Our world needs ‘Superman’ like Jesus

At Christmas time we read from the traditional nativity story these familiar words about Jesus: “…to you is born this day … a Savior ….” (Luke 2:11) Clearly, Jesus came to be a savior of his people. In time, Jesus (and his disciples) understood that he was to be the savior of all people.
In first century Palestine under oppressive Roman rule and elitist religious authorities, the people needed a savior. In 21st century America under oppressive economic and cultural expectations and self-satisfied spiritual leaders, people still need a savior.
I was surprised to discover this theme of the need for a savior dramatically emphasized by the recent movie Superman Returns. In that film the cynical editor of the Daily Planet views the absent Superman as a curious oddity at best and as a superfluous anachronism at worst. Yet Superman returns to earth to reclaim his mission to save the world—a mission that the movie understands to be absolutely necessary.
So even Hollywood interpreters believe that our world needs a savior.
We Christians affirm that we know the savior of the world. More emphatically, we believe that we have met this savior because we have needed to be rescued by his gracious love.
Further, to be saved from our worst selves and to be saved for our best selves are such deeply energizing and transforming realities that we join our savior in the mission to help him save others.
We know the savior of ourselves and our world by the name of Jesus, the one who was born to save people from their sins—and the one who still lives to keep on saving us and this world!
In this season of Lent, we Christians re-examine our lives, confessing that we still stand in need of a savior. During Lent, we reaffirm Jesus as the savior of our lives and of the rest of the world, too. Because of Lent we can recommit ourselves to the mission of Jesus Christ—the mission to reach out to rescue those who need to be saved.
Examine your life and the life of your church this Lenten season. Are you confessing that you need the savior? Or are you self-satisfied with your own power, your own goodness? Do you affirm Jesus as the savior of the world? Or do you see Jesus as your savior only … and the rest of the world can find its own rescuer? Will you use this season to renew your commitment to Jesus, who calls you to join his mission of saving the world? Or will you just take what Jesus graciously gives you and horde it for yourself?
If the world knows it needs a savior, can’t we, under God’s power, introduce that world to Jesus?