Rescued
I recently re-watched the HBO series Band of Brothers, a World War II story told through the eyes of Easy Company (a parachute rifle company in the US Army) from training for D-Day in June 1944 to the end of the war the next summer. The scenes of liberated towns celebrating in the series do not do justice to the relief and joy felt by the citizens of Europe as the Allied armies pushed the Nazis back. They had lived under tyranny for over four years without much hope of rescue. Then, truly ‘out of the blue’, salvation comes from land and sky as hundreds of thousands of soldiers cross the English Channel. Though the fight was not over when the men of Easy Company landed at Normandy, hope was rekindled.
If you recall, last week we examined our capture by evil and ended by echoing humanity’s cry to God: “What, if anything, are You going to do about it?” Well, to use the analogy of World War II, we can clearly state: God sent his own Paratrooper from the sky to rescue us from tyranny. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption” (Gal. 4:4-5). You know the story well, but read with fresh eyes: The Father sends his only begotten Son into the world to live like us in all things except sin. He infiltrates a land captured by the power of evil and languishing under the tyranny of the Devil. He arrives in secret, born of a simple peasant woman in the backwaters of the Roman Empire. He lives quietly for thirty years before embarking on a remarkable three-year mission to establish a beachhead for the Kingdom of God amidst the Kingdom of Satan. He casts out the Evil One, heals the sick and deformed, and teaches a message of rescue and salvation to all who will rally to his banner. Yet when the authorities catch up with him, they conduct a sham trial and execute him before the crowds with a Roman torture device meant to humiliate him and discredit his mission. God’s plan, which had begun to bud with the ministry of his Son, now appears all but defeated. The events of Good Friday shatters the hope of many of his disciples, and slavery looks like their only future. Yet, wonder of wonders, the third day brings mysterious and awe-inspiring news: this teacher and healer, who they thought dead and buried, had risen from the dead! His repeated appearances to his disciples reaffirms this fact beyond doubt. He makes them understand that his death was necessary to forgive their sins and free them from the Devil’s grasp. This message was meant not just for the disciples of his day, but for all generations: God has rescued us from our capture by the Devil through the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus Christ. Next week, we’ll explore our final question, “Knowing what God has done for us, how do we respond?”