Redemption

This Bible word basically means the act of someone setting something free by paying a price.  Have a look at this old story that was found a few years ago circulating the Internet:

There once was a man who was walking through town when he saw a young boy coming towards him swinging a bird cage.  At the bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.  He stopped the lad and asked, "What have you got there, son?"

"Just some old birds," came the reply.

”What are you gonna do with them?" he asked.

"Take 'em home and have fun with 'em," the boy answered.  "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight.  I'm gonna have a great time."

"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later.  What will you do?"

"Oh, I have some cats," said the little boy.  "They like birds.  I'll take 'em to them."

The man was silent for a moment.  "How much do you want for those birds, son?"

"What?!  Why, you don't want them birds, mister.  They're just plain old field birds.  They don't sing.  They aren’t even pretty!"

"How much?" the man asked again.

The boy sized up the man as if he were crazy and said, "a hundred quid?"

The man reached in his pocket and took out the notes.  He placed them in the boy's hand.  In a flash, the boy was gone.

The man picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot.  Setting the cage down, he opened the door.  By softly tapping the bars he persuaded the birds out, setting them free.

So the idea is of paying a price to lift someone else or something else out of a situation.  The word first comes up in the Old Testament, with the story of Ruth.  She was a poor widow, who along with her mother-in-law, Naomi, was forced to sell her land to make some money.  This was a last resort; in Bible times, your land was your inheritance and security, to pass down to your children.  If you had no land, you were doomed to be poor for a long time.

But there was a law that someone, usually a distant relative, could buy the land back for you, and that was called redeeming the land.  The person who did it was called a redeemer.  In this book, a man called Boaz was able to buy the right of redemption.  This meant that Ruth and Naomi are raised out of poverty because their land had been redeemed.  Boaz had paid the price so that the land might be freed.  He had given something himself, so that another person’s situation might improve.  The Lord God is praised as a result of this kind and unselfish act: “Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without a redeemer...’” (Ruth 4:14).

This is just what Jesus Christ did later. We might think of ourselves in a poor situation in life – struggling to pay our bills, losing our health, heading for suffering and death one day.  We need outside help to escape this fate.  And so a price was paid to redeem us: “you were bought with a price.”(1 Corinthians 6:20).

What was the price?  Jesus is often called the Redeemer because of what he did.  In Handel’s famous piece of music, the Messiah, one oratorio is called “I know that my redeemer liveth”, which is a Scriptural quotation from Job who was prophesying about Jesus.  Have a look at this passage:

“You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ...” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

The price Jesus paid was his death on the cross when he did not deserve to die.  And with that death he redeemed us.  He gave us a way out of sin leading to death in this life.  Our situation has changed, but only if we stay faithful to the one who paid that price and who, just as in the story, set the birds free.