian exile and Hasmodian Maccabean restoration that was still a shadow of the promise.  Israel as a client state under the thumbs of the Persian empire, Egyptian, then Macedonian and now Roman empire.   There was still the land of the promise, but something seemed off… 

In the midst of this exile there are prophets, who call Israel back.  They rationalize that all thats wrong is a punishment or setup for an even better salvation.   Return to me, follow my statutes, and ordinances, and then I will make you as a sparks in the stubble, I will raise you up and I will send the Messiah!   Oh how we need a Messiah today.

Doesn't the world seem dark? So little hope, it just seems like the world, the country, even our selves are broken somehow.   The promise is not what it was meant to be.  And sure we know we haven’t kept up our side of the promise. If only we had a Saviour that could help us see how to live up our end of that covenant.   

We all need a saviour…..

And after many dashed expectations, potential saviours that have been proven to be as hollow as their words, a new prophet has emerged.  He preaches a message similar to other Nazerene preachers, preaching radical poverty and charity of heart and body.  Of  following the law beyond legalistic necessities, but rather the spirit of the law, and boy does he sound like the Messiah….

And there are miracles, woman receive their dead by resurrection, the blind see, the lame walk, the hungry are fed, demons are cast out, but we have seen this before, surely this is all a trick, parlour tricks to win over the rabble.   But he also does things that seem slightly off, would the Messiah associate with the lowest, would he stay with the family of a prostitute.     But we want to believe ….    

Finally there is an undeniable  miracle, that a family of ill repute, a man in it dies for 4 days, long past the 2 days to ensure someone is dead.   This is the sign we have been waiting for.   Surely with the dead rising and this Messiah approaching the city, we will finally get the saviour we want and need….


So Christ comes to the city riding a donkey… and everyone that has studied the prophets knows this prophecy.  

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
    Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
    righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
I will take away the chariots from Ephraim
    and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
    and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
    His rule will extend from sea to sea
    and from the River[b] to the ends of the earth.
As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
    I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope;
    even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.
I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
    and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
    against your sons, Greece,
    and make you like a warrior’s sword.

And Christ comes into the city the way only David did after defeating the philistines, while Saul rode a horse, Solomon rode a donkey, Elijah rode a donkey…  It's the animal of peace (you go out on a horse but come back on a donkey). Christ is proclaiming himself as king, as the anointed Messiah and of Israel's redemption……   

Its finally happening, we have the saviour we were hoping for!   Hosanna!  Or in English, Save us!!!

So we cut palm branches, like we did for David, like Revalations says we will do in the end times, and throw our cloaks on the ground.  Children sing the songs of victory sung for Moses and David!   Finally we will be free, the prophecy literally mentions the Sons of Greece, this is the one that will free us from our occupation!   

But as always this saviour disappoints,  we get the saviour we need but not the one we hoped for …. Because freedom from suffering seems so much better than mastery, immediate victory over spiritual.   We get a preaching of even more destruction, that we will lose everything….
The king comes into the city to the temple, but instead drives the tables over, and drives the money changers out, (the main economy of our city is to take money for sacrificial animals in the temple) .   He doesn't go to the romans,there is no gathering of an army, no golden gates built….

We get the saviour we need but not the one we wanted…..

And how infuriating.   I just yesterday was brought to brimming rage, by something not working out the way I hoped, can you imagine the fury of the crowd.   Just another fake… another disappointment.   So they deliver him to be crucified.  

Hosanna! Save me!

And we know the story ends, and we believe something universally changes the moment he enters Jerusalem and death shakes as he approaches Golgatha.    But at that moment all I can see is one universal disappointment.   If I have any real self awareness, its my hands that nail him to that Cross.  Because this is again not what I wanted…

How many of us have this story over and over in our lives.  Maybe… just maybe it might be our expectations of what our Messiah is… Maybe letting him into our city or lives might actually be dangerous, a threat to the very thing we value.  

So I cry Hosanna!   Save me from my own expectations

Hosanna! … Save me from my doubts!  

Hosanna! …. Save me and conform me to be for one moment the person I was meant to be!

Hosanna! …. Let be with you in this light for once….


+ FrDn Michael Luciuk, Palm Sunday, 2024