Jesus and the Captives

In his inaugural sermon in Luke 4, Jesus says that he came ‘to set the oppressed free.’ Yesterday we looked at the first category of the oppressed: those who are economically oppressed. Today, we’re thinking about Jesus’s second category: the incarcerated.

Jesus said that he came “to proclaim freedom to the prisoners” (Luke 4:18). That sounds strange in our modern world when we think we need to punish people for what they’ve done wrong. Somehow in God’s kindom, that’s not the case. Frankly, I don’t understand it - but it was a priority for Jesus, so I get to lean into it and seek to learn more.

One thing that I (Bill) have been learning is that incarceration is often not done justly. Instead, incarceration is experienced radically differently entirely based on your race. Take a look at the chart at bottom - wow, what a start reality between being Black vs. White in the American justice system. Certainly there are oppressive structures that set up an entire people group to be incarcerated at FIVE times the rate of the dominant people group!

Did you grow up in your faith learning these things? Why or why not? What might it look like to participate with Jesus in “the renewal of all things” (Mt 19:28) whereby all oppression ceases?