I was in Prison

jail cells

Have you visited someone in prison lately? Or talked to, encouraged, or assisted such a person? I’ve never visited anyone in jail and doubt I ever will; the thought terrifies me. But when I consider how my God wants me to serve, I can’t ignore Jesus’ comment,  “I was in prison and you came to visit me” (Matthew 25:36). 

But that comment also reminds me of what someone close to me once said. She had stepped in to spend several weeks with the mother-in-law we cared for, so my husband and I could vacation. She was glad to do it, and all went well, but afterward she commented, “It’s like being in prison.” I had to agree; at times, caregiving felt like prison. But then again, my mother-in-law’s frailties and needs imprisoned her, too. And many are imprisoned by other mental and physical ailments, by addiction, or by injustice. Others are imprisoned by shame, fear, or abusive relationships. So we’re all often around people in prison. And actually, to some degree or another, we’re all in one kind of prison.

Prisons isolate

Prisons confine and restrict. They also isolate us from others, and isolation compounds the pain of imprisonment. So it’s interesting that Jesus highlights visiting those in prison, giving them our time and attention, acknowledging the pain and isolation of imprisonment.

God opens prison doors.

We don’t open those prison doors. But God does. It’s actually the main thing he does. The Psalms celebrate how God freed his people from the prison of slavery in Egypt: “The Lord sets prisoners free” (Psalm 146:7); “he leads out the prisoners with singing” (Psalm 68:6). God opened jail doors for Peter (Acts 12) and Paul and Silas (Acts 16). But all talk of freedom from prison culminates and centers on the self-sacrifice of Jesus, whose death is our get-out-of-jail-free card, and whose resurrection foreshadows and guarantees our own now-and-forever freedom. “[I]f the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36).

So we can and do visit people in every kind of prison, doing so as fellow prisoners experiencing the life-giving freedom we’ve received through God’s grace. 

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