Imprisoned for Life? (1)

The bruised body of an Australian actor pretending to be a Scotsman is stretched out and tortured in front of a blood thirsty crowd. Rather than recanting his opposition to the English king in order to hasten the inevitable end, he resists and then, with all his remaining energy lets out a, by then anatomically impossible, scream: “Freeee-doooom!” We are familiar with the image of someone giving up their life in order to win freedom for other people. “Freedom” is the pet ideal of Western culture. Our heroes fight to win their freedom or they die trying.

What we are being asked to do now is the exact opposite of that. Perhaps this is why so many people are ignoring Government advice and social distancing laws. We are now being asked to give up our freedom because it is believed that this will save other people’s lives. It goes completely against the grain of what we are used to. Giving up freedom seems completely mundane, especially when we compare ourselves to the real heroes, the NHS workers risking everything ‘on the front line’. In recent history, the one exception to this norm is Nelson Mandela who endured years of imprisonment in order to win a better life for oppressed Black South Africans. But can you think of a single popular film where the champion is carried off to a prison cell screaming “Liiiii-iiiiife!”?

It is central to the Christian message that Jesus gave up His life to buy people freedom – freedom from sin and Satan, guilt and shame. But there are also several stories in the Bible where people give up their freedom so that others might have life. For example, think of Joseph. His brothers sold him into slavery and he was later imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Through these trials God eventually raised him up to a position of great power in authority. In a time of famine, Joseph’s brothers came looking for food. They had taken his freedom away but through it God put him in the place where he could literally save their lives.

There is a sense, too, in which Jesus gave up His freedom in order to bring life to sinners. In Philippians 2 it says that though Jesus in His Person was equal with God in every way – including the divine ‘freedom’ that entails – He held that privilege lightly and

“…made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the

likeness of men.” (Phil 2:7)

Jesus was under no obligation to live a human life. The decision to take human flesh and blood at the incarnation was not imposed on Him. He chose to do it. In doing so He voluntarily submitted to live a human life with all its physical and emotional restrictions. He opted to come to the poor and needy, those who lived with social, political, and financial constraints. He chose the life of a servant.

“And being found in human form, he humbled himself by

becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”(Phil 2:8)

As we are discovering through the imperative to self-isolate, obedience is a curtailing of personal freedoms; it means submitting to the will of somebody else. Jesus accepted the restraints of living in complete submission to God’s will, even though that meant forfeiting His own life. It is through the self-humbling of Jesus that God now holds out the promise of eternal life to all who will turn and trust Him. And from heaven’s perspective, Jesus’ voluntary surrendering of freedom for the sake of others is absolute heroism:

“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is

above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue

confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:9-11)

Continued tomorrow: https://fidzbit.blogspot.com/2020/04/imprisoned-for-life-2.html