Two Views of Salvation

The liturgy for this Sunday strikes two quite different themes related to salvation. 

The day begins with the story of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem:

A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.  The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Hosanna in the highest heaven!”  (Mt. 21:8-9)

That’s one way of looking at salvation.

There’s another way, the way of the cross.  We hear about it this Sunday, too. 

And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.  And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him.  Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”  (Mt. 27:33-37)

One way to look at salvation is salvation is something like rescue, like the cavalry (or the king) showing up to save us from danger.  That’s the triumphal entry point of view.  It is salvation from.  We like that a lot, and we greet it with palm fronds and hosannas. 

The other way is less to our liking.  In it, the cavalry doesn’t swoop in and rescue us from anything.  Instead, the cavalry, or God in this case, does something quite unexpected, not saving us but standing with us.  God chooses not to rescue us from our situation but to redeem it by taking it on Godself.  It is more a redemption sense of salvation, salvation in rather than from.  As the Passion narrative reminds us, we respond rather less favorably to this approach.

I think we wish for rescue and instead are offered redemption.  God does not save us from but saves us in.  To be more specific, God does not save us from our mortality, but in our mortality. God does not save us from our humanity, but in our humanity.  God does not rescue.  God redeems.  We choose the triumphal entry.  God chooses the Passion.

Peace,