Christ Unbound

2 Timothy 2:8-10

Christ unleashed on the cosmos sounds like a plot line for a summer B-movie—an out of control superbeing, wreaking havoc in the world. This week’s Sharknado 2 on SciFi is a case in point—what if an out of control storm swept up out of control sharks? Whoo wheee! When we hear words like unbound, unleashed, unfettered, and the like, we tend to jump to chaos. We know what uncontrolled power looks like—a tornado is uncontrolled wind, tearing through trailer parks and communities; a terrorist is an unhinged human being who will die to hurt someone; uncontrolled inflation is an economic disaster; an uncontrolled disease (e.g., Ebola) is a terrifying pandemic—all these examples pile up to create an understanding that to be unloosed or radically free is not necessarily the best news we could have.

Yet, in the context of faith, Christ unbound is the best news we could hear. 

Paul makes the argument extraordinarily well as he writes his protege, Timothy. Christ is unbound, free to be, free to do, free to reign over all creation through resurrection—freed from our existential end—death—once and for all. Instead of being a terrifying force of chaos, Christ is an astonishing power of hope. 

Paul should now.

As he writes, he sits in prison, chained to a wall. He is bound. He is confined. He is powerless. He is helpless. 

He is a metaphor.

As Paul withers away in jail, he stands for all who are withering under any sort of confinement, limitation, oppression, or imprisonment. We all encounter such moments, some of us in very profound ways—the older person suddenly dependent because she gave up her driving; the chemo patient who simply does not have the energy to do what he always did; the person struggling with depression that severely curtails her ability to engage in life; the person suddenly unemployed rifling through his savings to stay afloat—all of these people feel the imprisonment of circumstance. They all know what Paul felt chained to a wall, forgotten in a corner of the Roman Empire.

And they all know the existential stone that throws at blithe affirmation of faith. If God is good, why does life have no meaning? If grace abounds, why am I trapped in a body that no longer works? If God wills fullness for humanity, why are we so often left trying to cobble together something from nothing? 

The miracle of Paul was that he believed at all, let alone continued as the singular missionary to the world. His life ran into stone walls head on. He ran for his life more than once. He saw the inside of jails more often than career felons. He would die a martyr. Why would he keep at it? What continually fed the flames of passion for God? What ironically captured his imagination so completely?

Christ unbound.

Easter completely overwhelmed Paul. The empty tomb captured him heart and mind. Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried; but it could not hold him. The world assumed his total destruction; Christ answered with total life! That being so, nothing can hold Paul. 

That is a stunning leap.

It is one that even folks with a lifetime of faith practice find hard to grasp. How can what was proclaimed of Easter be true? There must be some nuance we are missing. There must be some metaphorical meaning there that makes it so. Theologians like Marcus Borg make this statement repeatedly—resurrection is not so much actual as it is a state of mind within the community of Christ. That doesn’t sound like Paul—

"If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ —whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised."

—1 Cor. 15:13-15

And even if we agree with Paul that Jesus walked from the tomb on Easter morning, we have a hard time accepting that the same will be true of us. We slightly tweak the message of eternal life, shifting it from resurrection of the body into escape of souls into heaven, even becoming angels—something not found in the New Testament. Paul preached the New Creation—we will be raised, made fresh and new, in bodily form in a created order like this one, only being exactly as God intended it to be without blemish, suffering, or blight (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35ff.). 

Unbind Christ.

Allow the promises of Christ to run wild and free. Allow them to claim you and hold you and carry you into tomorrow.  Paul knew that since resurrection was unleashed through Christ into creation, there is nothing in creation that can hold any ultimate sway over us (cf. Rom. 8:32ff.). We are freed in Christ from all powers and dominions in creation. The authorities could chain Paul bodily to a wall, but they could not chain him. He was free in his chains. They held no power. Christ unleashed him. 

Let that become liberation for all of us in whatever prison of mind, heart, or body we wrestle within. Allow the freedom of Christ to transcend it. Allow the freedom of Christ to transform it. 

Allow resurrection to rule within you. 

All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.