When were you last in prison?

Phil Jenkins | 22:13, Sunday 15 December 2013 

It was a strange experience passing through no less than a dozen locked doors to get to the chapel where we met with a group of prisoners who are studying what the Bible has to teach on guilt and forgiveness.  I felt well and truly locked in! Of course, my visit lasted only a morning and by lunchtime I was free again to enjoy a coffee and a baguette.  

Nelson Mandela was a prisoner for over twenty five years and last week we heard the news that he had made his last great walk to another world leaving behind an amazing legacy of freedom and forgiveness for the people of South Africa and the world. 

Freedom and forgiveness are at the heart of the message of the Christian faith and Christmas is the season when we remember the amazing journey to another world which Jesus Christ took.  The one who gave the world its life came to give his life for the world so that we can enjoy the freedom that forgiveness through his life and death can bring.  

Ours is a visited planet – visited for a while by the maker of heaven and earth. The Word was made flesh and lived for a while among us. His journey into the prison of our world ended in an encounter with evil and death in which he shared our suffering and won our freedom.  

Today we celebrate the one who, Luke tells us, fulfilled the centuries of longing for God to free humanity. Jesus came to "preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind and to release the oppressed."

Freedom and forgiveness. It was a privilege to sit in prison with fourteen men and hear some of them speak about the freedom that an encounter with Jesus has brought. May Christmas encourage us that through the visit of Jesus to meet us in our need we can know that life-changing walk to freedom.