“People are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” (2 Peter 2:19) What are we mastered by? The peculiar chains that bind each of us are slightly different: anxiety about the future; the pain of ongoing sickness; fear of what other people think; addictions to what hurts us; financial insecurity; worry about weight and appearance; the pressure to buy certain things and appear to live a certain lifestyle.
We are all enslaved by something.
When Jesus came he proclaimed that freedom had arrived. He set free those who had been chained by tormenting spirits and thought processes (Mark 5:15), those we had been sick for many years (Luke 8:48), those who were estranged from their communities (Mark 1:40-45, Luke 9:42-43), those whose tongues had never let them speak (Mark 7:35), whose eyes had never let them see (John 9:6-7), whose legs had never let them walk (Mark 2:11-12) He fulfilled the ancient promises of the prophets by declaring that he was the one who had come to release the captives from what bound them. (Isaiah 61:1)
But, Jesus also declared freedom of an altogether more powerful kind. He claimed that he had come to set us free from the one thing that masters everyone: sin. When speaking to a crowd about freedom, the crowd took offense at him, claiming that they didn’t need his help. We are already free, they said. Don’t talk to us about freedom. But Jesus went on to say that all of them were, in fact, slaves because all of them were sinners: “Everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:31-36)
This is an extremely uncomfortable claim. We are all slaves because we all sin. We all do things wrong. We all do things that we don’t really want to and we know will cause hurt and yet, somehow, we are powerless to not do them. The angry word spoken once, sworn never to be spoken again, that pops out a second time. And a third. That snide comment about someone else’s family or ability or appearance that spills out before we can hold it in. That dig about someone else which makes us feel good. That small, white lie that saves our own skin. That secretive snacking on cake in the kitchen whilst claiming to everyone else to be on a diet. That smug satisfaction about seeing someone else fail to do something that we ourselves struggle to do. The determination to do better, be better, think nicer next time that fails the second a particular circumstance arises.
But, sin is not just the things themselves. The biblical story starts with the invasion of an enemy into God’s good world: the snake in the garden. And it is this enemy that Jesus came to defeat. In Genesis, God says that one day someone will come who will crush the Snake; one day Satan and all of his evil intentions will be finally destroyed.
Thus, sin is not just about individual sins. He saids, and she dids and they didn’ts. Sin is something much more powerful and deadly than that. It is an enemy force bent on wreaking havoc and death. The enemy that Jesus tells us has come to kill, and steal and destroy. (John 10:10) The enslaving power of this enemy is too deep for me to break off. I cannot be free of it. Only Jesus can set me free. Only the Promised Snake-Crushed, who is wounded even as he is declared victorious, can set me free. Only the cross can disarm Satan and his powers (Colossians 2:15)
When Jesus came he proclaimed that freedom had arrived. He set free those who had been chained by tormenting spirits and thought processes (Mark 5:15), those we had been sick for many years (Luke 8:48), those who were estranged from their communities (Mark 1:40-45, Luke 9:42-43), those whose tongues had never let them speak (Mark 7:35), whose eyes had never let them see (John 9:6-7), whose legs had never let them walk (Mark 2:11-12) He fulfilled the ancient promises of the prophets by declaring that he was the one who had come to release the captives from what bound them. (Isaiah 61:1)
But, Jesus also declared freedom of an altogether more powerful kind. He claimed that he had come to set us free from the one thing that masters everyone: sin. When speaking to a crowd about freedom, the crowd took offense at him, claiming that they didn’t need his help. We are already free, they said. Don’t talk to us about freedom. But Jesus went on to say that all of them were, in fact, slaves because all of them were sinners: “Everyone who commits a sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:31-36)
This is an extremely uncomfortable claim. We are all slaves because we all sin. We all do things wrong. We all do things that we don’t really want to and we know will cause hurt and yet, somehow, we are powerless to not do them. The angry word spoken once, sworn never to be spoken again, that pops out a second time. And a third. That snide comment about someone else’s family or ability or appearance that spills out before we can hold it in. That dig about someone else which makes us feel good. That small, white lie that saves our own skin. That secretive snacking on cake in the kitchen whilst claiming to everyone else to be on a diet. That smug satisfaction about seeing someone else fail to do something that we ourselves struggle to do. The determination to do better, be better, think nicer next time that fails the second a particular circumstance arises.
But, sin is not just the things themselves. The biblical story starts with the invasion of an enemy into God’s good world: the snake in the garden. And it is this enemy that Jesus came to defeat. In Genesis, God says that one day someone will come who will crush the Snake; one day Satan and all of his evil intentions will be finally destroyed.
Thus, sin is not just about individual sins. He saids, and she dids and they didn’ts. Sin is something much more powerful and deadly than that. It is an enemy force bent on wreaking havoc and death. The enemy that Jesus tells us has come to kill, and steal and destroy. (John 10:10) The enslaving power of this enemy is too deep for me to break off. I cannot be free of it. Only Jesus can set me free. Only the Promised Snake-Crushed, who is wounded even as he is declared victorious, can set me free. Only the cross can disarm Satan and his powers (Colossians 2:15)
On that first Christmas, thousands of years ago, the baby that Mary delivered into the world was the one destined to deliver the world from the sin that enslaved it:
God rest ye merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's pow'r
When we were gone astray
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
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