I had the opportunity late last fall to travel to Israel and tour the Holy Land. To this day, six months after, I still have so much to process of all I saw and was taught while on my tour. This Holy Week that is upon us has stirred up many emotions in me, as I not only reflect on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but on my trip to Israel.

The last day of our tour ended at the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. This is one of the only Christian sites in all of Israel. Up to that point in the tour I had immersed myself in studying all I could about Jewish Biblical history, and now I was visiting the one place that represented the entire Gospel message—the hope, salvation and promise of Jesus. But it was also the one belief that separated me from the majority of Jews (past and present) in Israel.

I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes through the entire tour of the Garden Tomb. I could not grasp how this was the major issue that separated me from all the amazing Jewish people I had met and observed while in the Land. I had marveled at the Orthodox Jews and their devotion to their faith. How they wore black from head to toe in the heat of the day. How they didn’t cut their hair or beards according to Jewish law. How they wore phylacteries from the sleeves of their garments to remember the laws. I was convicted when they knew more about the New Testament of the Bible than I did.

But that was it. They knew it, but didn’t believe it. They had all the answers, the truth, right in front of them, and yet didn’t believe, and were unable to grasp the freedom that is in Christ. It grieved me, and yet drove me to commit myself to prayer for this nation.

I have to believe that the Apostle Paul felt much the same way as he tried to bear witness of Christ to the Jewish people of that day.

“He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:13b-14.”

What I believe Paul is saying to Jews, Gentiles, and us alike is that Jesus is the end of the law. It is His blood that was shed on the cross that has blotted out our sins and with it canceled the law that was so condemning. Jesus took all the condemnation that came from living under laws, rules and regulations and nailed it to the cross, so we could be free.

I want so much for you to experience freedom in Christ. Whatever is holding you back this Holy Week from embracing the freedom that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ, I want you to imagine nailing those things to the cross. And after you have nailed them to the cross, imagine yourself walking hand in hand with your Savior. You are smiling. You are rejoicing. You are free.

I’ll gladly sport my red, white and blue on the 4th of July, but there are many other days of the year that I take my freedom for granted.  It isn’t until a neighbor returns from a tour overseas or a friend kisses her son goodbye as he heads to Iraq that I remember the cost others have paid for my freedom.  Regardless of our nationality, there is a freedom available to all who follow Christ, but Paul warns us that we can forfeit this liberty.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8

Captivity, all because of another’s words or human tradition.  It’s the last thing I want in my life, yet God is revealing the extent to which my culture permeates my faith rather than the other way around.  So what are you and I to do?  Go back to our roots.  Colossians 2:6,7 say, “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.”

Am I willing to live all my life in Christ, or will I sacrifice the parts that are convenient to me and overlook the commands that are too challenging?  Does my heart show a desire to weed out the false beliefs that have infiltrated my life and instead be rooted in the One True God?  I’ll use the convicting words of David Platt’s book Radical to magnify this point in just one area of my life.  “Are you and I looking to Jesus for advice that seems fiscally responsible according to the standards of the world around us?  Or are we looking to Jesus for total leadership in our lives, even if that means going against everything our affluent culture and maybe even our affluent religious neighbors might tell us to do?” (page 121). 

I’m scared my honest answer would demonstrate a Col. 2:8 life, rather than one exemplifying Col. 2:6,7.  How about you?