Most of us are familiar with Christmas songs, at least for the first verse. Then we get in trouble. I tried to pay attention more carefully this year to all the verses to understand the complete thought of the original writer’s intent. While singing “O, Holy Night” at church, I really became choked up when we sang the third verse.
Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother
And in His Name all oppression shall cease.
It is easy to get the idea to love one another. God in his wisdom keeps it simple. But often it is easy to overlook the perspective we are to have if we really are to meaningfully love others, especially those who are in difficult situations or are hard to love. “Chains shall He (God) break, for the slave is our brother.” We are to consider ourselves as brothers or sisters to slaves? This is a very radical idea. But it is a message that was used very powerfully in the abolitionist movement during the 1800’s in England and America. The image below was used on literature and pottery, and most frequently on sugar bowls. It was like the t-shirt or bumper sticker of the movement. People who would buy such a bowl would be showing that they did not have sugar that was harvested by slave labor.
The image appealed to Christian’s understanding of not only the humanity of a slave, but to their very own identity as being brother to a slave. Christians know that every person is a slave to sin. We don’t naturally do the perfect will of God. Such a slave cannot just walk away and be free, he is enslaved to the power of sin over his life. The Gospel is the message that frees man from his sin by the work of Christ on the cross and not by man’s own effort. He or she should understand as much as anyone that they have been set free from the slave master of sin. And so we are family with all those who experience slavery and long to be freed.
When I think of why we are involved in Hope Jewelry, I am reminded not just that is good to help women get free from sexual slavery. More than that, it is that I too am a brother to her and she is my sister. My identity is the same as hers and we are to walk the same path as members of the same family. We both have been set free to be all that God wants us to be.
Some people think slavery will end by changing the economics of slavery so that it is no longer profitable to traffic people. Economics do matter but until hearts change, there will never be real transformation. That song and that image are from the 19th century. Their message was taken directly from the teachings and life of a man from the 1st century who came to set the captives free. And may in his name, all oppression cease.