In most prisons, food is meager, however, it is consistent. Prisoners know they’ll get three “hots” a day. And Alcatraz was no exception. In fact, they were actually known for their exquisite meals. Prisoners ate better than many common citizens.
There is something seemingly broken about the way in which prison sentences go. A felon can get 50, 100, or even 1000 years behind bars. Now, I think they call these ‘multiple life sentences’. If a person is 20 or 30 when they are convicted and sentencing goes for anything past 50-60 years, there’s not much worthwhile or productive punitive or rehab happening in keeping an 80-year-old in a jail cell until he dies. I guess prison becomes a person’s nursing home at some point as they live out their remaining days and fulfill their sentence, until death.
There was a chief of police in Florida who had similar objections to this type of thinking. In hopes to curb the epidemic of drunk and disorderly college students that overwhelmed his city each spring, he implemented a strange but effective punishment in response to this growing problem.
Instead of handing out heavier, more ‘manly’ sentences for the young rogue wild creatures, who would wear their punishment with pride as badges of honor – “I spent 3 nights in jail; I spent 4; etc.” he started treating the delinquents like babies. They would get locked up and given a diet of baby food. No longer was it “cool” to go to jail while on spring break just to enjoy the delicacies of pureed turkey and broccoli.
Since the macho-man trophies of baby food were not medals of honor to be flaunted near as much, the need for locking up students was reduced.
What does this have to do with us? What can we do with this information?
Jesus taught some interesting truths throughout his ministry and people accused him of breaking the law and trying to undermine the religious and even scriptural authority. But, the reality of what Jesus was doing and teaching was of similar mindset of this police chief in Florida. Different perspective = different outcomes.
While the police chief put the emphasis on de-glamorizing the punishment, Jesus created a more wholistic understanding of scripture. Where the instinctual move typically goes further in one direction, doubling down and holding fast, pushing harder on the same button that’s being hit, Jesus and the police chief teach us a counter method.
In his famous sermon, Jesus quotes seven phrases and practices that would have been commonplace when it came to judiciary and relationally problematic situations. “You have heard that it was said…but I tell you…” Matt 5:21-48
The issues he addressed were anger, lust, marriage covenant, honesty, revenge, and love. And the way he presented this perspective change was to simply rewrite the culture by reimagining the system. At the beginning of this sermon, Jesus explicitly articulates that he “did not come to get erase the law, but to fulfill it” (Matt 5:17). He was showing what the original intent was supposed to be and how far from that we were.
So, for us, and this series, the question I give to you comes from what Jesus came to do. Do you want to stay in the prison of your own limitations within your personal interpretation of the world and people, or would you rather experience the freedom Jesus offers by elevating your perspective to kingdom reality and live a life without walls?
In this message from Matt 5-7 we find that Jesus teaches how God’s plan for humanity is to be in unity and live in harmony with one another, with the world, and with God. So, if you are feeling a dissonance within any of these areas, then perhaps you’ve been piling on more of the same thing but have reached its capacity and a new method is needed.
You can settle for “3 hots and a cot” for the rest of your life or you can “taste and see that the LORD is good” (Psalm 34:8) and experience all the freedom of the full life for which you were created! What will it be?
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Brett
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