Freedom Season
Freedom - what does it mean
I heard about a teacher, who used to bring a pet fish in a bowl into class. He would then take the fish out of the water – and the class would see it flapping on the table, unable to breathe. Every time the teacher did this, one child in the class would rush to the front and put the fish back in the bowl of water, so that it survived. The teacher was trying to show that freedom from the bowl would in fact kill the fish.
I have a friend who is recently retired. He worked all round the world. He enjoyed learning about other cultures and interacting with people very different to those in the country in which he was born. Now retired, he feels trapped in the country of his birth. Without the freedom to travel, he feels as if he is experiencing a long-agonized death without the joy of other cultures.
These two examples seem to illustrate opposing aspects of freedom. So what does freedom mean?
The Messiah said “If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” When he said ‘the son’ he was talking about himself. So what did he mean when he said that if the Messiah makes us free we will be truly free? Well, just before that he said “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin”. In other words, he was talking about freedom from sin.
But that’s almost as confusing!
The Messiah said a lot of difficult things, for example, “Whoever tries to hang on to their life, will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it”. This might sound like being a martyr and in a sense, it is: but it’s not a martyrdom that involved fighting and dying. Doing it “for my sake” is about following the Messiah. And he said “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbour’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!”
The Messiah is talking about the freedom to love your enemy. If we want to follow the Messiah on his journey, on his pilgrimage, and He has called us to follow in his footsteps, then we are called to becoming free to love out enemies.
If you’re like me you will very quickly say “But that is impossible”. In our own strength it is. But in the next season, the season of Power we will learn about the how God gives us His power to do the impossible.
But for now, let’s take the next steps on our pilgrimage following the Messiah.