It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)
In Christ, each of us is free.
I have been under oppression my whole life. The dysfunctional spiritual system I grew up in, my emotionally-handicapped family, marriage to an abuser, and probably most effective: my own false self-talk. I don't blame anyone, I just say it to acknowledge that I have never been free.
I would suspect most people haven't. The result of our fallen world. And accepting salvation from Christ doesn't flip on the freedom switch in our lives either. The power is there, but we get in the way.
Right now, I am scratching, clawing at anything that is helping clear my mind and heart of the shackles that have held me for so long. Shackles that hurt, yet feel so familiar. That feel safer than the unknowns that embracing freedom means.
It makes me think of this story in John where Jesus comes upon a lame man who has been crippled for 38 years. His question is exactly the one I had to ask myself before I could take the next step into the freedom Christ offers.
When Jesus saw him and knew he had been lying there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be healed?" (John 5:6 RSV)
(commentary below from this source)
What a strange question to ask of a man who had been sick for 38 years! "Do you want to be healed? But Jesus never asked a foolish question in his life. Obviously it was important for this man to answer (at least to himself) the question, "Do I want to be healed?"
I know many people today who do not want to be healed. They do not want to receive divine help in their problems. They do not want to be helped out of their weakness. They love their weakness, their helplessness. They are always craving the attention of others through their helplessness. They sometimes flee assuming responsibility for their own lives. I have even seen people turn their backs on a way of deliverance they knew would work because they did not want to be healed.
I am sure if this man had answered Jesus along these lines our Lord would have gone his way and not done a thing for him. You cannot help somebody who does not want to be helped. One of the things that is true this morning, as our Lord moves among us, is that he will only ask this question of those who want to be healed. He will say nothing to those who do not.
And herein lies one of the answers to how to find freedom...I have to want to be healed. And we all know there's no such thing as a "healing switch" that is simply flipped on. Healing is a process and means I must accept the responsibility to be intentional to create new responses to the new, free life around me and fight settling back in with the old, familiar shackles. I am not a beggar anymore. No more, "Woe is me."
I am free in Christ and I don't have to beg any longer. Do you want to be healed?
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)
I do.
