In Stephen King's book The Shawshank Redemption and Rita Hayworth, Andy Dufresne is unjustly sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Throughout his imprisonment, Andy never loses hope that he will one day be a free man again. Once a banker and accountant, the warden, a corrupt administrator who uses the prison system and prisoners for personal gain appoints Andy as his bookkeeper. A learned man, Andy writes to the state of Maine for two years asking for money to build a prison library. The state finally grants him funds. Not only does Andy build the best prison library in the state; he begins a GED program for inmates and acts as the tax accountant for all of the prison guards during tax season. Andy finds ways to bring a light of hope to others, even when imprisoned. That's real freedom.
At one point in the story, Andy learns that about evidence that exists about his case that will prove that he is unquestionably innocent. But when Andy asks the warden to assist him, the duplicitous warden of Shawshank State Penitentiary refuses. Andy is too valuable and too dangerous to the warden because he knows too much. So rather than helping Andy to become free, the warden locks him in Solitary, known to the prisoners as 'the hole' because, as King describes it through the story's narrator, Red, "...you go down into progressive darkness toward terrible." There is no light and little reason to continue to hope.
I thought today about John, Jesus cousin, more commonly known as 'the Baptist' who was sent from God "to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light." (JN 1:6-8, 19-28). But his testimony landed him in the same place as Andy Dufresne - in another corrupt man prison - King Herod's 'hole' - a cell with little or no light. Like Andy Dufresne, John was a danger to Herod, calling him into the light instead of walking into progressive darkness as a ruler. John carried the light inside him. Even in prison, he continued, through his contacts to continue to inquire about Jesus. Perhaps John had a seed of doubt and just had to know who he was before his certain fate of death. If you read other Gospel passages surrounding these events, Jesus assures him that he is the anointed One sent from God to heal the sick, release captives, reassure the heartbroken and give the light of hope to those who walk into progressive darkness.
Prisoners with something in common
According to the book of Acts, St. Paul was imprisoned almost as much as he was free to preach the Gospel. Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison because of his position on anti-apartheid in South Africa. Count how many times Martin Luther King was jailed for speaking out for civil rights. Dorothy Day spent many times in prison for her participation against war, capitalism, injustice and inequality for our poor.
All of these people had two things in common: they never stopped looking for the light of truth and justice and they never stopped hoping.
Rejoice
Today, Isaiah tells us that God will send One who will bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. (Is IS 61:1-2A). Today, I began to think about all the times that I've visited people in prison and the hungry hole that have in their eyes. I think of the people in shackles who become sick and are brought in by armed guards and appreciate a smile and a glass of water and heartning word when I see them in the emergency department where I serve. I think about the letters that I've received from persons who live on Death Row, many who may have no one to announce that there is a light in the midst of their darkness. And today, I wonder about my own self-created prisons - the 'holes with no light' that I make for myself. Sometimes I've been led to those self-created prisons because of my choices. And sometimes, I've been a victim of someone else's choices. Either way, my job as a Christians is to continue to look for the light, to reach for it when it seems out of my grasp and hold on to hope when there seems to be none, when it might be easier to walk into progressive darkness toward terrible. And then I have to take that message somehow to the people I meet and interact. The Lord is near. Rejoice. Come out of the prgressive hole of darkness and live in God's marvelous light.
Come, Lord Jesus.