If you’re like most of us, you grew up watching Hollywood. There’s nothing like going to the movies! Such action—such mystery—such romance. Such huge, wonderful tubs of buttered popcorn!
I still love a lot of the old films from the 1950’s and 1960’s. The actors and actresses just oozed with so much talent and charm. The dancing was unbelievably good, and those old sets were nothing short of amazing.
Through the years, Hollywood has definitely been entertaining. But it’s never been real. It can’t be.
To hold on to ever-decreasing attention spans, Hollywood has to be larger than life—mind-blowing special effects, high definition surround sound, edge-of-your-seat action, unbearable suspense, and intense drama. And we love it!
It’s a two-hour joy ride. We love to be drawn into a story, to be fooled—and to fantasize that the characters, scenes and stories are real. In the darkness of the movie theater, our souls enjoy the escape from reality—and the escape from ourselves.
The people on the screen seem bigger and better than we are, with dreams that come true. The story transports us elsewhere. If the movie is done especially well, it can affect us powerfully—influencing our hearts and minds.
We ride along, and it’s conclusion leads us to what seems like answers—which may be right, or wrong.
There was a famous series of lines, in a Shakespearean play, which began like this: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They all have their exits and entrances. And one man in his time plays many parts.”
This was a wise observation of society in a simple time and place. Of course, what Shakespeare did not understand was the true identity of that “stage,” upon which mankind temporarily stands, through every generation of time.
Because—in the barest of realities—all the world is not a stage, but a cage.
This place we find ourselves is the cage of our humanity—from our very first day of life at birth, to our final day of our death.
It can be beautiful, and exciting. It provides a life for each one of us. It protects us.
It seems like we are free.
But we are trapped within our humanity. It holds us against our wills.
It’s not benign. It is filled with sin, and fraught with lies and deceit. Truth rarely holds a place of priority, or honor. We suffer the results from this, as individuals, families, and societies are broken down.
“They speak vanity (lies) every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.” (Psalm 12:2, parenthesis mine.)
It didn’t start out this way. The Bible’s book of Genesis describes the very first people—Adam and Eve. They were truly innocent, truly free, and truly prosperous. The world belonged to them, because God—who created the world—belonged to them.
And they belonged to Him—just as He intended.
They lived in a wonderful garden the Lord had prepared for them. No doubt, it was stunningly beautiful and majestic. There were all sorts of fruit-bearing trees to eat from. There was a refreshing stream. And the animals were all at peace with one another, and with man.
But what made this garden truly magnificent was the fact that God was right there with them. It is recorded that God walked in the garden, “in the cool of the day.”
Imagine how they talked together—God as Father, explaining this wonderful new world—and His good children, with hearts fully open to Him.
If you’re like me, you’ve read these passages, and found yourself a little envious of Adam and Eve. It was all so peaceful. So pure and perfect.
But God’s world—one of peace and order, would soon completely change. Because man had a complete change of heart. That’s the sad part—to see them have it all, but then it all slipped away from them. (I have to wonder—would any one of us have done any better?)
The world, which was intended to be perfect—and our humanity, which was intended to be freedom—became fallen.
At that moment, the world—and our humanity—became a cage.
God created the world for mankind. But He also created the world for Himself. He created the world with perfect order, with the intention of God and humanity living as a family—and as a partnership.
But through man’s fallen nature, the world is now chaos. It is lustful, willful, selfish, deceptive, and manipulative. Fallen. Dying.
The chains of our fallen nature wrap around us tightly. Doubt and fear grip us, like shackles. The cage bars are all around us, ever closing in.
It’s the cage of Sin and death. Go wherever we might, be whoever we want, or live however we want to live—the cage is inescapable.
The more we learn about our world, the more confused we become. This internet age has filled our heads with vast amounts of all sorts of “knowledge.” It all distracts us from the answers we truly need.
Even the religions of our fallen world are used as a plot against us. They beckon us away from the truth—the God of Truth.
It’s a great and glamorous trap, this idea that we can somehow survive, apart from the God who made us. This reasoning that we can manage our own lives, apart from the One who gave life to us. It is utter foolishness. Fraudulent. Fatal.
We reason ourselves to be like gods—we relish in all that we have created, and all that we have become. But we’re not gods. And we aren’t even good caretakers.
We are prisoners. The cage of Sin and death surrounds us, completely and fully.
But the will to live is strong.
Some push against the bars of their bondage, hoping to break free from sheer willpower. Some cry and play the victim, assuring themselves that they have no fault of their own.
Others get together for a “cage party”—the music and revelry a blissful distraction—a diversion from thinking about life. Still others might sit—silent and alone—in their little corner of resentment, anger or bitterness.
What can we do, but live? None of us had any say in being placed here, in this world of wars and rumors of wars, conflict and lawlessness.
None of us, that is—except for one. The One. The great exception. The Great I AM.
He, who chose to come—to be among us, the dying. To offer Himself as the sacrifice for all.
Laying down His life, in the most brutal of ways—crucified on a cross of death—for His enemies.
His enemies—are we His enemies? Anyone who does not know God, opposes God. We must be His, to be His friends. And He must be ours, to be our Saving God.
He created our world, and all that surrounds it. And He has created us, to be His.
Jesus is the keeper of the cage door. And Jesus presents Himself as another door—the Door of freedom and peace:
I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. (John 10:9)
No one comes out of the cage, except by Him.
I caught a news report just the other day. It reported a DNA study and its findings. Apparently, through studying the genome, it was concluded that all of the earth’s populations are related. Everyone is our cousin!
Not only that, but the report went on to reveal that all of humankind is derived from one set of common parents. I couldn’t help but smile as I thought of the Bible’s account of creation, ever being revealed.
