A few weeks ago in February a 46 year old woman went to sleep in her home in Bartlett, just a few blocks from my home.[i] A few hours later, a fire started in the home. The two story house filled with smoke. A neighbor noticed and called the fire department. When firefighters arrived, they searched inside and found the woman unconscious in her bedroom. They carried her out and doused the fire. Though it may have been a typical rescue for the fire crew, I’m sure it was anything but typical for that poor woman. She owes her life to that crew. She would not be alive today were it not for that rescue.
I recently read of a famous kidnapping and ransom connected to Memphis.[ii] George “Machine Gun” Kelly was an infamous gangster from the prohibition era. He was born in Memphis where he worked for a small-time gangster. After being arrested several times in Memphis he moved to Oklahoma City. There he married a woman named Kathryn, a seasoned criminal. She purchased a machine gun for George and began promoting him as “Machine Gun” Kelly. Together they pulled off many bank robberies. But in 1933, they decided to kidnap wealthy oil tycoon Charles Urschel. They broke into Urschel’s house, kidnapped him, and hid him on a ranch in rural Texas. They demanded $200,000 for his release-a large sum of money in the 1930’s. Urschel’s family and friends, anxious to get him back, paid the ransom and Urschel was freed. From details Urschel provided, investigators concluded he had been kidnapped by “Machine Gun” Kelly. A nationwide hunt for Kelly began. In September of 1933, Kelly and his wife were apprehended at a friend’s house in Memphis. They were flown to Oklahoma, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. I’ve never been kidnapped. But if I was being held by one of the most notorious criminals of my time, I would beg for my friends and family to pay the ransom. And I would hope they would pay whatever it cost to set me free.
Rescue. Ransom. Both have to do with liberating someone from harm. Both carry the idea of the cost of that liberation. There is a cost which firefighters potentially pay when they storm a burning home to rescue an unconscious woman. There was a price which Charles Urschel’s family paid to ransom him from that gangster.
These ideas of rescue and ransom are found in the biblical word “redemption” or “redeem.” On Sunday mornings, as part of the Cross Examination series we are exploring images which the Bible uses to picture what took place on the cross. Last week we explored the word “propitiation” and saw through that word how the cross deals with the wrath of God. This morning we focus on the word “redemption” or “redeem.”
People who knew nothing about the Bible used this word in the ancient world. It was used to describe the price paid to free a slave. Someone was a slave, and in order to be rescued or ransomed or redeemed from his enslavement, a price could paid.[iii] That money would pay for his release. He would be redeemed.
The word not only had roots in the secular culture, it also had roots in the Old Testament. “Redeem” was used to describe what God did when he delivered the slaves in Egypt: Deut. 7:8: But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. God redeemed Israel from Egypt. That is, he rescued them from Egypt. In the Old Testament the word “redeem” carried the idea of liberation and the cost of that liberation.[iv] To be redeemed is to be rescued or ransomed at great cost.
But most of us, I suspect, don’t feel like we need rescue or ransom. You probably didn’t wake up in a burning house this morning begging for a firefighter to rescue you. You probably didn’t just get released from a kidnapper to whom loved ones gave a ransom. Most of us don’t seem to need rescue or ransom. Yet, upon further reflection, perhaps we do.
A few years ago the New York University Child Study Center ran an ad campaign. [v]They wanted to highlight mental illnesses among children. The Center felt that millions of children in the United States are being held hostage by mental illnesses and no one seems to care. So, in order to draw attention to this hidden reality, the Center ran an ad campaign consisting of ransom notes highlighting autism, Asperger’s Syndrome; ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorder, depression and bulimia. Here are some of the ransom notes:
We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and driving him into a life of complete isolation. It’s up to you now…Asperger’s Syndrome
We have taken your son. We have imprisoned him in a maze of darkness with no hope of ever getting out. Do nothing and see what happens…Depression
The ads were so controversial that the Center pulled them. But they are a shocking reminder that there are invisible captors which enslave us, though we may not even notice.
Peter gets at this with his use of the word “redeem” in 1 Pet. 1:18-19: 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. Peter says that we’ve been redeemed. We’ve been rescued and ransomed. From what? From “the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.” It’s not a gangster who has kidnapped us. It’s not a fire which has endangered us. It’s “the empty way of life” from which Jesus rescued us. What is this empty way of life?
