My Own Prison

Scripture: Matthew 27.32-46 Good Friday 2007


They offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it he would not drink it.

When Life has been specially cruel or unpleasant, we say “This is a bitter pill to swallow,” or “a bitter drink to drink.”

When the consequences are serious, nothing seems to make the bitterness go down easy. There are things that we don’t ask for that the universe visits upon us anyway. And then there are many more things that we have a hand, many troubles that are of our own making.

Someone recently told me of a man he knew, we’ll call him Bill, who was a mason and building contractor. Bill worked on a lot of commercial buildings for businesses, schools, government buildings, etc. He was good at what he did. Bill was also an alcoholic. His alcoholism got worse, as it is wont to do. But Bill realized the extent of his problem when he looked around at his prison cell and realized that he had laid the blocks for the prison he was in. He had built his own prison.

Is the drink more bitter when it comes “unasked for” or when it comes of our own doing? You could debate that question. What is much more clear is that like Bill, we have all had a hand in constructing our own prisons of self. We may use different materials – anger, envy, pride, sloth, greed, lust – but the function of our buildings are the same. And they are remarkably effective. Our prisons separate us from who we are meant to be in God. Physical prisons are about punishment and, maybe, rehabilitation. Our spiritual prisons, perversely avoid the justice that would do us good and bring on not rehabilitation but debilitation.

Jesus Christ, the God-Man, is the One who has gone to the very prisoners of Hell and proclaimed freedom.

“Behold, I have the keys of Hell and death. . .”

You have heard of the inmates running the prison. In Jesus, the innocent man has willingly become a prisoner. This makes Him uniquely qualified to help us.

“He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his stripes we are healed.” Isaiah 53.5

The innocent prisoner took our punishment for us at the Cross. This was and is, no small matter. Jesus knew how painful this would be.

“My Father, if it is possible, let this bitter drink be taken away from me. . .”

But Jesus did not refuse the drink in the end. Because He longed and loved to see all the prisoners go free.

St. Augustine once said that without Christ, it is not possible to avoid sinning. Can a man do good? Yes, but in the end, bad man or good man, we get caught up in the sin that has such power in this world over us. In Christ, however, it is now possible to not sin. We are set free from this power.

The movie, Blood Diamond, is the story of the terrible cost of Africa’s illegal diamond trade. These “conflict diamonds” are so called because of the thousands upon thousands of men, women, and boys who suffer unspeakable brutality to finance the wars, rebellions, and comfort of cruel men. Life is cheap in Africa’s diamond regions. The people who have lived in this dangerous climate have a succinct phrase for such a climate – TIA, This is Africa. After witnessing so many young boys being stolen from their families, having their hands cutoff, drugged, and brainwashed to become guerrilla thugs, one man asks another this question, “Is it possible for a bad man to become good?”

When this man asks the question, remember, he’s not asking it among polite company in a Sunday School class in Duncansville, Pennsylvania. He’s asking it in the middle of a country seemingly bent on destroying its own people. The other man has no immediate answer. But the film’s story, in the end, tells the truth. The man, previously a sceptic, answers with his life. He sacrifices himself for the lives of others and for the truth to be told. The film tells us that someone must be willing to sacrifice themselves for the good of all.

Would someone willingly die for good people? Would that Someone even die for the bad and wicked?