How I Imagine Being Saved

There's an old sermon illustration that almost everyone knows. 

It's about a man who believes God will save him from a flood in his town. A bus loaded with people comes by to pick him up and take him out of harm's way, but the man says that he is waiting on God to save him. The water rises, and a boat comes by, but the man refuses to board, insisting that God will save him. Finally, a helicopter arrives as the man is forced onto his roof by the rising water. 

You know what happens next. 

Of course, the man dies. He is shocked upon arriving in heaven and asks the first angel he runs into why God let him down. The angel says, "Why didn't you take the bus, boat, or helicopter that God sent to you?" The illustration rarely fails to get a laugh (or groan).

The story stands the test of time, though, because it is true, not that it actually happened, but that it reveals the truth about the human heart. We all imagine being saved in a particular way.

One of the clearest historical biblical examples of this is Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5:1-14. Naaman was the general in charge of the Syrian army marauding God's people, Israel, but he suffered from leprosy. How could one with leprosy serve as a general? Remember that leprosy was the name for one of several debilitating skin diseases in the ancient world.  

Naaman finds out about a possible cure when an enslaved Israelite girl tells him of the prophet Elisha, who lives in Israel. Through a series of events, Naaman and his entourage travel to see the prophet, who merely sends a messenger to tell Naaman to wash himself in the Jordan River, and he will be made well.

In the world of tele-health and healthcare apps, I love being able to get in touch with a healthcare professional at my convenience. But I feel most at ease when my doctor looks me in the eye and says, "Everything is great. See you in six months." I imagine myself to be healthier when my doctor speaks to me.

Because I like direct interaction with my doctor, I can identify with Naaman when he says in 2 Kings 5:11-12: “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

Why didn't the prophet come and speak directly with Naaman? 

We imagine being saved in a particular way. Naaman's way was having the prophet right there waving a hand over him. Others imagine more than one way of salvation, saying, "Why is Jesus the only way?" Rather than being thankful for the real way of salvation offered to us, we question why we can't have it our own way, the way we imagined it. What is the salvation you imagine? How do you imagine God working in your life?

I've met Christians who were saved from an alcoholic lifestyle who wished they had been raised in a placid Christian home. I've even met placid Christians who wished God had saved them from addiction so that their own testimony would be more dramatic. We all might imagine how God could do things differently.

Then we should repent.

Let's change our minds and turn our faith toward the one who sent us more than a bus, more than a boat, and more than all the ways of salvation we might imagine. Let's put our faith in Jesus, the one Hebrews 12:2 calls "the author and perfector of our faith." 

Jesus is the perfector of our faith, meaning that he is the perfect completer of it. What we fully need, he has fully given because he is fully man (saving humans) and fully God (the one with complete power to save completely). Jesus is the author of our faith because he is its source and the one who works it in us. Jesus is our salvation from beginning to end through his death and resurrection.

I'm trying to give up imagining my own bus, boat, and helicopter. Naaman did, too. (Read the rest of the story in 2 Kings 5.) Instead let's spend our time in grateful worship and thoughtful application of so great a salvation that is on offer to us.