When we explore Peter’s letter we see at least three portraits which explain the “empty way of life” Peter may have in mind.
- First, in 2:10 Peter describes his readers as once “not a people.” Now, however, they “are the people of God.” They were living a life in which there was no real sense of acceptance, no sense of community, no reality of belonging to a group or a people that mattered. The “empty way of life” Peter mentions may include this. We need rescue from our loneliness.
- Second, in 2:11 Peter describes “sinful desires” which “war against your soul.” This seems related to the idea raised in 1:14 where Peter mentions “evil desires” to which we conform. That word “conform” means “to shape” or “to mold.” Our own passions and desires can shape us and mold us into people we don’t want to be. We can become enslaved by our own passions and desires.[vi] Here in 2:11 Peter says these passions can wage war against us. The “empty way of life” Peter mentions may include this. We need rescue from our longings.
- Third, in 5:8 Peter describes the devil who “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” There is a dark and personal force who is working against us, trying to hold us captive. We need rescue from the lion. Can you see how there is a sense in which we are held captive, in which we are in danger, even from things we cannot see?
Thomas Costain’s book The Three Edwards describes the life of Raynald III, a 14th-century duke.[vii] He was very overweight. After a quarrel, Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a revolt against Raynald. Edward captured Raynald, but did not kill him. Instead, he built a room around Raynald and promised Raynald could leave the room whenever he wished. The room had several windows and a door of near-normal size-none of which were locked or barred. The problem was Raynald’s size. To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight so he would fit through the door. But each day Edward sent a variety of delicious foods into the room. Instead of dieting his way out of prison, Raynald grew fatter. He stayed in that room for 10 years. He was a prisoner of his physical longings. Have you ever felt that way-trapped by your own passions? Your own hungers? I recently read that some 30 million Americans are addicted to pornography.[viii] I listened last Wednesday night as one our teens shared his own testimony of being addicted to porn. Ask these people. I’m sure they can tell you they feel enslaved. We need rescue from our longings.
I’ve known Charlene for over five years. She used to live close to the University of Memphis. Charlene contacted me one day because she was being attacked by the Devil. It was as real to her as being attacked by a mugger. She was frantic. We met for months praying together and studying Scripture together. Eventually I baptized her. She grasped at anything that could help her escape the Devil. I’ll bet some of you can sympathize. Some of you have had experiences in which you discerned the presence of a dark force working against you-trying to destroy your marriage or your children. We need rescue from the lion.
And what about this issue raised by Peter about not being a people, not belonging? Loneliness can be a prison of its own. Author John Ortberg reveals this in a humorous way. [ix] He recalls a plane trip. The first-class passengers were served gourmet food on china and crystal. Ortberg and the others in coach ate snacks in paper bags. The first-class passengers had room to stretch and sleep. Those in coach, he writes, “were sitting with a proximity usually reserved for engaged couples in the back row of a movie.” On that flight there is a curtain drawn to separate first class from coach. Ortberg writes that “It is not to be violated; it is like the Berlin Wall or the veil that separated the Court of the Gentiles from the Holy of Holies in the temple at Jerusalem. The curtain is a reminder throughout the flight that some people are first class and some aren’t. Those who aren’t first class are not to violate the boundary.” Even something as simple as a plane ride reminds us that we are isolated. We do not belong. And for those who are genuinely rejected in life, there is no greater prison than isolation. We need rescue from our loneliness.
I’d say there are a lot of us needing rescue and ransom today. Wouldn’t you? Who knows how many of us here this morning are being held captive by a longing they cannot seem to escape? Who knows how many of us are enslaved by the fear of, if not an attack by, the lion. Who knows how many of us this very day feel trapped in our loneliness? Yes, we are in need of rescue. We are in need of ransom. We need to be redeemed.
And the good news of Scripture is this: Jesus came to redeem you. Jesus came to rescue you. Jesus came to ransom you. Jesus himself says in Mk. 10:45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. He came to ransom you from that longing that has kidnapped you, that lion that has enslaved you and that loneliness that imprisons you.
