John 8:31-36 - Jesus has Set Us Free! - October 30, 2022

This time of year our mailboxes and email inboxes are filled with political mailings and messages. Often the candidates who are asking for your vote promise to give you freedom of some sort in return. And rightly so, since our nation was established on the principle of freedom – freedom we still enjoy today. In 9 days, we can exercise our freedom to vote. We enjoy freedom of speech (although as Christians we will always use that right to edify others and glorify God). We enjoy freedom of the press – MSNBC or FOX, the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal – we are free to consume all of them or none of them. Most importantly, we enjoy freedom of religion. Unlike thousands – perhaps millions – of Christians around the world, we don’t (or at least shouldn’t) have to worry that the government will persecute us because we confess Jesus Christ as our Savior. As Americans, we are free in any number of ways – and let us never take our freedoms for granted. But today, let us cherish the most important freedom we have – one not granted by the Constitution but by Jesus.

Many Americans today take their freedoms for granted. So do many Christians. That’s because you can only appreciate freedom when you’ve known and experienced the opposite: slavery. The first part of John 8 provides a prime example of what this slavery looks like. As Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, the scribes and Pharisees dragged in a woman who had been caught red handed in the sin of adultery. The Pharisees brought this woman to Jesus to see if he would support the Law of Moses which said that she should be stoned to death for her crime (Leviticus 20:10). This woman knew what it meant to be enslaved to sin. Lust controlled her. Wicked, angry, vengeful men surrounded her, and on the other side of her only apparent escape – death – stood Satan, cackling with delight in the fact that he had wrecked another home, ruined another life, and trapped another soul for eternity.

The Galatians in our second lesson also knew what it meant to be slaves. Some of them were literal slaves – a grim reality for many in the Roman Empire. Many of them had, at one time, been slaves to idols – false gods with eyes that couldn’t see, ears that couldn’t hear, and hands that couldn’t help. Behind every one of these false gods stood Satan – who had succeeded yet again in convincing humans created in God’s image to worship blocks of wood and statues of silver. It was pure insanity. Pure satanic slavery!

But before you spend your pity on that woman and those Christians in Galatia, listen to what Jesus has to say: Amen, Amen, I tell you: everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to sin. All sin is slavery. Sometimes this slavery is easy to spot. The addict who lies and steals to maintain his addiction – his slavery is obvious. The husband who spends his time, money, and creativity deceiving his family and friends to maintain a secret affair – his slavery is obvious. When pastors reach out to members who haven’t attended worship in months or years, they often hear the rattle of sin’s chains in the excuses given: busy schedule; gotta work; it’s the kids and their sports or academics; it’s my only morning to sleep in; I’m young, I’ll have time for Jesus later, etc. Wrecked bodies, destroyed homes and lives, greedy hearts and starving souls – all of it is slavery, slavery to sin and slavery to Satan.

Other times it’s harder to spot – especially when you and I are looking in the mirror. There’s one important thing to remember: slavery to sin isn’t only what we do, it’s who we are. We just admitted that, didn’t we? I confess…. that I am a miserable sinner, guilty of every sin… Pick a commandment, any commandment – and when you look into it as a mirror, your slavery and mine will become obvious. The 4th – sure we respect those in elected office, those called by the church, our parents and employers – to their faces; how many of us would have to blush with shame if our private thoughts and conversations about them were made public? The 5th – it’s easy to refrain from pulling a trigger on a gun. It’s not so easy to keep from pulling the trigger of hatred in our hearts. The 6th – it’s fairly easy to stay out of our neighbor’s bedroom. It’s not so easy to keep our eyes to ourselves. The 8th – I doubt that many of us have had the opportunity to commit perjury in a courtroom – but the times we’ve told lies about neighbor, betrayed him, or given him a bad name; those are innumerable. Jesus says, everyone who keeps committing sin is a slave to sin. The hard truth is, then, that because we sin we are slaves to sin.

When we learn this truth, we don’t like it. So we try to escape. Generally, in one of two ways: 1) We try to work our way out of it, or 2) we deny it. The Galatians had chosen to try to work themselves out of their slavery. They did so by confusing Law and Gospel. Some false teachers had wormed their way into the Galatian congregation. They were essentially Pharisees in Christian clothing. They said that it was fine to believe that the Gospel made you a Christian, but that if you wanted to stay a Christian and be certain of your salvation, you still had to obey the Old Testament laws: you had to be circumcised, not work on Saturdays, not eat bacon or pork chops. Paul could hardly believe it: I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ, for a different gospel, which is really not another gospel at all (Galatians 1:6-7). Paul is shocked that these Christians would even consider giving up the freedom they had in Christ for the chains of the Mosaic Law.

Martin Luther tried a similar route 1500 years later. He gave up a promising career in the law to become a monk. He gave up ownership of earthly possessions. He slept on a stone floor, became a priest, named and confessed his sins seven days a week and prayed seven times a day. He did all this in an attempt to free his conscience from guilt and his soul from slavery to sin. And yet, his path of freedom through works quickly became another form of slavery. I saw many who tried with great effort and the best of intentions to do everything possible to appease their conscience. They wore hair shirts; they fasted; they prayed; they tormented and wore out their bodies so severely that if they had been made of iron they would have been crushed. And yet the more they labored, the greater their terrors became. Especially when the hour of death was imminent, they became so fearful that I have seen many murderers facing execution die more confidently than these men who had lived such saintly lives (LW 27:13). Attempting to work your way out of slavery – whether that means fasting, giving, praying, working, serving, preaching, or just trying harder tomorrow – is simply trading slavery to sin for slavery to the law. And slavery never leads to freedom.

