Galatians 5:1,13-14 For freedom Christ has set
us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do
not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love
become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single
commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
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The best explorations of freedom are in stories
about children. Kevin McAllister, the
little boy in the movie Home Alone, is accidently left behind when his family
leaves on a European vacation. The
family actually forgets to bring him along!
When Kevin wakes up the house is empty.
It takes him a little while to realize he is really and truly alone, and
it’s an extraordinary realization. There
are no mean siblings to bother him, no mom or dad to tell him what to do or
what not to do. Complete freedom. Sweet.
So what do you think Kevin does?
Anything he wants.
Do you blame him?
If I had been left to make all my own decisions when I was his age, I
would not take a bath or brush my teeth; I would eat Lucky Charms for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner; and I would jump on the bed until it broke. Man, that would be living.
I would skip school.
I would watch the late, late movies on TV and oversleep in the morning. I would play on the construction sites behind
my house even though I had been told it was dangerous. I wouldn’t care, because I was free to do all
the things I wanted to do.
I might do a few other things, too. I might walk through the grocery store candy
display and just stuff handfuls in my pockets – because I want it. And I might walk down the street and take
that neighbor girl’s bike – because I like it.
And I would flat-out lie if anyone asked me whether I took it. If I didn’t have anyone guiding me toward a
better understanding of right and wrong, who knows what I might do?
If I were free to do whatever I wanted to do, it
would be a mixed blessing. I would end
up getting myself in a lot of trouble. When
we talk about freedom, the word usually has an asterisk with all the conditions
listed in the fine print. This is what
children learn eventually – to read the fine print.
We have been talking about freedom in Christ for the
past few weeks, but it is still a difficult concept to get our heads
around. In many ways, freedom seems like
sin, because we know that if we were really free to do whatever we felt like
doing, it wouldn’t always be the stuff we ought to be doing. Free to our own devices, we are sinners.
In many ways, Christian faith seems like the
opposite of freedom – it seems like bondage.
The scriptures use the term yoked.
A yoke is a device that can be fitted around the neck of a work animal –
an ox or a horse – and attached to a plow or a cart. Usually, a team of two animals are yoked
together. It’s a means of chaining an
animal to its work. Now, I know it’s not
abusive, but if the ox were given its freedom to do
whatever it wanted to do, I doubt that it would willingly submit itself to the
yoke.
For us, the idea of submitting to a yoke seems
nothing short of slavery. It is
reminiscent of prisoners in a chain gang.
Thus, Paul says to the Galatians, “Do not again submit to a yoke of
slavery.” It is for freedom that Christ
has set you free.
Yet that very phrase – for freedom Christ has set
you free – is troublesome to us, because we don’t really understand what it
means. What sort of freedom is this?
Our study of freedom, living free in Christ, has led
us through some consideration of what it takes to attain this freedom. The very first thing we acknowledged was
this: Knowing who is the Lord of our
lives is essential to our freedom. It
goes back to Jesus’ words to his disciples, that those who lose their life for
my sake will gain it. It goes back even
further, to the Shema, the words from
Deuteronomy 6: The Lord is our God, the
Lord alone. And you shall love the Lord
with all your heart and soul and might.
But it begins even earlier than that. It begins in the garden, where Adam and Eve
lived in the presence of the Lord but they failed to remember to whom their thanks
were due. All of human history there has
been a yearning for reconciliation with God, and it is to be found in our
submission. We submit our lives to God
and God’s law.
We acknowledge that allegiance to anything else –material
things or nontangible things like the admiration of others – actually takes
away our freedom. We become chained to these
things and our desires for more; we come to believe that we don’t have enough
because there is always more for us to desire.
Our love of things will keep us always feeling poor, but letting go of
the desires for things will free us to be rich in the things that matter.
The shift in allegiance will begin the work of
transformation - transforming us into a new creation in Christ. And the secret we discover is this: we are truly free when we submit ourselves
not only to God but to one another.
A Chinese Christian, Eric Law, tells a story about
how his family – who was not at all rich in material things – lived in the full
freedom of Christ as a matter of habit.
Each night the family would sit down to dinner –
and there were usually guests: relatives, friends, people who worked
with them. They weren’t rich but they made
it go around. As the dishes were passed,
of course no one would want to take the last piece – we all know how that
is. So inevitably, at the end of the
meal there would be one piece of something left – meat if they were lucky – sitting
on the platter in the center of the table.
After some silence, as they all looked at the food, one person would speak.
“Grandma, why don’t you take that last piece? You’re the oldest; you should have it.” And Grandma would say, “Oh no, I don’t need
it. I’ve been eating that stuff all my
life. The children should have it
because they’re growing.” And Grandma
would look at the youngest child and say, “Why don’t you take it?”
And the youngest child, having been taught well,
would say something like my stomach is too small, and turn to an older sibling
and say, “You have an exam tomorrow, you should take it.” Then this older child would play his part in
the ritual and offer it to someone else who was more deserving. This went on until everyone had offered it to
someone else; everyone had affirmed another’s worthiness in the family. And the last piece of food would still be
sitting on the platter. It would be put
away to be made into something wonderful the next day. It was a ritual that made this family
appreciate the abundance they shared.[1]
This is what freedom in Christ is: the freedom of submitting yourself not to a
yoke of slavery – slavery to desires, slavery to fear about scarcity, slavery to
self-interest – but rather submitting yourself to one another in love.
Paul cautions his Galatian readers not to be
self-indulgent in their freedom. He
says, “Through love, become slaves to one another.” Faith redefines freedom. In Christian community, freedom has a new
meaning, and is found in becoming yoked to one another.
That’s the thing to remember about a yoke; it’s a
team thing. Usually, a pair of animals
is yoked together to perform a task.
Together they can pull more weight than they could separately. The
well-fitted yoke binds them to one another with ease and makes their burden
lighter, their work easier.
Christ said, “Come to me all you who are
heavy-laden. For my yoke is easy, my
burden light.”
And this, brothers and sisters, is the way to life.
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