students of jesus

At a traffic square just east of Bridgetown, in Barbados, stands the Bussa Emancipation Statue. A strong black man, Bussa, the leader of the slave rebellion of 1816 has found his footing and raised his vision. His lifted hands reveal the chains of slavery, broken. But the shackles, and bits of the chain, remain attached to his proud arms.

Sculptor Karl Broodhagen’s 75-foot statue is bold and inspiring. It cries freedom. It also illustrates the spiritual challenge of freedom. Bussa’s chains are broken, but his shackles remain. It’s a parable for everyone who finds freedom in Jesus: too many students of Jesus carry the cold hard metal around our wrists. Slavery is gone, but its effects remain. Until the shackles are gone every slave is reminded of the past.

Consider the controlling metaphor of the Old Testament, Exodus. After 400+ years of slavery the children of Abraham are set free by God’s powerful intervention. They leave with the wealth of Egypt in their bags but the habits of slavery still in their hearts. “God has delivered us,” they cry, “but who will care for us?” No more than three days into the wilderness, the fleshpots of slavery began to look good to a hungry and weary people. The real problem was not a lack of food, but a lack of vision: the God of Abraham had set them free, but the community of Israel still wanted someone to feed them.

In fact, it took 40 years for Israel to learn the lesson that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word proceeding from God's mouth. The Creator spoke “Freedom” over the people, but it required a new generation to hear his voice. Each successive generation had to learn that freedom came only through loving faith-filled submission to their God. It is not enough to be set free: we must serve the True Master.

So too the church. Generations of believers have struggled to grasp the liberty of bond-service to Jesus. The Lord has spoken forgiveness from his cross; he speaks freedom by giving us our own cross. The Apostle Peter warned those who had been set free, “Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” Prophets from Saint Paul to Bob Dylan have reminded us, “you're gonna have to serve somebody.” He sets us free so that we might choose to serve him. We cannot choose rightly until we have been redeemed, but choose we must. After we are born again we must decide whether to live with him or live on our own.

Even for a believer—especially for a believer—a life apart from the lordship Christ is disordered, chaotic, and filled with fear. We need the Spirit of God, who specializes in hovering over the chaos to carry out the words of God: let there be light, let there be growth, and let there be a Sabbath rest. That’s why the preacher of Hebrews—speaking to an audience of believers—reminded us there's no Sabbath rest apart from communion with God.

This is the case for embracing Jesus as Lord: we may have experienced the freedom of broken chains, but we must make our way to the blacksmith of our souls and ask his help to remove whatever shackles remain.