We all want to be free. But do we even know what that means? Jesus announced his calling by reading from the ancient text of Isaiah. The heart of it was that he intended to set captives free. I don’t think we Americans have a very good handle on this. I don’t think we can relate to Jesus very well here. We talk about freedom more than anyone else in the world—because we can—but we don’t talk about it the same way as Jesus did. We talk about freedom as if it’s a right. Jesus talked about freedom as if it’s a gift. If someone encroaches on our freedom we hire an attorney. But Jesus came for people with no advocate. We live from the premise that the natural state of man is to be free. But Jesus came to set people free because we are naturally slaves. We believe that people are born free and that freedom must be protected from all forms of bondage. Jesus believed that all people were born slaves and needed to be delivered from bondage.
But beside all that, what does it mean to be free anyway?
We always associate the word choice with freedom. Heck, we even think we’re free to choose God or not. For us freedom means we're the decision maker, we’re the judge, we’re in control. It happens for us when we don’t have to answer to anyone or anything: our choices are our own, they don't lie in someone else's hands. That’s freedom. I read in a book called, The Millionaire Next Door that most millionaires are not actually flashy, Thurston Howell the Third types, but normal people who have made it their goal to save enough money for a “go to hell fund”. That means having enough money that they are financially free, and if their boss or customers were to finally push them over the edge, they could tell them to go to hell because they could live without income for a year or two—they are free of financial dependance on them. They can choose to walk away. For that matter, they can choose a lot of things. Free.
I think Jesus meant something else when he talked about freedom. I don’t think he ever expected our freedom to set us apart from others—in a “go to hell” kind of way. I don’t think he ever intended for us to be so blessed—financially, emotionally, spiritually, or any other way—that we were independent of one another or God. I also don’t think freedom means choice. Choice in many ways is an illusion because the god of choice is the god of self, and “a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.”
Somehow I think when Jesus talked about freedom it came from his compassion on all us slaves. Somehow I think that even as Jesus read those words he felt the pain of realization that for our freedom someone would have to bleed and die, and it would start with him. Somehow I think that Jesus wanted set us free from selfishness, pride, competition, and isolation—that somehow those were the very demons that were tormenting us. Somehow I think that the chains Jesus broke were actually chains that kept us alone in the dark.
And now I think the kinds of questions Jesus would ask, “Do you want to be well? Do you want to be healed?” were not cruel or even rhetorical. Do I really want to be free? It’s available. But it probably looks very little like the freedom that has been marketed to me in full color slicks. True freedom probably looks very little like the freedom that the god of self desires. I suspect that true freedom does very little to put me above my circumstances and in the center of my life. Is suspect rather that true freedom allows me to go beneath any circumstances and lose my very life without fear.
Who wants to be free?
4 comments:
Dude, I'm in.
"Sin" and "sinning" are things committed in the space between people. When that space is reduced, when people are brought together, when they cease to be distinguished from one another, when all become one in Him, THEN we will have perfect freedom.
Interesting. When our individuality is completely erased, our freedom will be complete.
So much for the good ol' American dream. So much for religious 'personal accountability'.
Oh yeah? Well "Go to hell." haha (just kidding - I'm not a Millionaire Next Door)
But seriously how can I be as Unamerican as to buy into something where I'm not in control of my own life? Where we don't know who's fault it is for whatever happens? Where we don't know who to blame for something that goes wrong? Where we don't know who to reward for something that goes right? Where everyone checks the direction of the wind instead of planning their own course? Where everyone doesn't make up his/her own mind but has it made for them before they are given options? Where "You have but one choice" is an acceptable pronouncement? Where it's not important to know who is actually the person authorized to make the decision in a situation? Where the individual (whether liberal or conservative) is not supreme? Where neighbors are equivalent of family? Where I am stuck with someone forever and there is no "irreconcilable differences" clause? Where I don't decide to follow Jesus but am decided upon? Where the only real choices I have are evil because I understand God as The Great Self Evident and not The Great My Personal Decision? Where I don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ but rather am completely consumed by him--even one with him?
Yikes. I think it's safer to be an American.
When I first saw Matrix Revolutions, I hated it. The first movies established that Neo was different because of his ability to choose. But in the third movie, he figured out what the meaning of his life was about, and he gave himself away, he lost all his freedom, he erased his individuality, and he died for people who didn't understand and didn't even want him to die. I hated that. I am an American. But Neo had to recognize that his ability to choose was what set him apart and gave him his power. But Neo had to give up his right to choose to save the world. It has taken me about two years to warm up to that idea. I am a "free" American after all.
The beauty of liberation from choice and liberation to being who I was born.
jon, I hope you'll elaborate on sin being the enemy of perfect freedom.
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
Freedom: it's in the family. Key word is "IN". Perfect freedom is perfect family.
Think of the expanse of the idea of "family" in nature. It's everywhere. Nothing exists outside of its family. Everything comes from something like itself.
Slaves are never invited to sit at the dinner table at family gatherings. They don't receive an inheritance. They bear no resemblance to the Father. They aren't equal with the Son.
The crazy thing is, we take on this condition voluntarily, sort of. We accept a false identity, we fall away from the family, we go it on our own, unwittingly selling our very selves to our own artificial state of isolation.
And in doing so we join those who have bought the great lie that "you aren't really a son."
And that makes us a child of the devil.
Hmmm. It seems that both captivity and freedom are states of "in."
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