I can’t begin to imagine the heartbreak, the pain and the panic a mother feels when their child goes missing even if it’s just for a brief moment. Imagine what it must be like if that moment is ten years. The big news event this week has been the discovery of three young women in Cleveland, Ohio, who had been missing for ten years, long thought to be dead, held captive against their will. For ten years the mothers’ of these three young women were also held captive. They were held captive and shackled by their grief and mourning. They had no answers, no closure for such a long time leaving their spirit wounded. An experience like this can cripple you spiritually and hold you back mentally. You can’t forget what happened. You can’t easily put something like this behind you and move on. You can’t stop thinking about what happened. A Mother Never Forgets.
What shackles do we carry today? What responsibilities, what burdens are holding you back from becoming the one God created you to be? What parts of your life have shackled your spirit?
Let’s be honest with ourselves and admit that even though God’s love for us is unconditional and a free gift to us in Jesus Christ, we don’t always take it or own it or even want it. God sent his son Jesus into the world to take our sins away, but do we always allow that to filter into all the dark, narrow places inside ourselves? Despite God’s amazing love for us, all of us find ourselves shackled and drawn.
Paul is no stranger to knowing what it’s like to be placed in shackles.
When Paul and Silas arrive in Philippi, they were greeted in a most unusual way. At first they thought this young girl is just weird, perhaps she has a screw lose, perhaps the lights are on but nobody’s home. Regardless, she is not in her right mind. When Paul recognized that the spirit possessing the young girl was confusing his listeners and drawing attention away from the gospel, Paul banished that spirit using the power of Jesus' name. She cries out, “These men are slaves to the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation”. This went on each time Paul and Silas came into the center of town. After a few days, Paul has had enough. He finally calls on the evil spirit to come out of her. She has been shackled by an evil spirit. To be shackled in this way is to be so controlled by it that the person says and does things that would otherwise be out of character. Also, when the demon speaks, it recognizes the power of God for what it is and, in the end, obeys that power. This young girl was shackled and drawn by this evil spirit. She was enslaved also by her owners for financial gain. These unnamed persons were manipulating her and her spirit to their own advantage, and they perceived the power of God, vested in Paul and Silas, as a threat to their power over the girl. But now she is free!
Those reaping the financial rewards from the possessed young girl are angry because she is no longer useful to them. In their eyes Paul and Silas are a threat to their business interests and economic well-being. They seize Paul and Silas and take them to court where the magistrates had them stripped down, beaten with rods and thrown into the inner most cell in the prison with their arms and legs shackled to the floor. If you speak the truth, as Paul and Silas did, you should be prepared for whatever comes your way: it’s either adulation or accusation, loving or loathing, thrones or prisons, recovery or relapse, plaudits or audits. Paul and Silas did what was right by freeing the girl from the evil spirit and were prepared for whatever the consequences would be.
Locked up in a maximum security prison, with no hope for parole, Paul and Silas are enduring some of the consequences of doing God’s will. It appears to be a hopeless situation. There are no windows to escape through. And even if they could, how would they get out of the shackles. Is this it for our holy dynamic duo? Is this the end of their missionary journey? Will these shackled jail birds be singing the blues? What will happen next? How would you react if this was you instead of them?
Despite their situation, they don’t sulk in their despair and hopelessness. They don’t roll over and give up on their ministry. They don’t even whine or complain to one another about their situation. They are praying and singing hymns of praise to God in their cell. The sound of their voices echoes throughout the prison so the other prisoners could listen. They don’t give up hope. They don’t lose faith. They are in it to win it. They’ve come too far to turn back, to go back to the way life was before for each of them.
And God’s timing couldn’t be better!
The earthquake comes, the prison cell doors all open and you have the makings of a prison riot if you’re not careful.
I don’t know what kind of man the jailer was who was on duty that night. I think it’s safe to say that he was the type who lived for the job. His job as a guard at the jail was his identity. It’s what he lived for even though he has a family to come home to. But the jailer is shackled to his job. He’s a workaholic. He’s ready to die at his own hand when the earthquake hits thinking that everyone escaped, but we know that nobody in the whole prison escaped that day. This is a turning point in the life of our jailer friend.
