Imprisoned for Life? (2)

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We are familiar with the idea of a hero giving their life to win freedom for other people. Giving up your freedom to save lives - as we are being asked to do as we voluntarily stay inside during this coronavirus lockdown - is a much more counter-intuitive idea.

One dimension of the Christian message which we reflect on at Easter is the way in which Jesus voluntarily gave up His freedoms in order to save lives. If there had been any other way, He would have chosen to avoid the pain and suffering of that first ‘Good Friday’. But there was no other way and He had wrestled the issue through before God in agonising prayer the night before: “Not My will but Yours be done!” He was committed to being “obedient unto death - even death on a cross”.

Jesus was, if you like, voluntarily ‘imprisoned’ by the will of God. Within the restraints and constraints of the divine purpose Jesus found Himself literally imprisoned. He was betrayed by His disciple Judas, arrested by a team of soldiers, and taken as a captive from one kangaroo court to the next. He was blind folded, mocked, and beaten. He was tied to a post and whipped repeatedly by trained Roman torturers. Eventually He was nailed to wooden cross and hung out to suffocate in the Middle Eastern sun.

At any point He could have called a Legion of angels to His defence. Instead He allowed to Himself to be abused and murdered by evil men. He was not ‘locked down’ in a comfortable home with family, food, and some remaining, if reduced, freedoms. He was ‘locked in’ - locked into the will of God, devoted to total obedience, even though that would lead to the complete isolation and absolute restriction inherent in an unjust incarceration and execution.

While unjust, this confinement was not arbitrary or meaningless. Through Jesus’ sufferings God opened a door through which sinful human beings can gain the freedom of eternal life. These restrictions were placed on Christ for our sake:
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin
so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God”.


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