Today’s lectionary text from Isaiah 42 describes the Lord’s chosen servant and the gentle and faithful justice he will mete. In verse 7, God charges him:

You will give sight to the blind,
                bring prisoners out of prisons,
                    and bring those who live in darkness
                        out of dungeons. (God’s Word Translation)

Jesus preached his first sermon on the first bit of Isaiah 61, and made it clear that he was that selfsame chosen servant. This is Jesus’s “life verse:”

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Isaiah 61:1-2a, NKJV)

In exegeting another text referring to this “acceptable time” of salvation, Paul makes it clear that we are also called to be the Lord’s servants, and NOW is the acceptable time (2 Corinthians 6:1-2). God’s favor is ongoing and we are to preach this same good news. And you know what?

There’s never been a better time to set some captives free.

I realize this feels like wading into the political, but the gospel does that sometimes. Sorry. I’m just a messenger.

Honestly, though, I think we might have more common ground here than we’re told we do. We all have to reconcile in our theologies the Biblical images of radical forgiveness and “eye for an eye” consequences. We might lean ideologically toward one end or the other of that spectrum, but we can generally agree that that is the spectrum. Punishments should fit the crime. We can support a correctional system, but not institutionalized cruelty. We seek peace and justice, not perpetuating cycles of violence and vengeance.

Any one of us could think of any number of crimes that could land a person in prison, but that don’t warrant the kind of Russian roulette to which mass confinement in a time of Covid-19 has now sentenced them.

Likewise, any one of us could think of detained populations that don’t deserve to be in heightened danger. Not all of them get as much air time as nursing home residents and cruise ship passengers, but they’re often in even tighter quarters, and in less control of crucial practices of basic hygeine. Political prisoners. Asylum-seekers. Hurting people caught in possession of drugs. Folks guilty of, or simply accused of, misdemeanors. Psychiatric patients committed “for their own safety” and youth remanded to juvenile detention “for their own good.” People in jail as part of “due process,” not as the result of it.

Let’s advocate for them. Demand their release. Sponsor them. Post bail for them. Write a letter on behalf of political prisoners. Request house arrest rather than solitary confinement for an inmate with a medical condition. At least make sure they have soap. Pray for them:

“Prisoners Exercising” by Vincent van Gogh