The Sound of Salvation

Our Book Study Sunday School Class for adults recently finished a biography of world renowned tuberculosis specialist Dr. Paul Farmer, written by Tracy Kidder.  In the book Kidder relates a visit he made with Dr. Farmer to treat tuberculosis and AIDS patients in a Russian prison. As they left the prison and the iron-barred door slammed behind them, Kidder asked Dr. Farmer: “Ever imagine what that sounds like from the inside?” No matter how closely we identify with and care about those closed in behind the iron doors of suffering, shame, isolation, and hopelessness, the sound of that door is never the same when heard from the outside as it is for those on the inside.  Whether the prison-house experience has come about through one’s own poor choices and misbehavior or through circumstances of innocence beyond one’s control, the sound of the door closing in on you is totally different from the sound of it closing behind you on someone else.

A truly remarkable thing about Jesus is that he voluntarily joined himself with the sufferers and outcasts locked away behind the prison-house doors of this earthly existence.  Surrendering any claim to immunity and invulnerability, Jesus came among as one of us, and heard the sound of the iron bars slamming shut in a way that only an insider can.  Yet through it all, though his mortal life was subject to all the adversities, insults, disappointments, and sources of distress to which all of humanity is subject, his spirit remained free; his hope secure. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms of God, Jesus thrived.  Though imprisoned with the rest of humankind, he never lost his God-given freedom. His faith, hope, and love not only endured, they increased. While yet earthbound, his life became eternal.  And when at last his earthly days had run their course, his faith prevailed in spite of the worst that sin, evil, and wanton destructiveness could contrive against him. His final experience was not that of death, but of life everlasting. Perhaps most remarkable of all is that his faithfulness, even to the point of death upon the cross, not only secured his own freedom and eternal reward, it also enabled us to receive that same freedom and reward from the God of mercy he embodied.

That is the heart of the Gospel and it is at the foundation of our observance of the season of Lent.  It is the recognition that, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus his Son, God now knows the dreadful sound of mortality’s iron door as we hear it, from the inside.  And by the gracious gift of God, through his Son Jesus Christ, we now hear the sweet sound of that iron door being opened onto the freedom and eternal life God’s mercy provides us, as Jesus made it known.