We Need A Savior

"But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, 'Lord, save me!'” - Matthew 14:30

As people, we want to think we can do it all. We want to think we can pull ourselves up, help ourselves, and save ourselves. In fact, that's what our culture wants us to believe, too.

But we can't.

In our new summer series, we're looking at what our Souls Need. This week focused on a Savior. Our Souls need a Savior. We need to be saved, whether we acknowledge it or not.

In the passage in Matthew 14, Peter walks out on the water in the storm. He sees Jesus do it and, when invited, believes he can do it, too. But once he's out there, the prospect of it (the wind, the water, the danger) gets to be too much. He cries out for salvation, and Jesus literally saves him.

He literally saves us, too, even when we don't realize or acknowledge it. We don't often find ourselves in the water in the midst of a literal storm, but we all face metaphorical storms of life. And we all need Jesus to pluck us from the rough seas and get us back on the boat, or back to the shore, especially when those times of doubt creep in.

Our culture needs that to, but we as a people don't know how to find it. And we like to pretend we don't need it, even when we do.

There is a moment in the film "Superman Returns" that, for me, crystalizes this idea. Superman has disappeared for five years. Lois, in frustration and in response, wins a Pulitzer Prize for writing a column about why the world doesn't need a savior. When Superman returns, he finds Lois, and he call her out.

He says, "You said the world doesn't need a savior, but every day I hear people crying out for one."

We want to believe we're strong enough to save ourselves. Our culture wants us to believe we can save ourselves. But, deep down, we know we can't. Blaise Pascal called it the "God-shaped hole," and it effects us all.

But when we cry out, our Savior is there to pluck us from the storms of life and provide the safety, and Salvation, we crave.