And how about those who are “oppressed”? Well, the translators perhaps should have used the literal meaning of “crushed”, or “broken in pieces” or “shattered”. You may have read the novel, “The Count of Monte Cristo” wherein, the protagonist, a young French sailor, Edmund Dantes was falsely imprisoned in the horrible Chateau D’if. Each year, the ‘warden’ chained Edmund up and beat him nearly to death. Finally, when he is able to escape this monstrous hell, he takes with him immense wealth from a pirate treasure but sadly, he is still bound up in his heart in Chateau D’if. He is never truly free of the grip of his loss and torture.

This pictures everyone of humanity spiritually. Jesus came to truly set us all free of this oppression, this shattering of the soul.