After such a long time in prison many people would have no idea how to cope in a world changed almost beyond recognition. Some might go wild with the freedom, and spend all their time in frenzied living, trying to make up for lost time. Others might withdraw into themselves, incapable of facing the world again, and actually now more at home and happier in the darkness than in the light. But Nelson Mandela at the age of 77, radiated Christian love and forbearance and forgiveness. Perhaps during those 30 years of imprisonment and despite them, somehow or other he'd learned the true meaning of freedom.
Real freedom is perhaps much less a physical thing than a state of mind.
When Jesus died on the cross, physically he was totally imprisoned, totally in the power of other people, and unscrupulous and vicious people at that. But he was also more completely free than at any other point in his life. On the cross he experienced total freedom, because he had not allowed any of those people to get to him. He chose to die rather than to capitulate to their demands, and in so doing, he freed himself from them. He didn't do what they expected him and wanted him to do, he chose his own path and he chose to do what he knew was right.