Folks of a certain age may be familiar with a 1985 movie called The Breakfast Club. The whole movie takes place in one day, specifically, March 24, 1984, when five students from Shermer High School have to report at 7:00 a.m.—hence Breakfast Club—on a Saturday for all-day detention. A voice-over at the beginning describes the five as “a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.” That’s what makes the movie so good—that these five students are so different. If it weren’t for detention, the quintet would never be in the same room, let alone speak to one another. What makes the movie so profound—profound enough to serve as a sermon illustration!—is that they not only talk but also joke, argue, laugh, cry, and become great friends. So, question: Why did that not happen before?
If you’ve been to high school (and in one sense I’m not sure we ever truly get out), you know the answer. Because when your identity, your who-you-are, is a brain or an athlete or a basket case or a princess or a criminal, you hang out with the brains or the athletes or the basket cases or the princesses or the criminals—because if you don’t, if you fail to live up to the expectations of those groups, those tribes, those cliques, then you risk getting the boot, having no identity at all, and eating your cafeteria Tater Tots all by yourself. So what happened with the Breakfast Club? Well, they got a new identity, specifically one as detainees, a new common identity that trumped all those others and freed them, in this case, to be friends.
Freed just the way Paul was, and we are . . . kind of.
Imagine a pre-Damascus-road Paul as a student at “Shermer High School” (a metaphor for a world in which we’re enslaved to one identity or another).What’s his group/tribe/clique? A Jew? A Pharisee? Top of his class? Zealous enforcer? (See Phil 3:4–6; 2 Cor 11:22–29.)
Before Jesus met him on the way to Damascus, these are what Saul just was, what drove his every action and interaction, and without which there was no Saul. Imagine yourself at “Shermer High School.” What’s your group/tribe/clique? Perhaps try some diagnostic questions to help identify the tribe from which you get your “who am I?” Whose approval do you need or crave?
Whose disapproval would crush you? Whom would you most like to see fail (and there are some!)? If you’re exhausted right now, is it because you feel you can’t keep up? And, if so, with whom are you trying to keep up? Why do you live where you live? It is hard to see and admit (confess!) how we get enslaved to the expectations of the brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, criminals, and so on—but we do!
Often those who most deny it are most enslaved.
Since I am free from all . . . (v 19). “Since” may be a better rendering than “though.” At the very least, “though” should include a “since.” What happened to Paul so that he could recognize his earlier life as Jew/top-notch-Pharisee/enforcer to be slavery to the group/tribe/expectations? Jesus! Jesus happened to him. Jesus transformed Saul! Jesus showed up and gave him a new identity! The risen Jesus gave him a sure identity, surer than death! The gracious Jesus gave him an identity he didn’t have to prove/earn/virtue signal again and again! The forgiving Jesus gave him an identity he can’t mess up! (My-Everyday-Struggle with-Sin) Is-Annihilated by Him) MESSIAH Priceless treasure Jesus gave him an identity that made all the other stuff pulling his strings and that he’d thought was so important look like a pile of rubbish (Phil 3:8).
Just like you! All the same is true of you! Who are you? A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal? No—at least not first, and definitely not only!
Your name tag reads Baptized Child of God! Eternally beloved! Fully forgiven! Then, March 26, 1984, for Paul—and you. While in detention at Shermer High, each of the five was supposed to be writing a thousand-word essay answering the question: “Who do you think you are?” While they don’t get around to writing until the end—actually “the brain” writes one essay on behalf of all five—the point is that by 4:00 p.m., March 24, the detainees were not who they thought they were at 7:00 a.m.
A question that goes left unanswered in the movie is what happened on Monday, March 26, when the brain, athlete, basket case, princess, and criminal went back to Shermer High. Did the common identity forged on March 24 stand, or do they go back to the “slavery” of the cliques? By the time Paul wrote his well-over-a-thousand-word essay to the Corinthians, he knew very well who he was and to what he was or wasn’t beholden.
Paul doesn’t have to live up to the Corinthians’ expectations for him (as one of the strong ones). The now-believing-in-Jesus Paul has a new identity. In Jesus, Paul is free. Since he is free from all the enslaving identities/expectations, he is free to, well, do what comes naturally to the new identity! Gripped and captivated by the gracious call of Jesus, secure in an identity that cannot be taken away, he does what he cannot help but do: namely, preaching the Gospel by which enslaved sinners are set free. With no one left to impress, Paul is free to “become all things to all people” (v 22). So now it’s your March 26, 1984. You Are Free in Jesus. What are you—Child of God—now free to do? Your calling is probably different from Paul’s, but your identity is the same. You’re possessed by Jesus. You are a member of the Body of Christ. If you can stand the hokeyness, welcome to the Jesus Club! So, Child of God, what are you now free to do? A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, a criminal . . . butcher, baker, candlestick maker. Whoever you are, you’ve been transformed by Jesus. He’s marked you as his own. There’s no one to impress. Just people to love. Amen.