Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has famously been held in Iran for about five years having been convicted of what appear to be insubstantial spying charges.
This week she has appeared again in an Iranian court on fresh charges and had her captivity officially extended for another year.
There seems to be something really odd about her case and we would probably struggle to get to the bottom of it.
We don't know how many other British citizens are detained in Iran because the UK Government refuses to say, but in an August 2020 Panorama programme Daragh MacIntyre met the families of some of those who have been detained and asked whether the payment of a historic debt could set them free.
One very hot potato
This is a very hot political issue in UK news at the moment. Yesterday (27/04/21) Labour’s Tulip Siddiq, who is Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s MP, told the Commons that she has “seen no evidence” the Boris Johnson is actively trying to secure her constituent’s release.
She continued: “At the heart of this tragic case is the prime minister’s dismal failure to release my constituent and to stand up for her, and his devastating blunder in 2017 when he was foreign secretary - when he exposed his complete ignorance of this tragic case and put more harm in Nazanin’s way,” she said.
“The prime minister did not even arrange for UK officials to attend Nazanin’s recent court hearing, which might have ensured she got a free and fair trial. He still hasn’t got his government to pay the £400 million debt that we as a country owe Iran."
Mr Cleverly told Ms Siddiq during the urgent question: “Her anger and frustration is misdirected because Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and the other British dual nationals held in arbitrary detention are being held by Iran. It is on them.”
Her husband told the Press Association news agency that Mrs. Zaghari-Ratcliffe was watching proceedings in Parliament from captivity on the internet and "What she noticed was that Dominic Raab hadn’t come to answer for the Government, a junior minister had been sent."
Can't pay: won't pay
'Can't pay' and 'won't pay' are, of course, different concepts ... although hostage takers over history have gone to some pretty gruesome lengths to change the minds of the 'won't pay's with a demonstration of the possible consequences of stubborn refusal.
Which brings us to the WONDER of our Verse for Today:
"... the Son of Man did not come to be served,
but to serve,
and to give his life as a ransom for many.’"
Matthew 20:28
Ready, willing and STUMPING UP to pay before we ask
The Greek word for ransom (λύτρον, lutron) is found here in Matthew 20 and in Mark 10:45 and it refers to the payment of a price in order to purchase the freedom of a slave.
It's not a word that crops up often at all in the New Testament, but the New Testament's use of it breathes a bit of fresh air into the dire situation of hostage humanity in the Old Testament ... as viewed (for example) through the lens of Psalm 49:
"No one can redeem the life of another
or give to God a ransom for them –8 the ransom for a life is costly,
no payment is ever enough –
9 so that they should live on for ever
and not see decay."
Jared C. Wilson writing for The Gospel Coalition in 2019 explained:
"The condition of man since the fall is one of bondage to sin and corruption from death. Having disobeyed God, we have revolted from our insidest selves to his good order and holy decrees. Therefore, we are slaves to death and children of wrath.
The psalmists then effectively tell us that no man can rescue himself. We can’t even rescue each other. Why? Because no sinner can muster the moral currency required to pay the ransom for this rescue."
The idea of Jesus as the “ransom” is that he paid the price with his own life by standing in our place as a substitute, enduring the judgment that we deserved for sin.
Psalm 49:15 goes on to say:
"But God will ransom my soul from the realm of the dead;
he will surely take me to himself"
... and it's Jesus that the Psalmist is talking about.
But that raises the inevitable question:
WHO is the ransom there being paid to?
There's another 'ransom text' in the New Testament that really helps us with this:
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind,
the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself as a ransom for all people."
1 Timothy 2:5-6
This 1 Timothy passage portrays the Lord Jesus as the Mediator, the go-between seeking peace, not between mankind and the devil nor between God and the devil.
He is the go-between for mankind with God.
So the ransom is paid
- by the incarnate God, Jesus,
- paying the ransom price for sin-imprisoned humanity by
- giving His own laid-down life in payment to God
- Whose absolute righteousness must require the just penalty for sin.
And that's exactly the way Psalm 49:7 has already prophetically described things.
The Point
So the gorgeous irony of the gospel is that Christ-followers are effectively saved from the Holy God by the same ransoming God.
And now that ransom has been paid as the penalty of imprisoning sin was paid on the Cross, Christ's followers are transferred from the imprisonment of sin and death into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Romans 8:20-21).
Jesus Christ, as to His human nature, COULD pay the ransom price of sin for humanity because He was sinless and had no sin of His own to pay the penalty for.
Jesus Christ WOULD pay, because He is God and God is by nature unfathomable love.
The Takeaway
If the UK Government offered to pay the debt owed and free Mrs. Zaghary-Ratcliffe, can you imagine that under any circumstances at all she would say:
'You no what? Nah. Thanks a lot. I'll give it a miss'?!
- Let's be sure today by a quick check on our hearts that we're ransomed because we've turned from sin to put our trust in the can pay and will pay Saviour from sin, Jesus Christ.
- And once that's been cleared up, isn't it time for a song?
'Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Who like me His praise should sing?'`
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