Freedom and Captivity

Sunday night I went to church with some friends. The sermon was about Luke 15 and the prodigal son. Of course that's a parable I've heard preached on countless times. I've heard SO many different angles on it that I at times start to doubt and wonder if Jesus had a more simple point. However, our God is incredibly intricate. Just thinking about the human body and how it works or even simply the eye screams of the intricacies of our God. So, I trust that the parables he told could be intricate as well.

So, here's the train of thought I was on...

This son thought he was leaving home to find greater freedom. I'm sure when he left home his spirits soared with this sense of freedom. The idea was appealing to head out into the great unknown with a pocket full of money. Soon, however, he found that this freedom was only a facade. He was a slave to his money and wild living. When his money ran out, he became a slave to pigs. 

He soon realized that he was more a slave APART from his father than he was living at home WITH his father. He realized that he had rejected blessings found in his father's home for his desires. When he realized this he returned, but ONLY when he realized his own depravity. As he longed for the slop he fed the pigs, he knew he in no way deserved to be welcomed back home as a son. That is why he had stayed away so long. He knew his mistake and now saw his foolishness for what it was. The freedom and love his father had for his sons was no longer what this son deserved. So, he decided to return home and beg to be accepted as a servant. 

This father, however, welcomed him with open arms. This father celebrated his son's escape from slavery with a feast. He was elated to have his son, in essence, back from the dead!

The older brother, who had always lived in the freedom and love of his father was angry. He had no remembrance of the captivity of sin. Somewhere along the way he had stopped appreciate the daily love, freedom, acceptance and blessing of his father. The older brother had become far-sighted and could no longer see what was right before him. He didn't want to celebrate his younger brother's redemption from sin. Instead, he chose to be bitter and ungrateful. 

This older brother reminds me of what I've been reading in Exodus. The Israelites left Egypt to find freedom, but soon they forgot the oppression they had faced there. They complained. They idolized. They disobeyed. After living in God's blessings and not recognizing their freedom, they began to fight against the laws of their Provider. They no longer recognized the freedom they had been given and eventually they became captives AGAIN! Throughout their history this cycle repeated always creating captivity and slavery.  

Have we, like the younger brother, left the Father and denied the gift of forgiveness from Christ, bought with his blood?

 For those who hardly remember life apart from Christ, like the older brother, have we lost sight of the freedom and blessings right before us?

Are we, like the Israelites, constantly forgetting the mighty miracles our God has done on our behalf and the slavery he freed us from? Are we running TOWARD captivity, blinded by our fleshly desires? 

Am I embracing the freedom of Christ? 

Am I seeing my life with far-sighted vision? 

Do I run from the captivity of sin? 

"He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, 

to proclaim freedom for the captives 

and release from darkness for the prisoners."

Isaiah 61:1b