We live in an era where everyone seems to be demanding their rights – human rights, equal rights, ethnic rights, gender rights, the right to justice, the right to a myriad of sexual orientations, the right to wear a mask or not wear a mask, and so on and so on and so on. There are so many opinions, so many ultimatums, so many loud voices, all demanding elbow-room to express themselves and to exist in what is perceived to be freedom.

Additionally, the current pandemic continues to confine us unexpectedly and often dramatically. Restrictions embraced to save lives were initially regarded as essential inconveniences. Then, quite overnight, they were redefined as oppressive boundaries and perceived as violations of freedom. Somewhat abruptly, the novelty of staying home-alone or being restricted to our ‘family bubble’ has worn thin, and all of a sudden everyone has an opinion and the right to express it.

None of these expressions lead to true liberty. They ultimately only serve to highlight a much deeper need for authentic freedom, the freedom of heaven. It is not the freedom of external expression or possession, but a liberation that is internal. It’s a freedom which exists within and remains unscathed and unconstrained by the finite systems and circumstances of a broken world.

One of my passions is swimming, a joy limited by months of pool closures. I hatched a plan to venture into the polluted waters of the River Thames, taking particular care to avoid submerging my nose and mouth. Nia kindly drove me about a mile or so upstream, before returning downstream to park our car. She then walked back along the towpath to watch me swim downstream towards her. As she watched she could see my determination to keep my face above the surface of the water, contrasting my struggle with the ease of the many white swans around me. Swans glide effortlessly across the surface of the water, and even when their necks reach down to feast on the weed lining the river bed, their bodies tipping forward and their bottoms pointing towards the sky, the oil coating their feathers provides an impenetrable waterproof barrier of protection. Swans might be offended by the comparison, but water runs off a swan like water off a duck’s back. They are in the river but not of the river. They are free from its influence and untouched by its efforts to saturate. The freedom of heaven, that of sons and daughters, allows them to dwell in the world, whilst not being of the world, they are free to glide above and beyond the reach of its demanding influences and its many loud opinions.

Ironically true freedom is not to demand our rights but to surrender them. It is to relinquish self-assurance in favour of divine assurance.

The varied illusions of security this limping world has to offer are fickle and wholly unreliable. They can be there in the morning and gone by evening. Financial security, title, position, reputation, liberty, equality, justice, even life itself can suddenly be cut short, vanishing like the morning mist.

At no point was Jesus destiny determined by earthly rights, power, opinions or demands. He abided in an authority and destiny rooted in a completely different dimension.

“I know where I come from and where I am going…”

“I will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also…”

“I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father.”

Jesus came to us from the heart of the Father, to bring us home to the heart of the Father, and it is to the heart of the Father that he himself returns. The momentary inconveniences he experienced in between were temporal and therefore ultimately immaterial. Equally, each one of us was born in the heart of the Father before time was, and in Christ our destiny is to be re-united with the heart of the Father – to be where Christ is, even right in this moment. His and our security and identity are otherworldly, rooted in the source of Divine Love, a love which is a gift quietly received not a right loudly demanded.

With his security, identity and destiny established continually as beloved Son of his Father, Jesus had no need to fight, grasp or take any earthly right, title or position. He was utterly free to:

“not count equality with God something to be held onto, to pour himself out, taking the form of a servant, born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

At no point was Jesus destiny determined by fickle worldly rights, power, opinions or demands. He abided assured in an authority and destiny rooted in a completely different dimension.

He was free to be born among the working classes, without wealth or privilege, not in a palace but a stable, not laid down to rest on soft sheets, but in a repurposed animal trough. Heaven and earth were united in the meekness of a tender child.

Jesus had no need of title or reputation, instead he was and is utterly free to be of either low reputation or no reputation. Known as Rabbi, Son of God, Messiah, carpenter, heretic, lunatic, liar or criminal, his identity remains cemented in heavenly opinion. He was in the world but not of the world, continually drinking from his Father. He could surrender to the ruling authorities of an unjust system, suffer in the hands of his accusers, making no demand for justice or rights, because he knew they had no power over him, that even death had no power over him. The right to life is espoused as the paramount human right, and yet ironically Jesus knew that true life would only flow by surrendering to death.

Mother Teresa’s prayer:

“Lord Jesus, make us realise that it is only by frequent death of ourselves and our self-centred desires that we can come to live more fully; for it is only by dying with you that we can rise with you.”

Willingness to surrender our rights to perfect love is not to be a doormat; rather it is to be fully alive. To align our hearts with perfect love is in that moment to be united with Love, to be alive as God is alive, secure in divine destiny.  Such radical liberty will always be misunderstood. It will always appear a threat to those who hold the reins of earthly power because in the larger scheme it renders them powerless and irrelevant. They tried to dominate Jesus with their words and their actions, but they couldn’t manipulate him. Until the time chosen by his Father, he could even walk through a rioting death squad and they couldn’t lay a finger on him. Neither criminal nor king had power over him, his identity and destiny totally secure.

To fight for our rights and to look for security and identity by dominating others in this broken world, will always be tantamount to hanging off a cliff on a rope that is rapidly fraying. True security, identity and destiny are completely otherworldly. Liberty that is internal not external, it is the freedom of heaven. We might be in but we are not of. To let go of that rope and fall into the arms of Divine Love is to discover that you have always been known and cherished. You have come from perfect love and are returning to be united in perfect love, and whatever happens in between is essentially immaterial.

As such, Jesus abides in the freedom of heaven, manifesting in meekness the essence of the Father’s heart:

“Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him… The greatest among you will be [free to be] your servant…”