22 April 2020 - prison doors opened

Today's Readings

(Audio)

But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the doors of the prison,
led them out, and said,
“Go and take your place in the temple area,
and tell the people everything about this life.”

Do we focus on being thankful for the times when angels open the doors of our prisons and give us freedom? Or do the thoughts of the prisons still dominate us and make us live in fear that we might be imprisoned again? Are we able to go back to the temple and keep preaching because we believe that God is with us? Or are we still too afraid of the consequences?

And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.

Darkened minds can cause us to ignore the signs of God's presence and action in our world. They can not only prevent us from acting in the freedom God wants for us, such as freedom to proclaim the Gospel, darkened minds can even prevent us from recognizing his actions in the world around us.

“We found the jail securely locked
and the guards stationed outside the doors,
but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”

It might just seem that our minds are preferring the safe and the familiar. They are reluctant to reach to supernatural explanations when natural ones suffice so often. It is in fact a sort of safety that we prefer. It is the safety of our own control of our lives. We want to remain on the throne and our darkened minds avoid any threat to this control like a plague. We want to believe that we will believe good news when we hear it. But we often don't let ourselves hear it when it causes us to change.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.

We fear the light as though it would ultimately hold us to a standard we can't achieve and condemn us. But the first principle that can help us loosen the hold of darkness on our minds is that the light does not come to condemn us.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.

The light is sent to rescue lives and minds that are already on a path toward condemnation. We think that disbelieving it will keep us from prisons that restrict our freedom. But only in the light is true freedom to be found. By disbelieving the light we may avoid condemnation by the world. But salvation from true condemnation is only found in Jesus who is the light. It takes our eyes a while to grow used to the brightness after we get used to the darkness. But let us learn to prefer light to darkness, the freedom that the angel offers to accommodating ourselves to the world.

The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
Taste and see how good the LORD is;
blessed the man who takes refuge in him.