Matthew 26:39 (NIV) 39Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will."
Mark 10:45 (NIV) 45For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Galatians 5:1, 13-15 (NIV) 1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
At the beginning of creation, God gave us freedom to choose. God wants freedom to mark our life. Jesus Christ, in His life with us, underlined that gift of freedom and affirmed that gift. He respected our freedom in His dealing with us, allowing us to accept or reject Him. His death on the Cross was His ultimate act of respecting our freedom while calling us to a love relationship with God. God wants our life to have a spirit of freedom that nothing in life or even death itself can destroy.
Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. How free are you? How free are you from the various yokes that would deprive us of the freedom God gave us and Jesus died to give back to us? How free are you from the busyness of life, busyness that has been imposed on you? How many of you are staggering under the burden of doing many good and important things? How free are you from other people’s agendas for you?
How can we shed the yokes of slavery that can slip so easily upon us? How can we have the life of freedom that Christ wants for us? Serving others through love is the way we choose freedom and hold on to the freedom God wants us to have. Do we believe this? Can we believe this?
Whoever lived more freely than Jesus did? He did not reach out and grasp life but allowed the gifts of God to come to Him in their own measure according to God’s will. He lived an unrushed life and had an eye for the opportunities that God gave Him. And when under pressure to please His friends and to appease His enemies He chose to do the will of God the Father.
Whoever lived more freely than Jesus did? And yet, He came to serve. Use your freedom as an opportunity to serve one another through love. Serve in ways that demonstrate God’s grace.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope June 20, 1999
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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