I think I studied too much liberation theology in college. My favorite professor was big into liberation theology, and I wrote several papers on it. The cry for justice is so appealing to any idealist who has been crushed in spirit by the injustice in the world. It was a good balance to the idea I'd grown up with that salvation is merely in the spiritual realm and has nothing to do with politics, money, clothing, or everyday life. It challenges people to live radically for God's kingdom, identifying with the poor and changing lifestyles all the way down to how money is spent and where we choose to live.
But one thing was bad about all that liberation theology: I never saw myself as oppressed. I grew up in Carmel, went to private Christian schools all the way through college, have white skin, and have never experienced any real kind of personal poverty or opression for more than an hour.
This summer I have realized something. Jesus came to give freedom to captives, and I am one of those captives. We all are. Every single human. Not just the ones who don't have white skin, not just the ones who live in poverty, not just the ones the systems of the world hurt, all of us.
Jesus' mission statement is very clear, in the Old Testament and the New: he came to preach good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom for the captives, and release for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
This is the description of the Servant in Isaiah, and Jesus very clearly announces that this passage refers to him that memorable Sabbath when he reads it in synagogue. This is what Jesus does. He saves, and he saves in these ways.
Those of us in the suburbs need Jesus' freedom. We are captive to many things: status, "the Joneses", marketing, taste, entertainment, being cool, the rat race, and most of all sin. Especially sin, which is the root of all that pride, envy, and greed that lead to the previous list of things.
I need Jesus' freedom. I am a slave to my fears and worries, about money, the future, my "legacy", and how others perceive me. I am a slave to my religious traditions, no longer living out of love for the Lord but rather out of duty to some vague ideals I picked up or a random list of don'ts Christian organizations generally impose. I am a slave to how I think others think of me.
The fact that I am slowly realizing how enslaved I am is great, because Jesus has come! He has proclaimed freedom! I have freedom in him! I even have freedom from that old idea that I am not of "the oppressed, the captives", and therefore need to feel guilty about my status in life, my place of birth, my "lack of oppression" while others suffer so much. I can have freedom from guilt!!
I have freedom from all these things in Christ!! I don't need to fear, but I am commanded to have faith and live by faith. Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith conquers fear. I don't need to be a slave to guilt. I am even free to sin, because in Jesus I have grace! I don't need to measure myself by anyone's religious to-do lists, because I am in Christ!!
You'd think I would have learned this sooner. At least I'm realizing it now!!
It is also now my job to proclaim this freedom to others. Everyone else around me is also enslaved. I can proclaim freedom to them!!
I want this year to cement in my soul the fact that in Christ I am free. I want to discover areas of personal captivity and then be released from those areas. I want to see the captivity of others, no matter what their economic status, ethnicity, or political identity is, and be able to proclaim freedom to them.
I want to follow the liberation theology ethic of identifying with the poor. I want to serve the poor. But I want to do it remembering that all of us are slaves here. All of us need Jesus' freedom.
