BACK TO PRISON?

-CoNnEcT- In the movie the Shawshank Redemption, there's a character by the name of Brooks who had been locked up almost his entire life. The only place he could call home was the cold concrete walls of Shawshank prison. So after nearly sixty years of being locked up, he finally gets out on parole. But soon after his release, Brooks begins to realize how much he misses the confines of that prison. He has all the freedom in the world. He's been waiting to be back in the real world for so long, but when he actually tastes a little bit of freedom, he doesn't know what to do with it. So he starts thinking of ways he can get back in. He's thinking about crimes he can commit that would send him back to jail. Anyway to go back to that bondage is alright with him.

-ReFlEcT- Read Matthew 12
Key Verses:1-14
Jesus is encounterd by a group of people who are also in bondage. Unlike Brooks, there bondage isn't limited to bars and chains. They are in bondage to the law. They've grown up in a system that tells them how to do everything. So long as they follow the prescribed method, they've got it made. But Jesus came to give humanity freedom. He came that we may have life and have it more abundantly. He had taught about this freedom. He had lived this freedom and so did his disciples. So when the Pharisees challenged Jesus for breaking the law by eating and healing people on the Sabbath day, they were expressing their comfort with bondage. Freedom had been offered; it had been promised, but they preferred their prison cells.

-DiReCt- In our lives, we should reflect on the ways that Jesus has freed us. He has freed us from the guilt of our mistakes. He has freed us from our own self-righteousness. He has freed us from the law. Yet we prefer our prisons. We don't want to the good thing or the responsible thing, we just want to the right thing (the thing that the law tells us we need to do). Guilt from our bad decisions can often be very hard to bear. It can trap us and entangle us, but Jesus has come to give us freedom from this trap. Don't be like the Pharisees. Don't be like Brooks. Don't go back to the prison. For in the end, Brooks couldn't find a way to get back into the prison. In the end, he couldn't return to the big house and couldn't stand the new freedom. So, he simply took his own life. Likewise as much as we might try to live up to the standards of the law, we are always going to fall short, we are always going to fail. However, if we turn to Jesus, "the Lord of the Sabbath," we will find our true freedom and we will avoid the self-destruction that Brooks fell into.

-Have you ever felt like you were in a prison?
-Is there any part about being a Christian that you feel like you would rather avoid because its too hard or "different"?
-Pray for your youth group peers this week and ask God to help us all break out of our prisons and find freedom in Jesus.

Jesus, you came to save us and give us abundant life. Thank you. Please help us to be free in you so that we can live a life of joy and peace. Amen.