How can you help? This is the main question that we will explore. Understand that bad charity will drive out good charity. If you pity them, treat them as children, you will offer them help that will only serve to imprison them deeper. You will be worn out and pain will belong to you, to them, and to your community. Additionally, we need to do this in the power of Jesus.
“When I came to you, brothers, I didn’t come with excellence of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” -1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Jesus, the light of the world. Jesus the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus who brings us salvation, truth, grace, and love. That Jesus when He came to the earth and gave us His first recorded sermon, took up the book of Isaiah and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
In this declaration of His reason for coming to the Earth, Jesus is indicating at the very least a portion of His mission is to set captives free. Now if you are like me, you might imagine a modern-day prison or jail that you have seen on television, movies or actually visited in person. These are typically semi-clean and at least semi-well lit. But when Jesus read this passage, His audience and the audience that received Isaiah’s original text would not have imagined anything so majestic. Prisons at that time were dark, filled with foul smells and obnoxious sounds. Moisture, waste, rats, spoiled food, and more filled inmates with much hopelessness.
I suggest that Jesus is not simply talking about folks who are in physical captivity, but also those that are in the captivity of sin. This sin creates a despondency not that much different than the prisons of old.
John 8:34 – Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
