The Substitute Quandary

Do you remember when you were in grade school and you had a substitute teacher? Things in the classroom never went quite as planned on those days. The substitute had to read over all the plans the teacher left for the day, and she would inevitably miss some little detail or mix up the schedule. The class bully would deliberately try to confuse her, and the star student would tattle on him.  It often made for a day light on work and heavy on the giggles for the students. It was clear that the students didn’t place as much significance on the presence of a substitute as they did on the actual teacher. But the substitute was equally important, and in some cases, probably more important, because class could not go on if she (or he) had not been there.

When I was a teacher, no matter how sick I was, it was easier for me to show up and teach my class than to plan for a substitute. The reason was that I had so many things I couldn’t put in writing. Notes about each student, notes about what to do in the event of this or that. How to handle such and such.

Sure, I could leave written plans and tell the students to behave for me. But it was never the same. Plus, it was twice as much work to prepare.  I had too many details in my head. It was simpler just to come to class sick unless I simply couldn’t get out of bed.  

But substitutes are necessary sometimes.

Consider algebra, for instance. How could you ever solve an equation for the unknown variable without the substitute x, y, or z?

Every good cook knows substitutions for common items, such as substituting whole milk and butter for heavy cream or arrowroot for cornstarch.

In English, we have a refined method of substituting for an unknown word. In place of the unknown, we simply say, “one,” as in, “One cannot help but laugh at a joke on oneself.”

Or, we use a pronoun, as in “Jack and Jill went up the hill, and then they fell down.”

In the world of childbearing, we’ve even figured out how to have one mother substitute for another, as in a surrogate mom.

In the case of my class, I knew how difficult it was for someone to step in and follow my plans, not knowing how the order of the day proceeded normally. It was a challenging, often thankless job. The substitute was required to put aside her normal routine to adopt the routine of another. What a sacrifice that can be, even for someone acquainted with the procedures. And I rarely ever saw the substitute who took my place to thank her!

The most important example of a substitute, and one of the most difficult for us to understand, is that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. By dying on the cross in our place, he became the sacrificial lamb that would take the place of our own death for our sins, providing redemption for all who would believe in Him. Without his substitutionary death on the cross, we would all die in our sins, but because of sacrifice, redemption is now possible for all who believe.

If we wrote an equation for this formula, it might look something like this:

If x=death of Christ, y=belief, and z=salvation, we can say that x + y =z,

or, the death of Christ added to our belief in Him equals salvation.

So many today do not comprehend the meaning of this equation. It’s a rarity that someone comes to the realization that he or she is a sinner and that sin, any sin, brings with it the death penalty. It’s an even greater occasion when a sinner realizes the enormous sacrifice that Jesus made by leaving his throne of glory in Heaven to take our place in the most horrific death of all—on the cross—for us! Hallelujah for our substitute! What a Savior who died for us!