The Prison// The Banquet
Words: Bryan Jackson
Images: Ben Manly
The Prison
Chained.
Trapped in a hellish prison with no doors or windows:
Held captive by the ruler of this world;
Defining myself by anything other than God;
My feelings and circumstances having sovereign dominion over my heart;
Riddled with the deadly disease of sin.
The cell is shrouded in total darkness.
My eyes dart back and forth, yearning for even a single glimmer of light.
I desperately tug at my chains until my wrists are rubbed raw.
I'm tortured relentlessly with fear and anxiety.
Like hot heavy stones, they are heaped on my chest, crushing me and stealing my breath.
Achievement and consumption are dangled before me like a piece of meat to my starving shriveled body.
It is tossed on the dirty floor in front of me and I strain at my chains to reach it.
My teeth finally grasp hold of it and I salivate in momentary delight.
But after only one bite, my stomach convulses violently, the meat being saturated in deadly poison.
I slump to the ground, my chains just short enough to prevent me from even the respite of laying down fully on the hard stone floor.
The life is drained from my eyes and replaced by resigned hopeless apathy.
Any desire to escape eventually evaporates by the slow burning heat of this hell.
My mind, so dull and hollow, can't even recall what freedom or joy looked like.
All that's left is endless torment and eternal misery in this inescapable prison called life
The Banquet
Endless torment.
Eternal misery.
Inescapable prison.
In hopelessness, I accept that this is my life
But then the ground begins shaking violently.
I feel the very foundation of the prison begin to move.
The devil in front of me braces himself, as if preparing for a battle.
Suddenly, like the flash of a nuclear bomb, a wall of the prison explodes.
With a deafening boom, stones come crashing down around me, smashed to pieces.
Light erupts from the opening and sears the skin of the devil, who hisses in pain.
I blink back tears as my eyes adjust to the beautiful intensity of that which I'd thought I would never see again.
Hope streams into my soul like beams of the purest light.
As I continue to squint at the opening, I begin to distinguish the brilliant figure of a man standing in the gap.
His fist is still clenched from the single punch that annihilated the stone wall.
His breathing is heavy, although I can't tell if it's from exertion or fury as He stares daggers at the devil, who begins to charge at Him.
My Savior effortlessly blocks his punch with such force that it snaps the demon's arm.
Then He grabs the devil by the throat and hurls him like a rag doll out the hole in the wall.
Then He looks at me and the chains instantly fall off my wrists.
I collapse to the ground, too weak to support myself.
He kneels down scoops me up like a little child.
As my stomach contorts with hunger, I can't help but look at the dirty poisoned meat on the floor.
Jesus follows my gaze and says, with love in his eyes, "That's not for you."
He rises and takes me through the gap, bathing me in the light of day.
Overwhelmed, my head collapses into his shoulder.
By the time I raise my head again, He has brought me to a table, where there is a banquet prepared that my mind cannot comprehend.
He sets me down into a chair, then pulls up his own, and says, "I have come that you may have Life and have it to the full! Eat and drink and receive my Life."
As I begin to eat, I taste and see that the LORD is good.
My heart overflows with thankfulness as I feast on his blessings, delight in his words, and commune with his Spirit.
"And now," He says with a smile. "Let's free some more people! For I have come to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners!"
I grin at him, my face finally remembering how to smile.
We venture together into the world, full of stone, to offer the fullness of Life available at the banquet of the Lamb.