Captivity and Freedom
We know what it means to be captive, to be imprisoned, to live under submission to a foreign “master.” We may live in the land of the free, but we are imprisoned by more insidious masters. Greed. Lust. A desire for more. We suffer from an insatiable longing for more stuff, more pleasure, more recognition, not to mention unhealthy relationships, addictive behaviors, and dead-end jobs we can’t live without. Jesus came to set captives free, to “...proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus frees us from all that imprisons us. Sin, death, despair, selfishness. He has freed us through his life and death and resurrection, and he continues to free us from every single prison, every single master, every single captor. That’s it! Seven words. “Jesus frees us from all our prisons.”