Locked in/up/down
This isolation thing is starting to sink in now isnt it? We have all had a couple of days to grasp what's going on and now we are beginning to work out what its going to look and feel like for the next while. I spent yesterday in my pyjamas. Pyjamas are cosy and warm. And Im definitely not going to spend the next few weeks doing ten times more laundry than I need to . So if we all wear our jammies all day every day for the forseeable..... so what?
Right now Im thinking about what it must be like to be sent to prison. I hope never to be sent to prison. If you had asked me last week how I would cope with prison Id have said that Id probably be OK. Im an introvert so I dont need lots of company. I am lazy, so would happily spend huge amounts of time in bed. But now, thinking about the reality of a complete and total lack of liberty in the light of having lost a small amount of liberty........ well, it suddenly seems to be a lot more dreadful.
Prison in Jesus's time must have been utterly dire. Not only were people deprived of their freedom but they were presumably held in horrible conditions, quite possibly in the dark, maybe in chains. Were they fed regularly? Were they tortured ? Were they allowed any visitors at all? We can't really know but we can imagine that it would be a hundred times worse then than it is now. And yet so many of the first disciples were willing to go to prison for the sake of the gospel.
John the Baptist was the first of them. He was famous, he was loved and followed by the people, he was related to the Messiah, he had lived a wild and completely free life wandering the deserts. This was the first man to be imprisoned because of his belief in Jesus. I wonder how he felt. Did he sit in his prison cell wondering when Jesus would come and liberate him? Was he confident that it would all be OK because he had received word from Jesus Himself that the blind were seeing and the deaf were hearing. If Jesus was doing Messiah miracles surely He was about to overthrow the regime and set things to rights. In his dark dank filthy cellar of a cell, did John pace the floors and bang on the doors going crazy at the confinement and the fear, or did he sit quietly, assured that his rescue was imminent? He knew he was a pawn in a political game. Did he fear he was going to die or trust he was going to be saved?
He was a man used to fresh air and space to roam. Whatever his feelings about his situation he must have felt so strange being locked and possibly shackled. Whilst our tiny glimpse into being prisoners in our own homes might give us pause for thought we cant really understand what it is to be a real prisoner. And we need to remember that if we ever were to go to jail we would have a bed and meals and visitors . There are plenty of places in the world where the conditions aren't much better now than they were in Bible times. And many christians are locked up in them because of their faith.
John lost his head, Paul and Silas were chained, Daniel was thrown to lions, Jonah ended up in a big fish, Noah spent 40 days locked on a boat........ we are merely having to stay inside with all our creature comforts and watch telly, surf the net and do a few chores.
Puts it in perspective a bit doesnt it?
Prison in Jesus's time must have been utterly dire. Not only were people deprived of their freedom but they were presumably held in horrible conditions, quite possibly in the dark, maybe in chains. Were they fed regularly? Were they tortured ? Were they allowed any visitors at all? We can't really know but we can imagine that it would be a hundred times worse then than it is now. And yet so many of the first disciples were willing to go to prison for the sake of the gospel.
John the Baptist was the first of them. He was famous, he was loved and followed by the people, he was related to the Messiah, he had lived a wild and completely free life wandering the deserts. This was the first man to be imprisoned because of his belief in Jesus. I wonder how he felt. Did he sit in his prison cell wondering when Jesus would come and liberate him? Was he confident that it would all be OK because he had received word from Jesus Himself that the blind were seeing and the deaf were hearing. If Jesus was doing Messiah miracles surely He was about to overthrow the regime and set things to rights. In his dark dank filthy cellar of a cell, did John pace the floors and bang on the doors going crazy at the confinement and the fear, or did he sit quietly, assured that his rescue was imminent? He knew he was a pawn in a political game. Did he fear he was going to die or trust he was going to be saved?
He was a man used to fresh air and space to roam. Whatever his feelings about his situation he must have felt so strange being locked and possibly shackled. Whilst our tiny glimpse into being prisoners in our own homes might give us pause for thought we cant really understand what it is to be a real prisoner. And we need to remember that if we ever were to go to jail we would have a bed and meals and visitors . There are plenty of places in the world where the conditions aren't much better now than they were in Bible times. And many christians are locked up in them because of their faith.
John lost his head, Paul and Silas were chained, Daniel was thrown to lions, Jonah ended up in a big fish, Noah spent 40 days locked on a boat........ we are merely having to stay inside with all our creature comforts and watch telly, surf the net and do a few chores.
Puts it in perspective a bit doesnt it?
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