The Messiah as Savior

After getting snowed out last Sunday, we spent this Sunday talking about Jesus as Savior.  After our chalkboard reflection of drawing pictures of people or things that save (Jesus, superman, tupperware containers, hospitals, etc.), we played a little game.  I called out a strange word and everyone had to write down their guess at its definition.  Then I read all the definitions (including the correct answer) and everyone took a guess at which one was correct.  Did you know that erinaceous means from the hedgehog family?  Or that a galactophagist is someone who drinks a lot of milk?  Or that to quackle means to choke or suffocate?

Just like these are weird words that we don't really know the meaning to, when we talk about the word SAVIOR, we hear it a lot but we aren't always sure what it actually means.  Together we read Luke 2:8-20.  Even before Jesus taught the crowds, performed miracles, or died on the cross, he was called the savior.  From the time of Jesus' birth, offering salvation to humanity was at the core of Jesus' mission here on earth.  We broke into middle and high school small groups to look at a couple other places in Scripture where we understand Jesus more as a Savior.

The high schoolers looked at Luke 2:21-35 where Mary and Joseph bring baby Jesus to the temple and Simeon recognizes who Jesus is...not just another baby, but the savior Simeon had been waiting to see!  And Simeon says that Jesus would be the savior not just of the Jews but of all people!  The middle schoolers looked at Luke 19:1-10 of the story of Zacchaeus.  We see that Jesus came to seek out and save the "lost" like Zaccheaus who was a social outcast because of his job and the way he was cheating people out of money.  But Jesus' salvation is for all, especially sinners because we are all sinners.  We can thank God for that!

We talked a little about the season of Lent and how we can prepare for this Jesus who is our Savior through his death and resurrection.  We each thought of things we will commit to giving up or taking on this Lenten season in order to help build our relationship with God.  What Lenten practices are you committing to this year?  Comment on this post with your responses.