I wonder if on that day when Jesus entered the synagogue and stood and read from the scroll of Isaiah declaring God had sent him to ‘proclaim liberty to the captives’…if there were people in the audience who thought to themselves “Oh, is He going to start a jail ministry?” 

 Can we agree that a person doesn’t have to be in a jail cell or chained up in a cage somewhere to be a ‘captive’?  We get the idea that deceived people don’t know they are deceived, and that sleeping people don’t know they are asleep, but you’d think that a person held captive would know they are a prisoner, wouldn’t you? 

 Years ago, watching those familiar news clips of starving kids in Africa, for example, lined up in refugee camps waiting for their daily allotment of a bowl of ‘food’ (which I remember always looking like a blob of day-old oatmeal as flies swarmed around them) I asked myself ‘How can they live like that day after day?” 

 The answer came immediately – They don’t know any differently. That is their life. It’s all they have known. Imagine asking them if they wanted something different in life…them shrugging and having no reference point to even know how to answer that. 

 So when we read where Jesus told a group of listeners: “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”, their response was to be expected: “We’ve never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free?” (Jn 8:32-33) 

 Yet, scripture is clear. “We know the whole world lies under the sway/power/influence of the wicked one.” (1 John 5:19) Jesus’ whole mission was to come and not only proclaim liberty to captives, but to ‘ heal the brokenhearted…open blind eyes and set at liberty those who are oppressed.’ He came to lead us out of darkness. 

 Even Paul chimed in with his second letter to Timothy reminding him that a servant of the Lord but not quarrel (except on Facebook), be gentle to ALL…be patient with those who think differently with the hope God will grant them repentance SO THAT they may know the truth…and come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” (2:24-26) So maybe it is possible to be a captive and not know it? 

Jeremiah made mention of the “Lord’s flock being taken captive” (13:17) And there was a church in Laodicea that received a stinging rebuke by Jesus because they thought they ‘had arrived’ and had need of nothing, yet were told they had no idea of how ‘wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked’ they actually were. (Rev 3:17) 

 I’m not really sure how you convince a person who doesn’t think they are captive that they need to be set free and can. But there are plenty of folks out there right now struggling…and they KNOW they are not in a good place and need freedom…and they need it badly and they need it now! 

 We might be more effective in sharing the good news with them…if we are walking in a freedom ourselves (instead of making excuses all the time as to why we are a wreck and still bound up). It’s one thing to ‘say you are free’. 

 It’s another thing to walk in it. 

 “You are the light of the world. …let your light so shine before men…” (Matt 514) 

 “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)