Freedom’s Greatest Act

I posted this today on a Facebook page, under a discussion topic heading that read ‘What Would Jesus Say?”

The discussion started with a post of this quotation:

‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

I would ask, when the young man walked away, did Jesus (remember that He is King above all other Kings, Ruler above all other Rulers) forcefully take away his possessions in order to force him to obey?

Or did He respect the young man’s freedom to decide for himself, even though that decision might cost him his immortal soul?

Freedom is at the heart of the example of Jesus. Not once in the Gospels is anyone compelled to action by the God incarnate. Not a single Pharisee or Scribe is turned from the path of sinfulness by coercion. Not one apostle is called against their will. Not even Judas, despite the foreknowledge of the Lord, is denied the ability to exercise his freedom.

Jesus teaches.  He attempts to persuade.  He prays.  And He hopes.

Then, in the end, He demonstrates the perfect use of freedom. He endures the Cross, giving everything He possesses, including His very life, in service of His fellow man, despite the fact that His fellow man is responsible for His doom.

It is the greatest act of freedom in the history of the world.

It is His definition of love, which we must find a way to cope with.

It is how He defines a man’s responsibility to his fellows.

And it is only possible in the context of free will.

After Jesus completes His task, our free will remains as the only viable tool we have for communicating our devotion to Him.  Only when we freely decide to follow the example of the Cross can we truly be seen to have implemented His will.

Everything depends on freedom.

There is no love without freedom.

Charity can not be extracted via the tax code or any amount of legislation.

For those who care, suffering is hard to witness. We long to intervene. We know in our core that we have the means to provide every American with access to health care.  We are so desperate to do what we think is right that our emotions run away with us. We give in to caring at any cost, heedless of the damage a reckless course of action can cause.

We become willing to substitute one set of suffering for another.

And make no mistake. Millions and millions of Americans are suffering today.

Not at the hands of illness.

But at the hands of a government that does not understand that Jesus is the embodiment of a natural law that requires, no matter what, that our Creator endowed right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness be protected as a precondition to any action we take.

We are suffering because our government, regardless of its intentions, has ripped a piece of our liberty from us as if it were an arm or a leg.

And we know we will never be whole again.

Worse yet, we know that it is preparing to do so again, and again, and again, because it has lost sight of its most fundamental responsibilities.

In 1776 and the era that followed, American leaders understood the example of Jesus. They attempted to encode that example in a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution that was meant to preserve individual liberty as the core prerequisite of a just society.

They understood that the best hope for mankind was the hope that men would use their freedom for the betterment of the whole.

They understood that this hope, because of the fallibility of men, would not result in a perfect union, just a more perfect one.

They knew that the imperfection they were erecting was just because it would lead to a better way of life than the imperfections embodied in all the methods of governance that went before.

The first rule of a just society is that its government must respect and protect Creator endowed liberty.

If the government chooses not to do this, Revolution and Independence are not only justified but required in order that the natural law be established (or re-established in this case) for the benefit of all men.

Revolution is coming.

I can’t say when.

Hopefully it will be peacefully, at the ballot box this fall.

If not, then it will come in another form, at another time.

But revolution is inevitable.

For man has not the ability to deny this Natural Law forever.

Especially now that he has experienced a long and significant exposure to it.