| Un|bind |

I tend to linger on certain snippets of Scripture for extended periods of time. For a while it was the great 'hymn of Christ' of Philippians 2:5-11. As of late, I have lingered long on the words of Jesus in Luke 4, as he quotes the prophet Isaiah.

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

I believe that the Spirit may even be directing me toward this verse for the Hlinsko CZ sermon that I'm to preach. While it is not the gospel message per se, it is the gospel implication. Certainly we would all agree that the gospel message is that this Son of God entered into frail flesh and blood, lived among us, humbled himself to persecution and eventual death, only then to rise from the dead three days later, thus defeating death and ushering in the age of new life through the Spirit. The gospel implication then, is to be people who mirror the life of the Son, who proclaim this good news to the poor, who proclaim freedom for prisoners (of flesh and of spirit), who do our best to give sight to the blind, to take a stand against the oppression of the evil one, and to declare this all in the name of the Lord and his favour upon us.

To me, this is what being unbound is all about; to me, the gospel offers us release from all that binds us. And as we are unbound from all that corrupts, contains, and constrains us, we then are called to be people who unbind the nations.

Where the Spirit of the Lord, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)

I urge you to consider your own freedom. How free are you?