Slavery to sin in the modern world

The significance of the first reading this morning can easily be overlooked.  Tucked away at the beginning of the Liturgy of the Word, for those without an awareness of the contextual narrative, it can appear to have little moment.

However, this is the occasion when the young man Moses, almost miraculously saved from infanticide, was galvanised to lead the Israelites from slavery into statehood of their own.  From this event developed the Exodus – the liberation of the Jewish people from Egyptian tyranny – or the Passover.  This Passover was commemorated annually by a ritualised meal, as it still is today amongst the Jews; and it was this Passover meal that Jesus ate with His Apostles on the night before His Crucifixion.

At the Last Supper, Christ recast the redemptive designs of God from its historical perspective as the basis of one race’s identity as a Chosen People, to a present and ongoing mission to liberate humanity from slavery to sin.  The Exodus was, and is, but an illustration or instance of God’s greater purpose.

Perhaps there has been no more felicitous moment in recent years than now, the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade, to couch our consideration of God’s redemptive purpose in terms of liberation from slavery.  Freshly reminded of exactly what slavery meant, we are given insights into our own beholdenness to sin.

Slavery is more than servanthood, indeed it is of a different character altogether.  To be a servant is to enter into a contract with another person to dance attendance on their needs.  As with all employment, working conditions can be good or bad; but a servant is free to terminate the arrangement and move on.

If, on the other hand, you are a slave, you are owned by your master and what you do, you do because you must.  A slave had no rights, often not even of life, and no option to leave.  Slaves, human beings, were bought and sold as were dogs, horses or agricultural livestock.  They were worth what they cost and like animals, their value diminished with the passing of the years.

This is, perhaps, one of the most pernicious aspects of slavery, which has yet finally to be overcome in our society – measuring human worth in cash terms, rather that seeking to respect the intrinsic dignity of human identity.  People are valued for their economic significance rather than, as Christians would put it, being creatures bearing and incorporating the divine image.

However, it is not so much in this that the slavery resides.  Whilst, of course, such a view of humanity is sinful, the slavery develops when this is how we come to view ourselves – when we are caught up in the system and evaluate ourselves and our own dignity according to our economic strength.

It is at this point we become owned by the system, acquiescent in its demands and manipulation as we strive for a greater sense of self-worth, measured in our cash equivalent.  We are prepared to sacrifice principle, even dignity, as we strive towards the top-table of worldly esteem.  It was interesting that a number of contestants in the last X-Factor competition stated that their ambition was to be rich: not to be good musicians, appreciated for their talent, but wealthy and famous; and this seemed like a quick route to just such an achievement.

However, this slavery demands more than simple compliance.  It is a well-charted path that the abused go on to become abusers and this is no less true in the type of abuse, which reduces the value of a human being to their economic worth.  Those who see the world in such terms quickly start pressing their values on others and the cycle of dehumanisation of individuals perpetuates itself.

Moreover dehumanisation is more than a state of mind; it issues in the actions that we take.  The murderous brutality that erupts across our news media periodically is, maybe the most visible monument to a philosophy that reckons human life in terms of its usefulness rather than according to its intrinsic dignity; but daily there are examples where regard for human life is subjugated by the desire for power, obscenely unnecessary profit margins, or the ruthless pursuit of self-advantage.

As Christ says in the Gospel, and we are constantly reminded by events, the axes of this culture can fall anywhere.  As He points out, neither the Galileans who fell prey to Pilate’s despotic excess nor the unfortunates who perished when the Tower of Siloam collapsed, were more particularly deserving of a cruel end than others.  Once you let go of the priority of human worth for its own sake, a random momentum is let loose, which indiscriminately falls upon its victims.

Traditional Christian piety has promised that escape from slavery to the relentless tide of worldly oppression lies, for the righteous, on the other side of the grave; but is that the be-all-and-end-all of God’s message of salvation?  The messages of the Old Testament prophets had a very this-worldly feel to them, and Christ, Himself, courted disaster because of the threat that the rulers of Palestine perceived in His preaching to the here-and-now.

We cannot, surely, leave all this until after our death.  In the Gospel, the people around Jesus are told to repent – now; literally, to turn away.  There is, furthermore, the chilling story of the fig tree, placed on probation for one last chance to bear fruit.  These are hard and challenging thoughts for those who genuinely desirous of Christian discipleship.

Maybe, Christ’s liberation of our lives from slavery to sin will not enable us to overturn the whole panoply of dehumanisation in our world single handedly; but what does it ask of us?  Why will we put so much into the observance of Holy Week and Easter and our liberation from slavery to sin?  What implications does Christ’s Resurrection Victory have for us and the way we behave? 

The Paschal liturgies celebrate new life in Christ: what newness shall we identify in our lives this Easter?

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