Freedom From Fear

The eyes of this kitten tell of trauma and unspeakable fear.  She (He?) can hardly realize that she is now safe -- perhaps she will never again be mentally seccure as long as the memory of fire stays with her.  This is why Jesus said, "Woe to those who cause scandal/trauma to a child; it would be better for that person if a millstone were tied around his neck and he be cast into the sea." 

James Meredith's book, A Mission From God, tells of the trauma that Black people in Mississippi endured ever since the Emancipation Declaration.  Nominally, they were "free from slavery," but they were never free from fear.  They lived always under the domination, the physical and psychological authority of the white man; they lived in perpetual fear and anxiety.  They were not "free" to be the persons God created them to be; they were never free to be educated, to be leaders, to be "men."

When Meredith endured the constant threat of death, the insults and bricks, the flat tires and social isolation of entering the University of Mississippi, he carried in his arms every black man and woman in the State of Mississippi.  When he walked across the stage to take his diploma, every black man and woman in Mississippi knew that they could never again "...be held down by the directives of the most cherished and sanctified institution of white supremacy" (p.192).

The battle had not been entirely won, as James Meredith clearly states, but it was a beginning.  There were still voting rights and "the dark side of human nature" to be won:

But there are some things a man must do in his life, actions that answer the callings of conscience.  There are some feelings that cannot be explained with mere words.  Fear is one of them.  It was fear, and its consequences for this country, that brought me to Mississippi [after graduation].  It was the fear of millions of black Americans that prevented them from voting, that most basic expression of citizenhood (p. 201).

 

James Meredith, like the fireman pictured above, was willing to face the fires of hell and hatred, was willing to enter into his own death, in order to come out of it carrying in his arms those whose whole life was lived under the threat of death.  Clearly, he was on "a mission from God."

 

This is the meaning of Jesus' Resurrection from the dead.  From the beginning of time, every man has lived in slavery to fear -- and the fear of death has been the greatest.  As long as fear rules our lives, we are still slaves; we are not free to live the lives we were created to live -- lives of joy, lives of peace, lives of sharing and giving -- the life that God lives in the Trinity of Love.

 

It was not enough for Jesus to live a "good life;" He had to enter death once and for all to conquer its dominion over our souls.  He had to enter fear and anxiety; like James Meredith, He had to face the powers and dominions -- the spirits that ruled over mankind -- and He had to conquer them forever.  Like Meredith walking across that stage to receive from the State of Mississippi his diploma, the seal of approval and respect as a man, Jesus emerged from the grave of death carrying in His arms every single person who had been traumatized by evil, corruption, and fear.  No longer would we have to live under the threat of death, of evil, of destruction.  In His arms, we are set free once and for all.

 

In Luke, Chapter 9, just before His death, Jesus experiences the Transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about His Exodus (if you have an accurate translation), which "... He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem."  The term is used deliberately, to echo the first Exodus from slavery in Egypt.  Like Moses, Jesus has led us slaves to a new freedom, freedom from fear, because He has destroyed "every sovereignty and every authority and power" that rules over us (I Cor. 15: 20-28).

 

Freedom from Fear, just as it was in Mississippi -- and is still going on today-- is a gradual process.  It does not happen all at once.  But, like the rescued kitten above, we are rescued in the arms of the only One Who can carry us to safety and keep us safe from harm.  Then, and only then, can we begin to live the lives we were meant to live.