Meditation on Matthew 27:32-44

August 1, 2006

 

"Save yourself!"

 

"Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.  Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, 'You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself!  If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.' In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, 'He saved others; he cannot save himself.  He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.  He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, 'I am God's Son.'"

 

All of these taunts that Jesus heard as he hung on the cross had the same theme:  save yourself!  That is the temptation - and maybe even the taunt - for each of us.  Save yourself!  Go it alone.  "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps."  You don't need God.  (Or, implied if not said - God is not real!)  Be your own Savior!

 

And yet the clear witness of Scripture is that we cannot save ourselves.  Think about the Jews and their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  See Psalm 31:14-16. ("Let your face shine upon your servant; save me in your steadfast love.")  Isaiah 35:4 - "Say to those who are of a fearful heart, 'Be strong, do not fear!  Here is your God.  He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense.  He will come and save you."  Matthew 1:21 - "She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  Matthew 16:24-26 - "Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their live will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.  For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world and forfeit their life?"  Luke 19:10 - "For the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost."  John 12:47 - "...for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world."  1 Timothy 1:15 - "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the foremost."

 

I do not have a theology that some Christians have, that we human beings are scum and can't do anything right.  We are the beloved of God, created in God's image.  But it is also true that we lose our way, each one of us.  As Paul wrote to the Romans, "... all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23)  The very next verse makes it very clear that we cannot or have not saved ourselves.  "[T]hey are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..." (Romans 3:24)

 

And yet many of us still fall into this trap, this temptation - that we must do something to save ourselves.  We start thinking, "I must do better.  I must be better.  Somehow, if I am good, I will win points with God.  I will earn my way into his graces, and be rewarded."  That is the same thing as saying, "I must save myself!"  It can't be done, it doesn't work - anymore than I can save myself if I am hanging off a cliff by two fingers.

 

Here is the radically good news of the Gospel:  You don't have to save yourself.  You don't have to go through life all alone.  You don't have to pull yourself up by your bootstraps.  God is real.  God is with us.  And it is God who loves us and delivers us and saves us through Jesus Christ coming to earth and living and dying and being raised - for us.  We don't have to earn God's graces.  God is of such a nature that he showers us with grace and blessings - all the time.  If we stop trying to do everything by ourselves, if we stop trying to save ourselves, we will see His hand extended out in love to us.

 

If anyone could have saved himself, it would have been Jesus.  Notice that even he did not give in to that temptation.  Notice that he stayed true to his character, which was to trust in God.  They tried to taunt him by saying, "He trusts in God; let him deliver him now, if he wanted to."   He did trust in God.  That was why he didn't try to save himself.  Do you remember what he said in the garden when he was arrested?  "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen in this way?" (Matthew 26:53-54)  Jesus trusted in God to save Him.  He trusted that somehow God would give him his life back again, even if he did not save him from that particular moment, when he was dying on the cross.  And on the third day... his faith in God was rewarded!

 

Let us not succumb to the temptation to try to go it alone, to deny ourselves the help of God.  Let us let go of trying to save ourselves!  Jesus has already come and delivered us.  Let us, instead, put our energy into stepping out in faith, and going where we hear God telling us to go.  Let us, instead, put our energy into loving others, and helping God establish His kingdom here on earth.  Trying to save yourself, as I see it, is overrated, and totally misguided.  As Jesus said, what will it profit you if you gain the whole world but forfeit your life? Instead, let us give all the praise to God, who has come to be with us, who has come to save us.  Thanks be to God!