LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Loss of Freedom (1)
When examining the gospels, especially that of John, something amazing about our Lord Jesus Christ calls attention: his lack of freedom. Being the freest being that has ever walked the earth, in a certain aspect he did not have freedom, since he did and said only what the Father told him, and in the times that the Father had appointed him.
When the time agreed in the eternal divine council was fulfilled, God sent the Son. As it says in Scripture: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son" (Gal. 4:4). Then, being introduced into the world, the Son said: "Behold, I come, O God, to do your will" (Heb. 10:7). Everything is clear and in order: God sends, and the Son comes. Since then, everything in the life of the Lord Jesus is done in total obedience to the Father. He said, "I do nothing of myself, but as the Father taught me, so I speak" (John 8:28). "The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own, but the Father who dwells in me does the works" (John 14:10).
This is extremely surprising to us, since we presume to know our way and our times, to know what to say and when. We seek opportunities and seize them as soon as they arise. We organize our time and plan our future well in advance. And we get upset when something interferes with what we are doing.
Instead, the Lord shows himself almost helpless, as having no will of his own, as not knowing what to do. It seems to us that he had many opportunities, but that he did not always take advantage of them. To his brothers who invited him to Jerusalem he said: "My time has not yet come, but your time is always ready" (John 7:6). To his mother, on another occasion he said: "My hour has not yet come" (John 2:4). Instead, on another occasion, when some Greeks were looking for him, he said: "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (John 12:23). It was time to go to the cross.
It seems to us that, once saved, we should take advantage of every minute by doing and saying things; however, everything we do without a close dependence on God will be in vain and without profit. The Lord lived thirty-three and a half years, but only the last three and a half years did he have a public ministry. And from that time, he was probably much less the one that he was with the people. Yet how well spent it was, and how fruitful.
How much we need to lose our freedom, to enter a new dimension of absolute dependence on God, so that in our brief and wasted life we do at least a couple of good things.