Jailhouse Interview #3

Interview with Christian Prisoner John Reyes
Taken in the Lynchburg City Jail
By The Rev. R. E. Knodel, Jr.
Orthodox Presbyterian Pastor
9/15/99

I've almost stopped praying for John's release! The Lord is doing so much through him. Either Saturday night or Sunday morning "Homicide" prayed to receive Christ. That's #7! The score is now 7 to 49! He spent Sunday reading his Bible and a devotional John gave him. John told me he knew something had happened because the usually profane Homicide was quiet Sunday. No invectives. Normal words! More about Mr. Homicide will follow. Read on!

Halfway through our morning worship service Sunday, a shaved-head man entered church and took a seat. After the benediction I found out he had just gotten out of jail at 5:30 that morning, and had walked an hour and a half to get to church. He testified that the twenty-five man cell at the jail "had totally changed" since John's incarceration. And he was not one of the six men who John counted as converted! His name is Matt, and he had counseled with John a number of times, but had not attended the regular Bible studies. He verified everything John has been saying!

Without disparaging the concept of "revival," I would beg the indulgence of our readers for a few words on the subject. Lynchburg has been characterized as the "City of Churches." And many of these churches schedule "revivals." To me this seems unbiblical, inasmuch as John 3 declares, "The wind (i.e., the Spirit of the Triune God) blows where it wills!" I believe we can schedule special weeks of preaching, etc., but had better leave off announcing where the Sovereign God of the Bible will next make an appearance.

To return to Lynchburg and her jail: A number of the Christians who attend our Sunday 3:00 p.m. "Jail Vigil" have commented that while they've observed "revival" signs around Lynchburg, that the real revival is going on inside our jail. Especially ironical is the fact that the evangelical community here seems petrified of becoming more involved with our beloved brother John Reyes. They are treating him as a kind of twisted scapegoat, to be put outside the city walls, never to be heard from again. (To this date, besides the regular jail ministry, I am the only pastor to have visited John! And this despite pleading with others regarding his case! Even the campus ministers of Liberty University, where John matriculates have not appeared!)

The irony drips! They say they want revival. They say they want truth. They say they want Jesus. And they say that (based on the one-sided journalism of our local paper beyond which they refuse to look!) John Reyes deserves to be in jail and that they won't identify with him as the Bible commands in Hebrews 13:3, Matthew 25: 45 etc.

But the irony is this: That which they condemn, God Himself justifies by His redemptive work within the jail! The churches of Lynchburg put up signs for revival and get none. God puts up His Spirit of revival, and gets the real thing. Our local churches have cut themselves off from this great work of God because they've cut themselves off from one of God's suffering servants.

It's like the good name of our Lord. Caesar, through Pontius Pilate, condemned Christ. He declared him a capital criminal worthy of death! He was the "offscouring of the earth!" But was He? Do men command the final word? Of course not! "It is not he who commends himself who is approved, but whom the Lord commends!" (2 Corinthians 10: 18) And so when the Apostle Paul wrote to Rome, he addressed this in the first four verses of his letter. He preached that Jesus Christ was "(D)eclared to be the Son of God with power ... by the resurrection from the dead!" Caesar decreed Christ to be trash worthy of the public shame of crucifixion. God declared Him to be the Righteous Son of God with power!

God stuck His decision "in their face" by the resurrection from the dead! It was a Divine act of political dimensions, inasmuch as man tried to sanctify/magnify his rejection of Christ with political warrant!

I believe we're seeing the same thing here in Lynchburg. Judge Miller, and even the "church community" found John Reyes to be especially abhorrent. His penalty for a contrived trespass was much more severe than many felony convictions. He has become a "byword" as the Bible says, or someone to be "hissed at." But God continues to justify that which men have condemned!

Last week a man came into the cell testifying that he was a Christian. But the more John talked to the man, the more he sensed a deep spirit of cynicism in him. After a couple of days, the man totally recanted any faith and said to John, "It would take a miracle, for me to see, to believe in God!"

After warning the man that the unbelieving Jews had made the same demands on Jesus, John called the prisoner nicknamed "Homicide" over. It had been about five days since Homicide had made a confession of faith. John said to the man, "I can't show you miracles, but perhaps Homicide can tell you something of God's work in him!"

What Glen, "Homicide" Thompson said, even surprised John. He said he just stood back and listened as Glen talked on and on and on about how much his life had changed in the intervening days! John said that Glen said things to the man that he hadn't even said to John yet! He gave all the credit to God. God had broken into jail and saved a wretched man with the appellation of death. "Homicide" testified of being born again by the Spirit of God!

All I can say is that God sure has a sense of humor! Just as in the life of Joseph, what men do for evil, God uses for Good! (Genesis 45:5, 50:20) When men rebel against the Lord and against His anointed, "He who sits in the heavens laughs!" (Psalm 2: 4) Let us continue to give thanks for God's mercy, and pray for John and his little church of Jesus Christ, in the Lynchburg City Jail!

P.S. Put out a prayer request, if you will, that John not be moved -- either to the other half of the jail where the "time" is harder, or to the Moneta Work Farm. Rumors have circulated to that effect. We'll see. At the end of Acts 13, after great revival, Paul and other leaders were driven out of the area of awakening by community leaders. So they shook the dust off their feet, went to Iconium, and the last verse says there was great joy in their midst! So if John is moved, can we respond with less joy? I think not. But from a human perspective, it would appear that so much good is taking place in John's present location, that the Lord would beckon us to pray for his staying put.

Take care,
In the Lamb,

Dick Knodel