In the January 24, 2000 issue of Newsweek, Diana Reynolds Roome wrote a story entitled, “What’s wrong with using the ‘V” word? (The word is vacation.) She writes comparing the attitude we have toward vacation with Europeans. She writes, “…in Europe, for the most part, four weeks of paid vacation a year is mandatory and six weeks customary… Meanwhile, the effects of vacation starvation are all around me. For many people I know, 50 weeks of the year are used up in a blind struggle to get to work, retain a foothold and move upward. At home, essentials of family maintenance - paying bills, helping kids with homework - take up the little time left. There's hardly a spare hour for pursuits that remind people they are more than corporate ciphers. While our economy may be thriving, we are not. Marriages are starved of time. Children hardly ever see their parents unhurried and unharried. Anger, depression, exhaustion and stress-related illness are epidemic amongst all ages. Yet the V word is almost never mentioned as a solution. Like sleep (another commodity we don't get enough of), vacation is a remedy without harmful side effects. But because it's considered an indulgence, it doesn't fit well in our busier-than-thou culture. It's fine to want more money, but there is something shameful about asking for more time. Of course, the spirit of hard work is part of what has made America great. But there is another side to that coin. Americans, who consider themselves the freest people on earth, shackle themselves to their jobs, in the process giving up the most basic of human rights: time to be who they are.”[1]
It’s ironic that the jailer had the keys to freedom, but shackled himself to his job. But the shackles have been removed. His eyes have been opened to a new way of living; to a new way of seeing the world. “What must I do to be saved?” he asks. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household”, is the answer he receives. It is the one he accepts.
What duties shackle you today?
Is it your job? Perhaps at one time you really enjoyed going to work every day and enjoyed the work that you were asked to do. But lately, it’s as if you are just not into it anymore. So many days you feel as if you are simply “going through the motions”, doing enough to get by. Do you really want to live this way? You need resurrection power!
Is it your insatiable need for entertainment? You cannot get away from it these days. Entertainment content of all types and varieties is offered 24/7 on our computers, TVs, tablets and smartphones. It’s so much easier to sit and watch a show or play a video game rather than doing something physical and getting your hands dirty. I’ve heard it said that, “Freedom is a dirty shirt; the sun on my face and my shovel in the dirt. The shovel in the dirt keeps the devil gone.”[2] Our insatiable appetite for entertainment steal time from our jobs, children, spouses, and friends isolating us from others. We become an island onto ourselves. You weren’t created to live this way! You need resurrection power!
Is it an addiction to drugs, alcohol, sex, pornography, or gambling? Does a coworker, friend or family member need an intervention desperately? Or is it you? What are you wrestling with? You try to deal with it on your own because you’re too embarrassed to admit you have a problem but over and over and over you find yourself stuck in a moment you can’t get out of. The shackles of addiction are too strong to break alone. You can’t deal with it by yourself. You gotta have help! You need resurrection power!
Is it the shackles of an extra-marital affair? Whichever part of the love triangle you find yourself, you’re shackled into the relationship in some way. The lying, the cheating, and all the energy it takes to keep the truth hidden out of plain view is daunting. But we all know too well that no lie can live forever. What do you do? You need resurrection power!
Are you debating whether or not to point out illegal practices and/or immoral attitudes present within your company? You know it’s the right thing to do, but with a tough job market you really need this job. You don’t want to lose it. You need the courage of your convictions! You need resurrection power!
Resurrection power is the power that we receive from Christ our savior on that first Easter morning. It’s the power we receive from Christ when we come to this table to take part in the meal he has prepared for us. This bread and wine give us strength for today and hope for tomorrow. Through this meal, our shackles are gone, we’re set free. Our God, Our Savior has ransomed each one of us. And like a flood His mercy rains. God’s unending love is amazing grace.
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