Light and Liberation
The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? – Psalm 27:1 (NLT)
Fear is a big word. And quite an intimidating word, to say the least. So intimidating that many of our fears are intensified by our fears of facing fear head on.
Looking soberly at all the gruesome details of some living nightmare, the psalmist arrives upon two solutions found in his faith: light and liberation.
I’m not an avid fan of horror movies, but I’ve never seen a threat posed in any of them that the dynamic duos of light and liberation could not remedy.
We need light to see danger in all its dark, deceptive dimensions. And we need liberative agency, which doesn’t take us out of danger, but delivers us from the desperations and despairs of danger.
In the hearts of believers, it was dim on that dismal day after the horrible execution of their Messiah. Yet, through the ominous shadows of death and grief, burning embers of compassion gave light to the pathway toward Joseph’s tomb. When blessedness is burned to the ground, only love for what has been lost can light the way forward.
The emptiness of the tomb signaled a void at the very core of evil itself, a hollowness in the hole of hell. A vivid reminder that for believers, the shadows of death are just that: mere shadows, to be walked through.
The tomb was the worst consequence the forces aligned against Christ could offer. It kept money and material at the top, it kept the marginalized and the disenfranchised at the bottom, and it held salvation hostage by threatening death to anyone who dared to elevate love above law.
The believers found liberation from their worst fears in the light of that empty tomb. And they not only lived through the horror. They found new life in it.
Prayer
Lord, in the real-life horrors we face, thank you for light and liberation. Amen.
About the AuthorKenneth L. Samuel is Pastor of Victory for the World Church, Decatur, Georgia.