10-26-25              John 8:31-36

31 Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
  34 Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”

In Christ you are provided the mercy which will free you from that which has bound you. Accept it.

Come on in, take up this Lutheran heritage (even if you are not sure if Lutheran is really the brand that labels you). Join the celebration as we recall Martin Luther’s brave and audacious action of posting his 95 theses on the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany on October 31, 1517. He challenged his fellow theologians and church leaders to defend the practices that he was convinced had strayed from the ways of Jesus. Reformation was needed and many took up the task along with Luther.  A return to the Word, as the first and foremast basis, was called for then, just as we heard Jesus advise in our gospel text.

Jesus is speaking with a group of Jewish people from Judah. They were proud to be from the area near Jerusalem, the loyal Southern kingdom, who had remained devoted and faithful to their Jewish heritage. As they had become acquainted with Jesus and had been listening to him, they could understand how his words were prophetic, and they were very interested in all He had to say. They were quite convinced that this man had come from God and was the leader they should follow, they had come to believe in Him. 

Jesus was exploring with them what it means to be his disciples. The faith in him, that they have claimed to possess is being examined, and put to the test. But they are also wondering what that has to do with this freedom about which Jesus speaks. A disciple is a student and these students have more to learn. Jesus tells them to continue in his word and then the truth will be revealed and that truth will free them. The truth is to be found in the word of Christ and as we heard elsewhere, we are to abide in that word. We are to make our home with that word, so that we become so familiar with it, that we know our way in the dark. John, in his gospel,  spoke of the Word of God right off the bat. Do you remember? John wrote: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  And a few sentences later: The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory of a father’s only son. (Jn 1) That is how John intro-duces us to our Lord Jesus, rather than our traditional Christmas birth story.

The Word is central; for by it the disciple is taught and the truth in it strengthens our faith and it grows, enabling us to live in the way we are meant to live. His listeners were following along in agreement up to that point and then Jesus mentions being free. Jesus implies that there was something missing for them, that they were not yet truly free. They began to get irate. These Judeans assumed they were already free, independent, not reliant on or expected to answer to any other nation’s rule. They were children of Abraham. They possessed a noble heritage, they were God’s chosen people, what more could they possibly need? It seems no one likes to admit to being under the control or the thumb of another; Americans most of all. We should have no trouble understanding where they were coming from. They even refused to acknowledge that they had ever known slavery, even though the most significant act of grace by God was their rescue from slavery in Egypt. It was that rescue which formed the basis of their relationship with God, a God who saves, and the covenant thereby established, was meant to direct their future interaction. 

Jesus then explains that the slavery about which he is concerned is not from their history in Egypt or in the experience of being conquered and exiled by the ones who had ruled over them since. Jesus’ main interest centers on a very personal and individual level. I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin,he says. Sin is what is interfering with discipleship. Sin is at the crux at which relationship gets broken. Sin is what has caused the chasm that has opened up between God and his children. Sin is what keeps you bound and chained. Freedom is not possible when sin keeps you under its control. Jesus cares about each of his followers and does not want anyone to be constrained by sin and death. Sin is not only conduct and thinking that needs to be forgiven; to be free from sin requires a new start into a new life. That is what Luther contended when he spoke of the need to recall our baptism daily; each morning splash that water on your face, recall your baptismal cleansing.  Know that you are starting new that day, ready to go forward as one transformed without the weight of the accumulated sins of the past. That is the freedom you are meant to feel. The philosopher Epictetus, from the first century, wrote in his Diatribe concerning this slavery and freedom. “If the free person ‘lives as he wishes,’ then no one is truly free because people’s desires and emotions, such as sorrow, fear, envy, and pity, enslave them. Besides, even people’s moral and rational errors enslave them.”  (Thompson, John: A Commentary, 190)

Like these Judeans, who wanted to ignore and rewrite the reality of their own heritage regarding slavery, we often want to ignore the fact that sin exerts its control over us. We like to think that we are able to make our own decisions without prejudice or bias and that no one exerts influence over our choices. We might also go to the other extreme, by rejecting to own up to any guilt for the sin we have.  We decide that even though we have sinned, we are not really responsible. “The devil made me do it!” “It’s not my fault, my brother did it!” We cannot be held accountable – after all it is the way things are done these days, just goin’ with the flow. The truth of the matter is before us in the Word: Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 

I would have you imagine yourself like this balloon. You are free to float along enjoying the view and riding on gentle breezes – a good life. But you are attached with a string that keeps you tied so you can go only so far. You don’t like to be restricted. Then those breezes become stronger pushing down and whipping you around, you might even get loose from that which anchors you. Suddenly it seems you are free but now who knows where you will end up – twisted into the branches of a tree, wrapped around a car’s antenna and driven away, smashed against a building, poked by something sharp and then your inner buoyancy escapes and you are flattened. It turns out you had no control over yourself but have been directed by every whim and current that came along. It becomes obvious that the string and where it had been anchored is very important after all. We need to hear the truth from the gospel. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.” The Son, Jesus, has an unbreakable grip on that string and He will lead us in his way. We are grounded by our faith in Him. When we cut that string, rebel by sinning, loosening that hold, Jesus forgives and catches us again. Our freedom is grounded in the permanency of our family relationship, upon which we can always depend. That’s the truth Jesus brings and it frees you.  You need not fear because Jesus walks with you, holding on to you.  That’s the truth.