And he was willing to pay the ultimate price to do so. Earlier this year there was a report regarding the cost of search and rescue in New Hampshire.[x] The Fish and Game Department in New Hampshire was rescuing stranded hikers and the like so frequently that they were running out of money. They asked the legislature to change the law so that they could bill the people they rescued. It’s not that they don’t want to rescue more. It’s that they can’t afford to do it.
But Jesus, Peter says, was willing to pay the greatest price to rescue us: 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19 TNIV). It didn’t cost Jesus silver and gold. It cost his life. He was willing to pay a ransom of blood.
You may have seen the recent story about seven-year-old Alexis Goggins from Detroit.[xi] Alexis and her mother were passengers in a friend’s SUV. Then the mother’s former boyfriend approached the SUV with a gun. He had come, apparently, to shoot Alexis’ mother. But just as the gunman was about to fire, seven- year-old Alexis screamed “Don’t hurt my mother!” and threw herself in between the gun and her mother. Six bullets tore into her body, one blinding her right eye. Thankfully, Alexis survived, though is enduring months of therapy. She paid a high price to rescue her mother.
And Jesus, Peter said, paid an even higher price: 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19 TNIV). Jesus came to free you from those longings, that lion, and that loneliness. It was a rescue that cost him his life.
And that rescue changes the way we live. You can bet that woman taken from her burning home recently will live with gratitude for the rest of her life. You can be that man ransomed from “Machine Gun” Kelley had a new attitude about life when he walked to freedom. Notice the word “for” in 1 Pet. 1:18 18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. (1 Pet. 1:18-19 TNIV). The word “for” means this thought is connected to the one just before it. And what is that thought? Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear (1 Pet. 1:17) We don’t have time to explore this in depth. But in general Peter is saying that because you have been rescued at such a high price, live a life of reverence and respect for the one who rescued you.
The 1998 film “Saving Private Ryan” tells how Captain Miller and his men rescue young Private Ryan in the midst of D-Day and the storming of the beaches at Normandy.[xii] In the end, many of Miller’s men and Miller himself sacrifice their lives to rescue Private Ryan. There is a scene at the end of the movie where Private Ryan faces Miller. Miller is dying from the rescue. With his last breath he tells Private Ryan, “Earn this. Earn it.” The scene then moves forward in time. Private Ryan, now old, stands amidst the crosses planted at Normandy. Ryan faces the cross of Captain Miller. He reflects upon his life. He reflects upon the price paid for his freedom. Like the film, the Christian message is that someone rescued us at the cost of his own life. Like the film, the Christian message is that this costly rescue ought to impact how we live. But unlike the film, the Christian message is not “Earn this. Earn it.” We can’t. We can’t earn the rescue we’ve been given. All we can do is live with joy and reverence for the one who gave his life to ransom ours.
[i] “Woman rescued during home fire” Memphis Briefs Wednesday, February 20, 2008, Chris Conley, http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/feb/20/memphis-briefs-wednesday/.
[ii] http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/mgk.htm
[iii] Thomas Schreiner Romans Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker, 1998), 190.
[iv] Thomas Schreiner Romans Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Baker, 1998), 190.
[v] http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS197230+03-Dec-2007+BW20071203
[vi] James Thompson The Church in Exile (ACU Press, 1990), 30-32.
[vii] Thomas Costain, The Three Edwards (Buccaneer Books, 1994).
[viii] Timothy C. Morgan, “Porn’s Stranglehold,” Christianity Today (March, 2008), 7 commenting on the article byJohn W. Kennedy “Help for the Sexually Desperate,” Christianity Today (March, 2008), 28-35.
[ix] John Ortberg, Everybody’s Normal Till You Get To Know Them (Zondervan, 2003).
[x] Law Would Make It Easier To Recoup Rescue Costs: State Spends Thousands To Rescue Stranded Hikers, (2/19/08), http://www.wmur.com/news/15346173/detail.html.
[xi] Corey Williams, “Healing from shooting, ‘Angel’ in therapy” The Commercial Appeal (2/21/08), A2.
[xii] “Saving Private Ryan” starring Tom Hanks, directed by Stephen Spielberg, Dreamworks, 1998, rated R.
