Prisoners - Friday 18 January 2008

I was in prison and you came to visit me. Matthew 25:36 NIV

Sometimes people are imprisoned unfairly and I don’t want to forget the many Christian people who have been imprisoned due to their faith but when Jesus spoke these words the only person in that position had been John the Baptist. But Jesus does not specify that we only visit those who are imprisoned unfairly and the problem with prisoners is that they are also criminals. Most would acknowledge that they are there for a reason, because they broke the law and got caught.

Who would you find the easiest or most difficult to visit, a murderer, an embezzler of millions or a paedophile? The answer tells you a lot about your values.

Perhaps it would be easier if you knew that the murderer was an abused wife who plotted to kill her husband, that the embezzler had a child with a rare illness who needed expensive overseas treatment and that the paedophile had been abused as a young child over many years by a carer. Knowing those things would not cause me to condone the crime but it would help me to understand that the person I was visiting was a human being like myself for whom life had gone badly wrong.

People who volunteer as prison visitors do not see a monster when they visit, they see a person who is lonely and in need of company. Prisons are not meant to be pleasant places but they can be places of rehabilitation where people are given the chance to break away from the habits which led them to be imprisoned and to live more positively in future. Sometimes it is necessary to challenge the way things are done and the work of prison chaplains has been integral to schemes like the introduction of Alpha courses.

The musician Johnny Cash found that in his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction he was led to perform in prisons and became an icon for prisoners throughout the US. That was a particularly sheepish thing to do, in a way he visited all of those prisoners and brightened their lives with his music.

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Hebrews 13:3 NIV

I want to leave you with a reminder that even Jesus acknowledged that the Holy Spirit inspired Him to do these things and that we do not do them in our own strength. Ask Him humbly to help you to be more of a sheep than a goat this year.

The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:18-19 NIV