HE WHO REDEEMS

November 23

HE WHO REDEEMS

Psalms 34:22 The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

Our human choices have brought us from an edenic eternal paradise to this temporal corruptible dimension of earth. The decisions we made placed us in a position of submission to our environment, and to the internal and external constitution of its elements. We were made to rule the planet, but over the millennia, the indulgent nature of our humanity has led us rather to use the planet to answer to the slavery of our personal desires. Unbeknownst to our illusions of freedom, we have forged with our own hands the chains of conformity that bind us.

Have we heard the good news yet? Have we heard the Good News of redemption; of the deliverance by the Son of God from this cruel slavery to the gods of this world and of our own poor attempts to happiness? As in the days of Moses, there is a lamb Egypt whose blood speaks for the redemption of our hearts.

There is a wealthy British legislator who uses her personal wealth to “buy” persecuted Sudanese Christian who have been captured and enslaved because of their religion. She buys them, only in order to set them free. The slave traders bring the slaves to her because she offers a good price. When she arrives she sometimes can only buy half the slaves brought to her. There was also a German businessman who touched by the plight of the German Jews during WW 2 “bought” with his own money the Jewish workers of his factory so they wouldn’t be sent to death camps. When he had spent all he had redeeming as many as he could, he cried with regret for his past foolish expenditures, money which he saw now, could have been much better spent.

Jesus on the contrary has infinite wealth. He has enough to buy us all from the slavery created by our foolish decisions. Jesus offers a good price to the devil, the slave trader of this world: the price of His own blood. Jesus can and will spare us from the enslaving of our own desires. There is neither limit nor end to the flow of His bleeding grace shed with tears, love and sincere empathy. He redeems all those of us who come to Him, paying with the full price of His blood as if we were the only one. We may only see it by faith now, but in the end, the whole world will know whose we are (1 Corinthians 13:12).

1 Peter 1:18-19  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;  (19)  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: