Prisoner

The corner was well-lit in comparison to the rest of the dark, damp prison cell. The prisoner huddled by the light from the slit at the top of the wall, the only wall he thought he would ever see again. Slowly he pulled his bleeding, bruised ankles towards his knees. The metal clanked on the ground as the large iron fetters that bound him scraped across the stone floor.

The loneliness and the emptiness filled the cell and his mind. He had nothing to think on except for how far he had fallen. How far he had come. He had not meant to end up this way. Now it was too late.

A loud noise shook him out of his reverie. He managed to open his eyes and find the source.

A man was standing at the door of his cell. Curious, the prisoner lifted his head but did not say anything. The man was unlocking the door.

Slowly, the door swung open. The man did not enter. "Come. Follow me, I will set you free," he said, calmly.

The prisoner was too surprised at first to respond. "What... do you mean?" The question came slowly.

Hope started to rise. The prisoner felt his heart stir as the man said, "Get up, bring your chains, and follow me."

The prisoner rose. Instant stinging pain brought a grimace to his face as he struggled to pull the weight of the fetters that circled his hands and feet.

"I will try," the prisoner said, and he held up his chains to the man. "But I can't carry these on my own. They're too heavy. They hurt me. They bring me down."

The man smiled, understandingly. "I know, but I can't take them off. They are a part of you. You will have to do your best to get rid of them yourself. I will help you hide them, but they will always be there."

Saddened, the prisoner's eyes fell. His thin, weak arms let the chains fall. "I will never get anywhere with these chains. I will not be able to live the way I ought and follow you like I should. Go on without me."

He trudged back to his corner in weariness and disappointment. This man had promised freedom, but only from his cell and imminent death. But the chains were his real captors, and the reason he was in the cell. If he didn't need chains, he wouldn't need to be in prison.






Years later, the prisoner lay curled in a haphazard pile in the same corner of the same cell. He had almost given up hope of ever being set free.

Until the day another man came to the door of his cell and began to unlock it. Vaguely, the prisoner recalled his previous experience. He knew what this man would say.

Barely able to lift his head, the prisoner turned his face toward the man. This man really resembled the first one.

"Come. Follow me, I will set you free," said the man.

The prisoner had heard this line before. "No, my chains... I want to get out of here, but I... can't. I can't carry these chains on my own. They're too heavy. They hurt me. They bring me down."

The man smiled, understandingly. "I know, don't you see? That's why I came. If you're willing, I will take them off, but you have to trust me."

The prisoner's eyes grew wide. Unable to do or say anything but scrape his way across the dirty, broken floor towards the man, he struggled to hold out his bound, bleeding hands.

The next instant, the chains were loosened, in another, they were removed. Holding the prisoner's former fetters, the man reached out his hand to the free man. "Come. I'll carry them for you. Follow me."

Trust, love, gratitude, and obedience urged the freed man to grasp his savior's. Weakly, but bold and sure, he said, "I will follow you always. You have set me free."






"But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart... and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." Romans 6:17-18