Let us see your face Lord, and we shall be saved. Whenever we think of, or talk about salvation, the first thing that comes to our mind is redemption/rescue. He/she who is saved is one who has been “rescued,” so to speak, from a life-threatening situation. And this is what salvation essentially means. To be saved, in other words, is to be afforded a second chance. This meaning is retained even when salvation is used as a religious parlance. However, in the many times that Jesus told those he had healed that they were saved, he meant more than the simple fact that their healing (and faith) had “rescued” them from some life-threatening situations. When Jesus used the term, salvation acquired a more nuanced and subtle meaning, a meaning that underlies the very mission of Jesus.
In the Gospel reading for today, Jesus sends the twelve on a mission to go and proclaim the kingdom of God. The kingdom that was to be the subject of the proclamation of the twelve is characterized by the absence of hunger, sickness, death, and disease-causing demons. The proclamation of the kingdom is a proclamation of life. But life comes from God, the author and origin of everything that is. Where God is, life is found in abundance, for God is life itself. As such, the proclamation of the kingdom becomes a proclamation of God. The kingdom (of God/heaven) and God cannot be divorced. For it is God who does away with death, sicknesses, hunger, as well as demons. The proclamation of the kingdom then becomes a proclamation of the eradication of the elements that threaten life. It is a proclamation of salvation.
Salvation per se is attained when one is fully alive. One can only be fully alive in the presence of God. Jesus brings us the good news that being fully alive has been made possible in him. As the full revelation of God, Jesus is the embodiment of that good news. In him, God becomes visible to us. In him, we can finally see God. In him, we can finally say we have seen the face of God and as such are confident that we are saved.