Why We Need a Savior

Lent is the perfect time to be reminded: we do need a savior.  Regardless of what we may think sometimes, we are not just fine on our own, we would not have everything sorted out perfectly if we were left to our own devices.  Underlying that tendency, I'm terribly impressed at the human person that God fashioned.  Intellect... will... heart/soul... capable of incredible things.  It's no wonder that humans occasionally (I'm being optimistic) think they don't need God.  Men and women are remarkable creatures!  Yet creatures we remain.  I've come across a couple things that have helped me remember how much humanity needs a savior.  

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I've taken to downloading podcasts--mainly of sermons.  A great Catholic podcast I decided to try was Taylor Marshall's podcast.  He's a Catholic layman with a doctorate in theology.  His podcasts are a nice mix of theological material and practical application of that material to everyday life.  

Podcast #67, "How Your Fears Are Hurting You Spiritually", takes on fear.  The bad side effect it has in our spiritual lives is that it drives out faith.  He used the example of the complaining Hebrews after wandering in the desert.  God had just delivered them from the army of the Egyptians, given them manna and quail, and still they grumbled.  Rather than have faith in God's promise, and believe that He was leading them to the Promised Land, they wanted to return to Egypt as slaves.  Taylor brought up a point that I hadn't considered before: how happy do you think the Egyptians would've been to see the Hebrews?  After the ten plagues?  After the crossing of the Red Sea?  It highlights the desperation of the complainers; horrible living conditions, if not death, surely awaited them in Egypt.  

Taylor's second point that stood out to me was that we're no different with our sins.  How many times to we look longingly to the grass on the other side?  "If we could only ditch ____ Catholic moral teaching, life would be so much easier."  "If we could believe whatever we wanted to on ____, it would be so much nicer."  Egypt represents sin; just as Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery into almost the Promised Land, Jesus the New Moses freed humanity from slavery to sin.  

Could we have done that by ourselves?  Nope.  We'd still look behind us, remembering the sins of our past, not willing to leave them behind.  Jesus had to come to show us the way forward.  This time, it's not a land of milk and honey--but the eternal promised land, heaven.  

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The other thing that struck me recently was a passage out of Pope Benedict's second Jesus of Nazareth book.  It covers Holy Week and the Resurrection.  I intended it to be a lenten read, but it's Good Friday and I just cracked chapter 4.  Oops.  

Pope Benedict drew a parallel between Peter's "God forbid that should happen to you!" and his initial refusal to have his feet washed.  It's a good point that I never considered.  They're both manifestations of the same line of thinking--

"It is the response to Jesus that we find throughout history: You are the victor, you are the strong one--you must not lower yourself or practice humility!  Again and again Jesus has to help us recognize anew that God's power is different, that the Messiah must pass through suffering into glory and must lead others along the same path."  (pg. 70)

Lord Jesus, thank you for saving us!