Her Name Means Wild

We all have played Monopoly.

The original game was invented in 1903.  Its’ intent was to demonstrate the selling and buying of land in a growing America.

The Game.  As you make your way around the board, you might be lucky enough to land on a piece of property worth investing in or on the chance and/or community chest.  The chance cards offer incentives like, get out of jail free cards.  When we have these in our possession, two things almost always occur; 1) we sell it to a player in need in order to make a profit or 2) save it for possible future need.

But why a get of out jail free card?  I mean, thats not even realistic in our world today.  We have to serve time for the crime.  The concept of a “get out of jail free” is something we all have engraved in us, our ancestors wanted it, we search for it and the reality is-there is, fortunately, such a thing as get out jail free.

The Crime.  The crime we are all guilty of is the sin inside our hearts.  Temptation.  Even King David in Psalm 51 asks God to blot out his transgressions and remember them no more.  We’re wired to think that the punishment should always fit the crime.  We all want our mistakes to be wiped out, we want to be rid of the guilt.

Guilt can eat us alive.  It weighs heavy on heart because we were created with a conscious.  We are always looking for hope, that there is something to look forward to.  We create games with hypothetical desires that we wish were true.  Why is that?  Maybe because we desire to be rid of the emptiness that guilt creates.

Your get out of jail free card.  The truth is that there is such a concept.  The Gospel.  The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus came for everyone.  And through His death, our mistakes are blotted out.  This “get out of jail free” card is for anyone who wants it.  But unlike the game, we don’t have to go through something to be offered the good news.  It’s free because the price was already paid.