When something is too expensive, we sometimes say that it cost “an arm and a leg”. If you were incarcerated, would you be willing to pay a kidney and bone marrow to reduce the amount of time you’re required to serve?
A bill has been submitted in the Massachusetts Statehouse that would make establish a Bone Marrow and Organ Donation Program within the state Department of Correction. Under this bill, an inmate could shave off between 60 days and one year from their sentence for undergoing surgery to donate. As you might expect, the bill has met strong opposition and has little chance of passing.
More than 4,600 people in Massachusetts are awaiting donated organs; nationwide there are almost 106,000 on waiting lists. Critics of the proposed bill, however, point to Federal law that prohibits the sale of human organs for transplant. Also to be considered are the ethics of asking people already desperate to be released to do something as drastic as donating an organ, a risky procedure.
The reason America exists is because of a lack of freedom for the colonists. In declaring their independence from Britain, the colonists asserted that people are endowed with “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Liberty – would you give an arm and a leg for it?
We don’t usually consider spiritual liberty, but we should. Once we transgress the laws of God we become prisoners of sin, captives of Satan. God’s word shows this to be a frightful condition, one from which we need release. But is release from Satan possible?
Hebrews 2:14,15 gives the answer: “… He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” That’s news that should make our hearts jump for joy; we can have freedom from Satan! But at what cost? It required Christ’s death.
I admire people who selflessly choose to donate a needed organ to a loved one. It puts them at risk, and a certain period of painful recovery. But how much more should we admire what Jesus has done for us! “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15:13). (Those were Jesus’ own words.)
But He didn’t just do this for friends: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). An arm and a leg? Jesus gave much more than that. For friends? No, even for those who were sinners.
How we long for freedom, especially when we don’t have it! One has paid the price for our freedom. Let’s not ignore this amazingly generous gesture.
Come to the light God offers! Study His word, the Bible. Worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:24). Get in touch with us if you’d like to discuss these ideas further.
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Copyright, 2023, Timothy D. Hall
