Here is Freedom

I read a story today about a man who had been convicted of a crime and assessed a 50-year prison sentence.  The man did his best to describe his arrival at the prison, and admitted in his worst fears, the darkness, the stench, the filth, and above all, the loneliness, was worse than he had been expecting.  His prison cell was 6 feet by 9 feet.  The cell walls and floor, along with the bunk upon which he was to sleep, were covered with the filth of previous prisoners.  The cell was so unbearably hot he stripped off his clothes but still continued to sweat profusely.   His meals were brought to his cell and as he described it, very few meals were edible.  This was to be his home, his life, for 50 years.  Now, during his first day behind bars, he expressed the worst part was the loneliness. 

The story I read did not mention this man's crime.  I have no idea what he had done to be incarcerated in the place he described.  Obviously this story came from the days prior to prison reform, but for that moment in time, only in the cell for a few hours, he was miserable and could do nothing about it. 

I tell you this story just to remind you about Jesus' mission including "proclaiming release to the prisoners."  Could this prisoner find such release?  We can only assume his crime was major, since he was given a 50-year sentence.  Nothing was said in the story about time served, nothing about parole, it only mentioned he was to be incarcerated for 50 years. 

Perhaps there were some in Jesus' day that were imprisoned when they had done nothing wrong.  Could it be those sentenced by mistake were the ones he was talking about?  More than anything else, he was talking about you and me. 

It's true, Jesus was announcing his mission of releasing prisoners while thinking of us!  We may have committed no crime, faced no jury, nor found ourselves behind prison bars, yet Jesus was referring to us.  

We fit into the story when we find ourselves imprisoned by our sins. We may still be walking the streets, functioning in society, yet still prisoners experiencing the loneliness, the pressure, the guilt, and the inability to change our circumstances.  Sin has its way of being such an overwhelming power over us we possess no hope for freedom. 

When Jesus died and took the penalty for our sins, he was fulfilling his mission statement of freeing us from sin's captivity.  Problems arise when we fail to see the "prison" in which we abide.  Take just a moment of self-evaluation and if you are honest with yourself, you will probably recognize something that keeps you enslaved.  We may not all be drunkards, bank robbers, drug pushers, or brawlers, but most of us can see things that hold us captive and keep us from enjoying freedom in Jesus. He frees the alcoholic and the legalist, the prostitute and the gossip. Name any sin.....Jesus can free you from it. 

This is where the good news of the gospel reaches to our individual needs.  By his grace and love for us we can know we have been forgiven, we can experience the presence of the Spirit within us, and we can know the release from the sin which has us spiritually incarcerated. 

That's why Paul told the Corinthians, as well as you and me, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

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