WE NEED A SAVIOR

I had the privilege of coaching my first son’s five and six year old soccer team.  There was a small park in the neighborhood where the boys, their mothers, and myself would gather for practice.  There is something perfect and idyllic about a dozen five year olds chasing a soccer ball on a green field.  Suddenly, paradise was interrupted by a woman’s screams.  I looked up and there was a man without a shirt beating a terrified woman with a coiled rope.  Instinctively, I put myself between the boys and the horror and yelled, “Hey!  Stop that!”  The man hesitated and turned his attention toward me.  During that lapse of attention, the woman broke free and started running toward me.  She ran across the road, into the park, and ran to my outstretched arms with such force that she knocked me over and we both tumbled to the ground.  From my new vantage point, I focused my attention no the whereabouts of the man.  I now realized that he had chased her and now he was towering over us with his rope still coiled in his hand.  He was sweaty and had the look of deranged madness.  All I could do was bury the woman deeper in my arms, hold one hand opened palmed accompanied by a loud, “Enough!”  I hadn’t noticed but the mothers had run onto the field and were gathering their  children behind them.  A dozen protective women with hunched backs were enough to give this madman pause and he retreated to his pickup on the other side of the road.  

Soon the police were there, he was gathered into a police car, and officers gathered around the woman in conference mode.  We watched from a distance consoling the children, who were surprising calm, waiting for the officers to gather witness statements.  One of the officers came over to our gathering and in a tone of remorse told us the woman refused to press charges.  He continued to tell us that this was not unusual for battered women.  I could tell he personally lamented his powerlessness.  Our group shared collected amazement, and quietly gathered our children into our vehicles and went home.

When oppression is prolonged and brutal, it is often difficult for the oppressed to apply the means of liberation.  People have difficulty releasing their misery for the potential insecurity of what they do not know.  People need a savior.

Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.  So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God acknowledged them.  Exodus 2: 23-25