Jesus Freedom

All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips . . . (Luke 4:22)

Woe to you when all men speak well of you . . . (Luke 6:26)

The assigned text in my Bible reading plan nearly fell on Independence Day, but not quite. July 4 and Luke 4 were separated by a day or so, but I’ve been holding them together in my head. The link is freedom and the way we celebrate it and the way we define it.

July 4 is all about freedom: fireworks, flags, parades, food, certain songs played by military bands. It’s a blend of history and politics. It’s about patriotism and pride. We remember and celebrate the birth of our democracy. We celebrate the kind of freedom that tells us we can do anything we dream about doing. We revel in our identity as the land of opportunity.

Luke 4 is also about freedom – but freedom of a very different kind. This chapter shows us a Jesus kind of freedom. It opens with the wilderness temptations. As Luke tells it Jesus was tempted for 40 days. Mark makes it sound like 40 days of prayer and fasting with the temptations coming at the end of that period. Either way, Jesus is free. Hungry, but free not to eat. Wanting to make an impact, but free not to dazzle people. He is free to say no.

The chapter also says alot about the way people responded to Jesus – the way crowds gathered around him. His freedom is seen in his indifference to them. That’s not to say he didn’t care about people or love people. It is clear that he does – but he doesn’t need their approval or applause or admiration. The center of the chapter tells about Jesus’ inaugural sermon. He took Isaiah 61 as his text and after the reading jumped immediately to his application: today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. This didn’t go over so well. At first there had been a sense of hometown-boy-made-good. But the more Jesus talked, the less delight his neighbors felt in his first sermon. By the time Jesus wraps it up, they’re furious with him.

His freedom is an odd mix of love for people and indifference to them. His freedom shows me that I’m not as free as I’d like to be. Jesus heals many, but he never plays to the crowd. Many are amazed at his teaching. Many are offended at his teaching. It doesn’t matter. He’s free of the need to be spoken well of. He’s free of the fear of not being highly esteemed.

Jesus freedom means not living or acting in order to determine what others think or evoke a favorable response. It means not living or acting in order to avoid a negative response. Jesus freedom is found in a clear sense of identity and calling. That’s why the admiring crowd in Capernaum couldn’t hold Jesus for very long. “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent” (Luke 4:43).

I’d like to be free – not just free to attend any church and to cast a vote and go to school and start a business and wave a protest sign and write my congressman. I’m grateful for those things, and too often guilty of taking them for granted. But I’d like to be free with a Jesus kind of freedom. Free to give myself heart and soul to what God is doing, what God is calling me to do. Free to do so without practicing impression management.

This is the truest meaning of religious freedom.