Listen to Sermon
Pastor Tom Johnson, October 28, 2018
Jesus gives us that powerful promise: “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” But those who hear the promise cannot receive it. They cannot trust in it. Because they don’t believe they are in captivity or ever have been held in captivity. That is part of the irony of how these descendants of Abraham respond. “We have never been slaves to anyone.” Did they somehow forget that Abraham had a great-grandson named Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers? Soon after Joseph, the whole nation of Israel were slaves and captives in Egypt. They were in bondage in Egypt for 400 years. They could not see slavery in their heritage and history. And they could not see their present bondage to sin. They fail to understand just how destructive and deceptive sin can be in our lives. Sin is not just the bad things we do and the failure to do good things. Sin is a slave driver that keeps us in bondage. Sin is like a warden who wants to keep us in prison forever.
Jesus tells us that it is the truth of God’s Word that will set us free. Sometimes the Word of God is difficult to hear—especially when it tells us that we have fallen short of the glory of God—that we do harm to others and our selves—and that we have failed to be the blessing to God and others that we are created to be. But even worse than that, it is difficult to hear that we are not even in control. We need a veil lifted from our eyes. We need to have our ears and hearts opened to receive the truth—even when it hurts—even when it is difficult to understand and accept. That is what the Law does. The Holy Spirit through the Word of God shows us our captivity. We realize what we confessed earlier together: We are sinful and unclean. We have sinned in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved God and our neighbor as we are called to do.
What Jesus wants us to understand that this conviction of sin—this revelation that we are sinners and cannot free ourselves from our bondage to sin is a liberating truth. How can we want or find deliverance if we don’t even know that we are in bondage? Like those born into slavery and have never known anything different, so we are born into sin and do not know anything different. It is a kind and loving thing for God to show us that we are in bondage. That is part of the truth that will set us free—to simply know that we are not yet as free as God created us to be.
Martin Luther, the German reformer called the state of the church in his day “The Babylonian Captivity.” He saw people around him weighed down by their sins. They could never do enough penance or give enough to the church to find freedom from guilt, shame, and the power of sin. The Babylonian captivity was also the captivity of church leadership and false doctrine. It was the lie that God requires people to all sorts of things to get into a right relationship with him. It is the bondage of never being able to do enough to be free. Luther re-discovered the simplicity and beauty of Jesus’ words, “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” The hard truth is that we are sinful and broken people—that we need a savior and a deliverer from our bondage to sin.
This is a liberating truth. And it is an even more liberating truth to know that our Savior and Deliver has come. God the Father sent his eternal Son into the world to be born of the virgin Mary. And his name is Jesus Christ. Where we have failed, Jesus has succeeded. He lived a perfect life under the Law and Word of God. He loved his neighbors and his enemies. He healed and preached the Good News. He died on the cross to purchase a place for us in heaven. He rose again so that we too will rise to eternal life. “You will know the truth and the truth will make you free,” Jesus says. It is through the truth of God’s Word that we find our freedom. We are emancipated and set free from slavery to sin through the truth of the Gospel. We are set free from meaninglessness and the chaos and confusion of being held cap-tive by sin and it’s power. And we do not need to be weighed down and in bondage to all sorts of religious rituals and demands upon us. We are delivered from bondage by God’s grace through faith. All we need to do is trust in the words and in the person of Jesus. That is what the Reformation is all about. We re-form our thinking to be according to the truth of the Word of God. We are now set free from an unexamined life not worth living. We have been liberated into a God pleasing life where we can love God and others the way he has created us to live. This is why Martin Luther was willing to risk his own life. Because God has not called us to live under the tyranny and rule of sin. He has called us to freedom.
So, shake the shackles off your wrists and ankles. The cell doors locking you in have been opened. Get out of the dark and dank dungeon. The prison of sin, guilt, and shame has no more claim on you. You are free. Feel the fresh air blow on your faces. Breathe in the sweet aroma of forgiveness. Walk out into the light of God’s love that shines so brightly from the Son who died and rose again for you.
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