This past Easter, the newly elected Pope Francis made waves by choosing to spend Maundy Thursday washing the feet of young prisoners in a juvenile detention center in Rome.
The pontiff’s decision to visit those behind bars during Holy Week reflects an Easter tradition that has been observed at Prison Fellowship for 35 years. This year, Prison Fellowship CEO Jim Liske continued the practice begun by Prison Fellowship founder Chuck Colson, leading staff and volunteers to the Central Florida Reception Center prison in Orlando and the Desoto Correctional Institution in Arcadia, Florida, for celebrations of Jesus’ resurrection.
In an article for the Orlando Sentinel, Liske comments on the shared example of Pope Francis and Chuck Colson, and helps explain why spending Easter behind bars helps us understand redemption:
When I was the pastor of a large church in western Michigan, I oversaw my fair share of Easter pageantry. But when I spent my first Easter celebrating the reality of redemption among the incarcerated, I realized what I believe Colson and Pope Francis saw when they went into the prisons, that there is no more powerful or appropriate place to spend Easter than behind bars.
Easter is, after all, the story of an indigent prisoner, hastily tried, sentenced to death, executed and buried in a donated tomb. Better than perhaps anyone else, prisoners understand the Passion narrative in all its darkness and indignity.
They grasp the magnitude of what Jesus sacrificed, taking on himself a punishment he did not deserve. And with an urgency often lacking in more put-together settings, they cling to the promise of forgiveness and a fresh start that the gospel accounts offer. …
Too often, prisons are the dumping grounds for people we deem too broken to fix. Pope Francis’s example, the legacy of Chuck Colson, and the entire message of Easter should cause us to question the assumption that any life is beyond the transformative reach of grace. Read More
You Can Make a Difference
Now more than ever, we need your prayers as God reveals His plans to open prisons to the Gospel and pave the way to build His Kingdom behind bars.
We’re scheduled to visit more than 100 prisons coast to coast this year through our Operation Starting Line initiative, spreading the Good News and winning hearts for Christ.
Last year, more than 17,500 inmates attended Operation Starting Line events. Over the past 12 years, more than:
- 700,000 prisoners in 1,050 correctional facilities have heard the Gospel.
- 56,000 men and women have made a commitment to Christ.
- 57,000 inmates have enrolled in Bible studies.
Together, we can take hold of such a time as this. Let’s serve the forgotten behind bars and break the chains that bind prisoners to their spiritual prison by delivering the greatest news we sinners have ever heard — the Gospel of Jesus Christ!