Jesus said to them, "I am telling you the truth: everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave does not belong to a family permanently, but a son belongs there forever. If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free."
When I lived out West few years ago, a headline story appeared in a Vancouver’s newspaper which touched people deeply. There was a photo of three little girls who had drowned. They were members of a group of people trying to get to Canada in a leaky old fishing boat that was crowded with something like 350 refugees.
The boat had sunk and the three children were unable to hang on to their mother, and like many others on that boat they drowned. The paper reported how the mother had paid a huge amount of money in order to make this journey from South East Asia to Canada.
Why do people risk everything, even their lives to make this kind of journey? The answer is simple – freedom, freedom, freedom.
- Freedom from persecution and oppressive governments,
- freedom from fear and war,
- freedom to be educated and to work,
- freedom to live in safety.
What they did was dangerous but these people were so desperate to go to a place where they could bring up their children in freedom and peace. If we were in their shoes, I would guess we too would have done anything to get our families to a place of freedom.
This search for freedom is nothing new. The movie Braveheart is about William Wallace and Scotland’s fight for freedom from the cruel rule of the English king. Wallace had many victories over the English but in the end, a friend betrayed him.
The king by then was very old and frail and dying but was determined not merely to kill Wallace but to have him beg for mercy and a quick death.
Just before Wallace was beeheaded, he mustered all of his remaining strength and screamed out "Freedom!!" - it’s sound penetrating the air - and reaching the ears of the dying king. As we read the history books, we are overwhelmed with the fact that the search for freedom is behind so many wars, so many deaths, and so many struggles.
We don’t even have to go to the history books to see a struggle for freedom.
- To the patient in hospital, freedom means release from a hospital bed and having good health once again.
- To a student, freedom means no more homework and exams.
- To those who are in unhappy marriages, freedom means release from all the arguments and the misery.
- To the tired and overworked, freedom means getting up late, doing what they want to do, enjoying a hobby, getting away from all the worries and burdens of their work.
For some the idea of freedom gives them permission to do as they please – it doesn’t matter if they hurt others in the process.
Freedom means blurring the distinction between right and wrong to the point where even wrong is regarded as right.
They claim they are free from all the old taboos, traditions, and restrictions. Do drugs and alcohol, pornography, have sex whenever and with whoever you like, get rid of the unborn, violence, robbery, greed, and selfishness become expressions of their "new" freedom. This isn’t freedom. It’s just another form of slavery.
Today we hear Jesus talking about freedom. First, he says, "the truth will make you free". Jesus audience didn’t understand what he was talking about. They didn’t need to be made free, after all they were children of Abraham.
They weren’t slaves to anyone or anything. They were already free. The question is were they? And are we? The average Canadian would respond in much the same way. We live is a peaceful and freedom loving country. Some people have come to this country because of freedom.
The first Lutherans came to Canada because they were looking for a place where they could worship God freely without any hindrance or persecution. We have seen boat loads of people risk their lives trying to get to this country because they want this kind of freedom they have only dreamt about.
Jesus’ audience denied that they needed any kind of freeing. They had all the freedom they needed. ( momentarily they forget that the Romans were just one among many who oppressed the Jews and restricted their freedom). Then Jesus reminds his listeners, "I am telling you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin."
People don’t like being reminded of this. To be called a slave of sin is serious stuff. A slave only does what he/she is told to do. A slave has no freedom, no rights.
A slave cannot free him/herself; he/she is bound to be a slave for life. "Everyone who sins is a slave of sin", our thoughts, words and deeds are ruled by it.
We might go to self-improvement classes: attend counselling sessions to try to improve our behaviour; go to therapy groups to try and be more positive and less influenced by our selfish nature but as good as these might be, a slave is always a slave.
Our desires, the temptations that confronts us to lead us astray, make it clear that in spite of our firm resolve to change, our bondage to sin is never broken. Denying the fact that we are slaves of sin is just further proof that we are helplessly trapped and we can’t do anything to free ourselves.
God demands perfection! 100%! That’s the way he intended humans to be from the very beginning of time. But who can fulfill God’s demands? No matter how shining and bright we think we are, or how many excuses we have, "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". None of us can meet the demands of God. No one.
In the sixteenth century, there was a man by name of Martin Luther who found himself in a church that had an elaborate system for offering people personal freedom. Freedom could be obtained by confessing your sins to a priest, or buying absolution, or doing a series of devotional good works that would make satisfaction for your sins and secure your forgiveness.
The only trouble was that even while you were doing these good works of satisfaction, you were already starting to commit new sins which now had to be confessed, absolved, and satisfied. And in the course of this second round a third round would begin, and so you found yourself on a treadmill of hopelessness and condemnation.
The terrible thing was that the church had made freedom from sin and forgiveness a number of hoops that people had to jump through. But never be sure if they had jumped through enough hoops to satisfy God. That was Luther’s dilemma, and I believe it is so for many of us today. We are still searching for the ‘One thing’ that would fill the void we feel inside.
What Jesus says in our text brings relief. He says, "If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free". There is only one way you and I can be released from slavery to sin and no longer suffer the consequences of such slavery – Jesus the Son of God will declare us free. We can’t free ourselves, through some techniques or sheer willpower. Only the one who has the real authority and power can set us free. Only the Son of God can set us free. Luther said this so well when he summarized how enslaved to sin we are and how the Son of God has set us free. He says in the Small Catechism,
Jesus rescued me when I was lost and sentenced to death. He set me free from all my sins, from death and from the power of the devil. It cost him more than gold or silver; it cost him his life. Even though he was holy and innocent, he suffered and died for me" (Second Part of the Apostles’ Creed, Openbook Publishers 1996).
This is core and the centre of what the Bible has to say. This is God's message to all people; it is the central message of the church. Jesus has rescued us from slavery to sin. God sent Jesus to give his life for us; to free us from the power that sin has over us.
God didn’t send Jesus because he could see a spark of good in us. No, he sent Jesus because he could see that we are hopelessly enslaved and that our only hope is for him to intervene and to set us free. God declares us righteous. He restores friendship with us. He forgives us even though we don’t deserve it. It is a gift that belongs to anyone who believes in God.
God's loves the unlovely, God forgives those who are trapped in fear, pain and the cycle of violence. He doesn't excuse it; he cures it. This is God's way of dealing with sin. Therefore:
- Freedom in Christ means freedom from guilt and condemnation.
- Freedom in Christ means freedom from the power of sin.
- Freedom in Christ is the freedom to be God's children, to love, serve and forgive others as God has loved, served and forgiven us.
- Freedom in Christ gives us hope. Regardless of the past failures.
- Freedom in Christ means freedom from fear. Nothing – not our sin, Satan, sickness or death, any ruler or authority – will ever be able to take away from us the freedom and love that is ours through Christ Jesus.
These words are like music to my ears,
"If the Son sets you free, then you will be really free."
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
October 31, 2004