CELEBRATING THE LOSS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Many Christians in America claim we are losing our religious freedom, believe our religious liberty is threatened and feel victimized because of their beliefs. If this is true, it means one thing - It is time to celebrate!
This may seem confusing since we live in a country that holds high the value of individual freedom. After all, according the First Amendment we have the right to practice our religion, and no one, including our government, can prohibit us from doing so.
If and when our freedom comes under attack, we are taught to stand up for and defend it at all costs. It makes sense then, many who believe we are losing our freedoms are angry, upset and ready to fight. But what many forget are not the words of our constitution, but the words of Jesus. He told his disciples, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad …” (Matthew 5:11,12).
If this is what Jesus said, then it’s possible we are responding to these perceived injustices in the wrong way.
When Jesus told to his disciples to “rejoice and be glad” he did it as someone who had no rights. He lived as a poor Jewish man in a region occupied by the powerful, oppressive Roman Empire. In his day, there was no amendment and no constitution protecting his religious freedom. Jesus’ lived on the underside of power.
Still, not once did Jesus fight for his personal rights or work to defend religious freedom. And, if we are honest, Jesus had more of a right to do this than any other person who ever lived. He could have walked around reminding people they needed to respect him, because he was God. But that’s not what he did.
Even though Jesus was in very nature God; he did not use that for his own advantage or right or liberty. Rather, he made himself nothing, and traded his nature as God for the nature of a servant, and became one of us. He humbled himself, and became obedient to death – and was nailed to a cross by the oppressor (See Philippians 2:5-8). If anyone knew what it meant to be stripped of his rights, it was Jesus.
Except Jesus did not have his rights taken away; he gave them up willingly so all people could be liberated and experience a kind of freedom greater than any nation could ever offer its citizens. I say this, because the freedom Jesus offers cannot be taken from us like the freedom offered to us by this nation or any nation.
Which means the freedom of Jesus does not need amendments or laws and it does not need to be defended. This is why when certain, unalienable rights are taken from us; we can celebrate. Because we possess a freedom so transformative, that if the day comes when we are persecuted, we are still free to love, serve and pray for those who persecute us.
Perhaps we should take a moment to reframe our understanding of religious freedom, and cease claiming it is being taken from us. What many Christians in America call persecution is not the loss of religious freedom, but the loss of religious privilege. If anything this ought to teach us we ought not to place our trust and hope in nations or empires, for they cannot truly offer lasting freedom of any sort.
The invitation then, is to place our total and exclusive allegiance in the Kingdom of Heaven, where we have a freedom in and through Jesus we simply cannot ever lose. And if we embrace this, then we will be free to live in the ways Jesus come what may – maybe then we will see more men and women than ever living in true freedom. Which only gives us one more reason to celebrate.
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