Redeem
No. 7: A Compendium Entry for the Journey
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” -Joseph to his brothers1
Randy’s Introduction:
This word, little used in our day, has been used in a wonderful variety of ways in our language. I have listed just a few of the definitions below, both in the contemporary Merriam-Webster dictionary entry and in Samuel Johnson’s older dictionary entry. Today it refers to little more than coupons and discounts in common usage. But it has a storied past that proves the concept behind the word to be of real importance to human beings.
To REDEE'M. v.a. [redimo, Lat.]
/rəˈdēm/
Merriam-Webster, contemporary:
1a: to buy back. b: to get or win back.
2: to free from what distresses or harms: such as
a: to free from captivity by payment of ransom
b: to extricate from or help to overcome something detrimental
c: to release from blame or debt.
d: to free from the consequences of sin
3: to change for the better.
Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary, 1773:
1. To ransom; to relieve from forfeiture or captivity by paying a price.
The kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I mar mine inheritance. Ruth. iv. 6.
2. To rescue; to recover.
If, when I am laid into the tomb, I wake before the time that Romeo Comes to redeem me, there’s a fearful point.
-Shakesp.
3. To perform the work of universal redemption; to confer the inestimable benefit of reconciliation to God.
Christ redeemed us from the curse. -Gal. iii. 13.
MakeGoodHappen: To find a way of living in which pain and suffering, evil and injustice, do not get the final say. Time cannot be rolled back. Our wounds cannot be erased. We will always wish that they had never taken place. But now that they have happened, these experiences become part of a larger narrative that makesgoodhappen in our lives, relationships, and community.
Etymology
Derived from the Latin, redimere “to redeem, buy back” from red- "back" (see re-) + emere "to take, buy, gain, procure” through the Old French redimer "buy back" to English in the early 15c., redemen, "buy back, ransom, recover by purchase.” The general sense of "rescue, deliver, save" is from late 15c. The meaning "make amends for" is from 1520s. From 1840 redeem gains the sense of "make good, perform, fulfill.” The commercial sense of "receive back by paying the obligation" is from 1889.
How it Makes Good Happen
Christianity makes the greatest assertion of all: Human history, with its injustice, violence and oppression can be redeemed in a way that makesgoodhappen.
An assertion on this scale requires living proof. It must survive through just and unjust empires. It must outlive all of the ideologies that compete for the heart and soul of humanity. And Christianity must do even more to prove itself true. It has to continuously to provide meaning to people as they struggle through the most heinous moments of their lives. In their suffering at the hands of others, in moments when they are forced to confront their own mistakes, inadequacies and their shortcomings, Christianity has to prove itself capable of bringing meaning and purpose into each one of their lives. Redeeming humanity is a tall order.
The testing of this Christian assertion is a key theme of the Bible. In the New Testament as well as the Old, Christian practitioners and their Jewish predecessors find again and again, despite all of the contradictions and frustrations of life on this planet, that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob continues to move things forward toward the fulfillment of a promise.
The Lord had said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
‘I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.’2
This promise of redemption is tested again and again through grand events like the Exile, the long-awaited coming of the Messiah, the Roman occupation, and the early death and unexpected resurrection of Jesus, as well as in the everyday problems of people like Moses, Ruth, blind man Bartimaeus, and Mary. It isn’t a modern story of steady and certain progress. It is an ancient story of fits and starts, of threats and betrayals that make the fulfillment of the promise seem impossible. But over thousands of years, across the generations, in unexpected ways, at the last minute, these threats are overcome and the promise is fulfilled.
It is the testimony of millions of people that this promise of redemption is trustworthy and true. They wish that their difficult times had never happened to them. They continue to be shaped by their wounds. But all of the senseless suffering that they have experienced finds new purpose and meaning as a part of this story of God’s promise fulfilling. God redeems their past and gives them courage to makegoodhappen in the future. Paul puts it this way: “…we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” 3 Just a little bit later in the same letter he continues: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”4