Jesus – The First Prison Breaker

God in a man’s body. That is imprisonment. But Jesus was the first one to break out. And He can break us out too..if we will let Him.

God chose to be born human, to become a man, and to dwell among us. He chose imprisonment. Why? So that He could break us out. That’s the ultimate aquarium, to put God in a small human body.

God said through Isaiah the prophet, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me. To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners” (Isaiah 61:1 NAS)

For Him to set captives free, He first had to start the prison break-out…to break some of the religious aquarium rules. As soon as His baptism was over and the Spirit descended on Him like a dove, He was led by that same Spirit into the wilderness. Forty days of fasting. And we would all guess there was an enormous amount of quiet time listening to His Father. Then the enemy—Satan himself—attempted to imprison Christ forever by trying the same thing as he did in the garden…lying. The enemy spoke to Christ, misquoting what God had said. Jesus passed through that test by letting Satan know exactly what God had said. It is important to know exactly what God said—that is the reason we start with His word as Relational Habit Number One, as you will see. (you have to know Him to show Him)

But this wasn’t His first brush with imprisoned living. He was born into captivity in an oppressive world where the governmental system was very dictatorial. The prevailing religious system was incredibly regulated and systematic.  A prison in itself. Those living without God were imprisoned by the enemy. And the religious leaders—who were supposed to be there to point to God, had set up their own version of prison. Religious prison. The “relationship with God”  had been missing from that system for many years.

Jesus was planning a prison break. He had to start the break Himself before He could truly break us out. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers” (John 10:1-5). The line that strikes me is, He goes before them. He is the One who leads. He went first. Three years of showing twelve men how to disciple, “as they go.” Then the cross and the empty tomb finished the break-out. He had then done all He was to do…this time (smile).  

He’ll be back !!!

In FishPrison p. 28.