Option 2: deny, deny, deny. Israel’s history was one of slavery beginning, middle and end. Egypt. Babylon. Rome. It was undeniable. And yet they claim: we are Abraham’s descendants…and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say, ‘You will be set free’? They were in denial. “We can’t be slaves. We’re children of Abraham. We’ve got the right blood flowing in our veins – so God has to give us a pass.” Sadly, these Jews forgot that the fact that their forefathers wandered and died in the wilderness for their rebellion and unbelief (1 Corinthians 10:1-13) shows how serious God is about sin – no matter who you’re related to.

That’s why we don’t let our celebration of the Reformation turn into Lutheran pep rally. “We’re sons of Luther – and we’re WELS (that’s the good kind of Lutheran) on top of it! God must be happy with us.” The truth is that belonging to a confessional Lutheran church and synod doesn’t earn us a thing in God’s eyes. If we imagine that we are free because of our Lutheran pedigree – because we were baptized, confirmed, married and plan to be buried Lutheran – we are in denial, and we end up losing the one person with the pedigree that really matters: Jesus. That’s why we don’t celebrate the Reformation to worship Martin Luther, or to place our trust in our Lutheran heritage as if that somehow earns our spot in heaven; no, our celebration of the Lutheran Reformation is nothing more and nothing less than an opportunity to thank God for using Martin Luther to bring back to the forefront the one true solution to our problem of slavery: Jesus!

Obedience to the law cannot set us free. Being Lutheran does not set us free. Only one thing sets us free from sin: If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. You will also know the truth, and the truth will set you free…a slave does not remain in the family forever. A son does remain forever. So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

The big question is: who is this Son who claims to have the power to set sinners free? There is no more important question and answer that Satan tries harder to confuse and cover up. The world at large is too distracted by the pursuits and pleasures of this life to be bothered with this question. The visible church has mutilated the Son’s identity, with many saying that Jesus can be whoever you want him to be. But salvation doesn’t depend on who you want Jesus to be, it depends on who Jesus proved himself to be. Thank God that Jesus has proved beyond all doubt that he is God’s Son and our Savior – but he did it in a rather unorthodox manner. He proved his power to free us from our slavery to sin by voluntarily becoming a slave in our place. He freed us by giving up his freedom. He left his majestic throne in heaven to become a servant on earth. He came preaching and teaching the truth – but no truth has been more frequently and completely rejected than His saving gospel. Jesus came to bring light to people living in darkness, but most preferred to stay in the darkness of sin and unbelief (John 3:19-20). Jesus was omnipotent, all-powerful; but in humility he allowed himself to be arrested, mocked and beaten by his creatures. Jesus, the King of Justice, suffered the ultimate perversion of justice – the guilty Barabbas walked free while he was nailed to a cross. The Author of Life died (Acts 3:15). The one who fills the universe was sealed in a cold stone grave. But…that wasn’t the end of the story: the One who died rose and now lives forever!

Because God’s Son broke the bars on death’s prison, not only is he free – he has earned the right to set us free. Slaves can only make other slaves. If we trust our own obedience to set us free – we will be slaves forever. If we look to Luther to set us free – we will find that heaven isn’t the only corner of eternity with a special section for Lutherans (there’s a section of hell for all who falsely claimed to be Lutheran, too). But if the Son sets you free, you really will be free. Through the conquering work of the Son, you are free from slavery to sin. Through the Lord of Life, you are free from the fear of death. Freed from Satan’s chains by Jesus’ blood, you are free to be sons and daughters of our Father in heaven.

That’s freedom you enjoy right now. How? Lutherans (especially Lutheran pastors) love the answer to that question. If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples. We hold to the Reformation creed of Scripture alone because Jesus tells us that it is only through his Word that we are truly set free. Jesus ties the gift of freedom – not to our genetic heritage, not to our church membership, not to a feeling in our hearts, not to our obedience or good works – but to His Word. Jesus connects true freedom, not to an army representing the red, white, and blue but to the blood-stained Gospel. If you want to be free; if you want to experience true freedom – hold onto Jesus’ teaching, treasure every doctrine in it, take every opportunity to hear and dig into God’s Word, remember your baptism daily and receive the Sacrament as often as you can – because through that Word Jesus sets you free to be children of God.

As people blessed by God to live in the land of the free, may we never take our freedom for granted. Don’t forget that our freedom of press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion were bought and paid for by American lives. Thank God for the freedoms granted and guaranteed to us by the Constitution. But more importantly, on this Reformation Day, rejoice in the freedom you have as a child of God. It was purchased and won for you, not by American soldiers, but by the blood of God’s one and only Son. That freedom comes to you through Word and Sacrament. That freedom can’t be taken from you. That freedom will ring loud and clear forever. Amen.