Grace and the DMZ

I am back in my hotel in Seoul after an all-day trip to the DMZ or Demilitarized Zone. As I am sure you know, the Korean Peninsula is divided into two nations: North and South Korea. The DMZ is the “no man’s land” that stretches across the 150-mile width of the peninsula and serves as a “safe zone” between these two nations.

On the bus ride to the area, I kept thinking about my dad, who served in the Korean War and was awarded the Purple Heart for injuries sustained while taking supplies to the front lines. In addition to being injured physically here, my father also suffered the loss of his mother while he was serving in Korea. By the time the Red Cross got the message to him and he arrived home, my grandmother had already died and been buried. It was hard not to feel a great deal of pride, about both my dad and my country, as our guide spoke about the significant role America played and continues to play in the freedom South Koreans experience.

I am here in another kind of fight for freedom. I have come to talk about the freedom we can have in Jesus. Isaiah 61:1-3 reads, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”  These words were read by Jesus at his very first sermon. Jesus’ purpose in coming to Earth was to fulfill this promise.

There are many types of bondage in the world today. Some people are in bondage to wicked political systems, some are in bondage to sinful patterns and habits, some are in bondage to cycles of success and money, and some are even in bondage to religion. I have come halfway across the globe to preach a message of grace. I have come to declare that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation”  (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

Earlier today, I stood under close military guard with one foot in South Korea and one in North Korea, but I was forbidden to have any contact with anyone from North Korea. However, I have been told that when I preach on Sunday, the message will be broadcast through the Far East Broadcasting Company into parts of North Korea. What amazing times we live in. Wouldn’t it just be like God to use an unknown pastor from Maryland as a voice of grace and set some more captives free here on this beautiful peninsula? Grace is truly amazing!