In that garden long ago, mankind was completely trustworthy. And God was a friend to them, like no other. But they “fell” from that place of trust, exposing themselves to the Sin of disobedience and self-will.
Like thieves, they desired what did not belong to them. They took what was not theirs to possess.
They stole, and were stolen from. Mankind would never be the same again.
And here we are today—each and every one of us—far removed from the garden of God’s design. With the DNA of that god-like nature, but without the God-like character. The “image” is marred and disfigured—our purpose distorted and distracted.
In essence, we don’t know who we are. Or where we are. Or why.
“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” (Romans 3:23)
Each one of us, hidden among the masses of humanity, are lost—estranged from our Creator. Alive, yes—but not truly living. The breath of life fills our lungs, but the Breath of God’s Spirit—holding God’s purpose—does not dwell within us.
Our world—once the garden of God’s pleasure, and the birthplace of His finest creation—is now just a cage. It holds us, but it cannot free us. It allows us to live out a lifetime, but it cannot give us real life. And our natural lives quickly ebb away.
God would need to do the unthinkable for a creation imprisoned by Sin. He would have to die to set us free. So, He did.
If you have been fortunate enough to find Jesus, as Savior and Lord, then you know the feeling of becoming free. And becoming God’s friend—no longer bound by the chains of your old life.
Freedom—just by knowing and serving the One who frees.
It is at this point of belief when we realize—maybe for the first time in our lives—that the cage of life is not really a place. The cage is a realm—a realm of darkness, in a fallen world—full of man’s fallen nature.
We sense freedom, like a burst of arctic wind across the mountains of the soul. We awaken to freedom. We awaken to love—no bars can hold it—no cage can contain it.
No chains can confine a heart that is full of God’s freedom.
Our wings unfold, and arise to take air—to catch the high currents, never before dreamed of.
We are released from our old strongholds. We are released to fly. And fly we must—it is our destiny.
You may be in a situation where it’s difficult to even imagine this, let alone live it.
You might be in any sort of prison now. It could be an actual facility, with real bars of steel.
Or maybe you’re imprisoned by failing health. You might be confined to a wheelchair—or in a hospital bed somewhere.
Or it could be a prison of your mind, or your will—paralyzing you, and keeping you from becoming free.
You might be imprisoned by your past, held by fears and failings, and you’re longing to live in your present—wishing you had a meaningful future, but so unsure of it.
Any prison is confining—all prisons limit us. But remember: Jesus Christ holds the keys to your particular cell door. And if you call out to Him—for a jailbreak—He is always close enough to hear you.
So why then isn’t everyone now free?
If God, through the amazing sacrifice of Christ Jesus, has long paid the penalty of our Sin—then why are so many of us still held captive, by the fallen nature of disobedience to God?
Wasn’t Christ’s death on the cross good enough? Wasn’t His shed blood strong enough? Wasn’t the power of His resurrection able to break the chains of this bondage?
Of course, God is always more than able, to set the captives free. He determined this to be—even before the creation of the earth:
“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” (1 Peter 1:19-21)
We might look at it this way: On God’s highway of redemption, the road is clear, with nothing but green lights ahead. Our job is to get onto the right road, follow directions, and keep steadily going forward.
But the “traffic jam” (or, fifty car pile up!) of humanity has always been due to our bad driving. There’s a lot of bad drivers nowadays.
So many striving for their desired position. They stomp on the gas, trying to race ahead. They dart in and out, speeding and swerving. They don’t let others in, and are full of road rage when others try. They endanger others, and themselves.
And on our spiritual highway, it almost seems like we have a death wish—when we try to “free” ourselves on our own terms, without God. The more we purpose—in our own strength—to break free, the less free we become.
We become hindered by our own devices. What we don’t realize is that our Sin is hindering us, and not God.
So, imagine yourself inside of a cage. Feeling uncomfortable? Of course it is. To be caged is completely unnatural for us.
That’s because were designed for freedom.
Take a minute to evaluate the world you’re living in, and contemplate what you see. Who do you live among, talk with, or work with each day? Who are they? And what are they actually doing?
Lifetimes lived, and spent—and gone. Are they free? Are you?
Are you continuously becoming freer—as your eyes are continuously opened by God’s truth—and as you choose to live your life by God’s truth?
Or are you simply existing within a cage of deception?
In the Bible’s book of Exodus, we see the young nation of Israel as they escape their life of slavery in Egypt. Who were they, this multitude that Moses led across the desert, to their promised land?
For these generations of people, slavery was all they had ever known. They were born as slaves, and died as slaves. They were prisoners of Egypt, completely unaware of their own destiny.
God, through Moses, had announced that they could finally be free. But when faced with freedom, and their opportunity to possess it, they turned away.
It makes me wonder. With their mentality of slavery, did they truly understand even the concept of freedom?
Do we?
A caged bird is always a little sad to see. It just looks wrong, doesn’t it? We see those wings, and know that bird should be flying, to places far and wide.
Because that’s what wings were designed for. Freedom.
Freedom is a destiny—God’s eternal destiny. He has provided the Way for each and every one of us. All of us. The “whosoever” of us.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Sin is the deceiver. It is corruption, confusion, and complication. It works against us, every day of our lives.
A lifetime lived, in this cage of Sin, isn’t life at all—it is death.
But God’s plan is simple. Jesus already did all of the hard work for us.
You only need to believe Him—and trust Him—to receive Him. He has already planned to spend eternity with you.
You have wings.
This is your moment. Nothing else matters. No other life. No other world.
“If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Make the decision. Ask the Lord Jesus to set you free. Go through the Door, into your true life.
Because everything else is just a cage.
