The trek from Jericho up to Jerusalem is a tough climb. With only short breaks, walking at a brisk pace, it usually takes about 6.5 hours. And it isn’t particularly safe, though with the mob of people accompanying us, most of the bandits will probably be discouraged.
With all of this time, and so much going on, things Jesus said and did flood our minds. One thing stands out. He “came,” He said, “to serve; not to be served and then to give away His life in exchange for the many who are held hostage.” Simply, He was saying that “His life was the ransom for many.”
Today, on this imaginative Lenten climb with you who are reading these words, I am intrigued by those two words; “hostage,” and “ransom.” Our race, humanity, is, according to the Bible, the “many who are held hostage.”
Generally a hostage is someone held against their will. They could be a victim of kidnapping. Prisoners of War are hostages. Some hostages are unwitting pawns in a power game they don’t understand; a compulsive gambler terrorized and enslaved by a loan shark.
We, all humanity, have been conned into thinking someone else is more trustworthy than our beneficent Creator. As a result we are hostages to an adversary whose ultimate mission is to enslave us, eternally; to a life that we’ve been duped into believing is our own idea. In reality, like most “hostages,” we’ve been “brain-washed. Programmed into believing things that will actually destroy us.
A quick glance backward in history, far before the time of Jesus, reveals how our captor has deceived us. The story is of a man named Job. God was pleased with this man. Satan criticized God for favoring him. He actually accused God of spoiling this good man. “Does Job revere God for nothing?” he asks. Contrary to what he’s duped us into believing this Kidnapper has little or no regard for us. He has no interest in us. He sees us as nothing more than weak-willed creatures who will only choose what is right when we’ve been, like a child, pampered into doing so. Completely contrary to anything he’s said before he betrays his belief that we don’t deserve the choice of our life’s path and never did. There’s more. Our enemy speaks through the mouths of Friends and Family. His view of God is no better than what he’s said about us. We might better curse “God,” and “die.” Job is suffering unimaginably. And it’s because he’s done something wrong and God is punishing him. Job insists they’re wrong. He adamantly believes that if he could have a “hearing” with God he’d be vindicated.
While, in the end, God meets Job and confronts him with how foolish the notion is that he might be able to comprehend the ways of the Most High God, the Lord does vindicate him. The accusation that God is an angry, unjust being who punishes His creatures whimsically is dispelled in his exoneration of this man He loves.
Since our Race first fell for Satan’s seduction and entrapment we’ve been deluded by the propaganda that he has a higher view of us than God does. That we deserve to master or own destiny. As we’ve seen, he’s never believed that. Caught in the web of his deceit we’ve become enslaved to him, and to ourselves; to our insatiable, greedy, power hungry selves. And we’ve made a travesty of our existence. We have lost our lives.
Jesus has come to remove our bonds. But, because, seduced into disobedience, we carelessly relinquished our very lives, it will cost Him His.
Therein lies the “ransom.”
Jesus, though He is Divine, sacrifices His Divinity and becomes human. A completely free being, the Divine One Himself gives up everything. He lives every second of His human life in complete obedience to God; His Father. His innocence becomes virtue. A fully free being, He always makes the right choice.
Finally, on the precipice of His own life, He stands the ultimate test. He trusts His life – the Spirit of life in Him – to the Father; even when it appeared He’d abandoned Him.
But no! He was not abandoned. There, in humanity’s darkest hour, when it appeared the enemy was right and even this Righteous One was discarded by a capriciously tyrannical deity, He “was raised up.” Immortality was restored to our Race!
Shake the web from your mind and heart! You’ve been set free. The ransom’s been paid. Your captor was wrong. A free creature can live free and virtuously. Watch Jesus carefully. You’ll learn how. God is not a vengeful person. On the contrary, in our darkest hours, He is taking us to the edge of life where, on those high and treacherous precipices, we see the radiantly brilliant horizon. The Light of Life – Himself Life – that Infinite, Eternal Life that’s been extended to us for OUR LIBERTY!
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