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May 14, 2020 - Join Pastor John for a Daily Devotional

May 14, 2020 by Rev. John Hartman

“The Need for a Savior”

Ravi Zacharias, the international evangelist, tells a story about going to see a play with a friend when he was preaching in Vietnam, back in 1974. In the play, a prince had stolen the wife of a peasant who was newly married. The prince refused to give her back and then told the woman, that if she said the peasant was her husband, he would kill him in front of her. When the peasant went to the king asking that the prince return his wife, the king said, “Let’s call her and ask her.” She comes and says, “That man is not my husband. The prince is my husband.” Just then a priest jumps into the middle of the fray and says, “Your honor, I have a medicine that when both men drink it, they will have to tell the truth.” Both of them drank it. Then the priest said, “Since one of you is going to die, each of you may spend 5 minutes alone with the woman.” They hung a huge barrel on a long rod, and they were to hold each end of the rod and not have any contact. One was going to hold one end of the rod, the other the other end of the rod, and the barrel was to be in the middle. The peasant went first. He held one end, with the woman at the other end. The woman said, “Please forgive me. The only reason I said what I did is because I’m trying to save your life.” Then the prince spends his 5 minutes with her. He tells her, “If you say that man is your husband, we will kill both you and him.”

Then the magic of it all unfolds. The barrel opens, and a little boy jumps out. He’s been writing down the conversations. The medicine was only a decoy. The boy gives the conversations to the priest who says, “King, your son is a liar. The peasant is telling the truth.” Then the whole thing explodes into confusion. In one fell swoop, the king kills everyone, the prince, the peasant, and the young woman. And Ravi Zacharias says, “I was ready to celebrate until the end.” Turning to his friend he asked, “What was missing in that play?” His friend said, “Ravi, what was missing in that play was a savior, -- somebody to take up the cause of the needy.”

Friends, thank God we have a Savior! Thank God we have a Savior who comes to make things new! How lost and how dead would we all be without Jesus Christ? And that is why Jesus Christ came, as it says in Luke 19:10, “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” Let us give our devotion to Him who never goes missing, but always shows up, and in His power and grace sets things right.