Chains Shall Break
“Chains shall He break,
For the slave is our brother,
And in His Name,
All oppression shall cease.”
-”O Holy Night”
Oppression is a dark word for a Christmas song. It’s heavy and it doesn’t let you breathe easily. Oppressed. Forced down. Silenced. Made small and easy to ignore.
I am aware enough of the world we live in to know that within our collective history His Name has been invoked by too many oppressors in an attempt to justify actions that have little to do with the heart or message of Jesus Christ. Even now people are dragging that Holy Name through the mud by tying it up with their own selfishness and cruelty towards anyone who is different than them. Christianity as a culture has a fair amount of baggage.
I’ve been reading through the book of Acts lately and I’ve been reminded what a force Jesus’ followers were in the 1st century world. These “Followers of The Way,” later called Christians, turned their world upside down (Acts 17:6). They were feared and hated by those in power, both religious and political, because their message and way of life was unsettling. A message that was life-altering and universal. That could bind together flawlessly pious and brazen sinners as brothers and co-laborers. A movement funded in no small part by women and that resulted in a group of people who blurred ethnic and cultural lines as they broke bread and prayed together.
The first Christians shook the world, not by gaining power but by freely giving it away. Money, possessions, influence, even relationships were counted as nothing compared to the great hope that they had in Christ Jesus. They lifted each other up, not out of pity or because it gave them a warm feeling, but because there was no divide between your need and my resources.
Sometimes it’s hard to see past all the horrible things that are happening right now. The oppression. The pain and the fear and the sadness. But in the midst of everything that is going wrong, there are people around the world who are experiencing the grace that Christ offers. Even now chains are breaking. Right now, someone is understanding for the first time that she is worthy of being loved. Someone else is tasting true freedom and he has never felt lighter. A young girl knows what home feels like. A stranger is being welcomed. An old hurt is being forgiven.
His Name will be glorified with or without us. Someday, all wrongs will be made right. Oppression will at last be wiped from the earth. But right now we have the unique privilege of being able to bring love and kindness and justice in His Name. To be His hands and feet. To listen to the silenced, defend the defenseless, provide for the desperate, and love the lonely. This is how we’ll shake our world.
