C, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-36 "Unhidden Truth"
Jesus speaks to the Jews who believed him. Beforehand when he spoke, he sought to
convince those who did not believe him.
We hear in John chapter seven, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried
out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has
said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those
who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given,
because Jesus was not yet glorified”.
(John 7:37–39 ESV)
For the moment, I want you to hear him refer to “living
waters”, but also note Jesus’ reference to the Spirit, which is the Holy Spirit. I will speak more about the Holy Spirit later,
in relation to the Reformation and Martin Luther.
With Jesus’ promise of “living water” flowing out of those
who believe in him, he also says, “I am
the light of the world. Whoever follows
me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12 ESV)
Whoever believes in Jesus Christ, “living water” will flow
out of them, and whoever follows Jesus Christ will have the “light of life.” Living light and living waters! Life-giving waters, life-giving light!
The Pharisees did not want to believe and said to Jesus, “You are bearing witness about yourself; your
testimony is not true”. (John 8:13
ESV)
Jesus then addresses the hearers concerning his and God’s truth.
To those Jews who believed, he concludes
his monologue, “If you abide in my word,
you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set
you free”. (John 8:31–32 ESV)
I invite you to revisit John 8:12-36 and notice the word
“truth or true”, how many times it occurs and how Jesus refocuses truth on his
knowledge. In fact, a thematic thread
concerning truth, flows throughout John’s Gospel.
Fifty-five references focus the hearer of John’s Gospel on
truth or what is true. Some will be
quite familiar to you. “I am the way the truth and the life”
(John 14:6), “Sanctify them in the truth
your word is truth” (John 17:17), and Jesus’ and Pilate’s exchange, “[Jesus answered…] I have come into the
world—to bear witness to the truth…”
Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37b–38a ESV)
So as Pilate asks, we can ask, “What is truth?” How does “truth”
connect with the freedom Jesus proclaims to us?
Plus, how has this truth and freedom come to us through the Reformation
and writings of Martin Luther as well as others of the Reformation?
Let’s return to the passage before us today. “If you abide
in my word, you are truly my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31
ESV)
Three times “true or truth” is mentioned in this
verse. In the New Testament there are
two words used for truth. One of these
words is borrowed from the Hebrew, and is often doubled for emphasis, in the
same way as we use adverbs. This is the
word “Amen”. We hear it said, “Truly,
truly, or verily, verily, or amen, amen, depending on your bible’s
translation. It means, “Yes! It is so!”
The other, which occurs fifty-five times in John is the
Greek word, alethes (al-ay-thace),
which is two words, the first being the negative, “not”, and lanthano meaning “to lie or hide”.
This makes Pilate’s question to Jesus, “What is truth?”,
shine with all the double-speak and sarcasm of politicians throughout the
ages. “What is not a lie or what is not
hidden? Everything is hidden and a lie
of sorts!”
But it also sheds light on the purity of Jesus’ word
too. If you abide in Jesus’ word, you
are his unhidden disciples, and you will know what is unhidden, you will know
what is not a lie, and these words that unhide, that are not a lie, will set
you free! Jesus’ word unhides, it
exposes and reveals, and in doing so it gives freedom.
This is the opposite of what one would expect. A full disclosure or confession is what Adam
and Eve feared most leading them to hide from God. But now Jesus’ word unhides so we can be
covered with his robes of justification and righteousness.
The question also must be asked, “What needs to be unhidden? What has kept us from the freedom to which
Jesus points us?”
Jesus makes it quite clear that we lose our freedom through
sin. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to
sin”. (John 8:34 ESV)
Amen, Amen, yes, yes, sin keeps us from freedom, Jew or
Gentile, man or woman, adult or child, pastor, or parishioner! All, but Jesus, are enslaved to sin! All, but Jesus, hide and lie! What is truth? What is not hidden? What is not a lie? Jesus Christ Son of God and Son of Man is
truth personified, unhidden, without a lie.
He is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth! Our help from God!
“Yes, your honour, I do the crimes, but my Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, has done the time!”
Now that Jesus has been glorified at the right hand of our
Father in heaven, and we have access to him by faith alone, we have been given
the Holy Spirit to bring us to him. With
Jesus, he justifies and makes you righteous with his blood.
The Holy Spirit brings us to the living waters. He continually proceeds from God the Father
and God the Son to bring us, out of our darkness of sin, into the light of
life. He does this by faith alone, grace
alone, Christ alone, and Scripture alone!
The Reformation was a realignment back under Jesus Christ
and the Holy Spirit. Martin Luther was
born into a Christian Church that had lost Jesus Christ. He was still there, knocking on the door of
people’s hearts. But he had been covered
up by humanity’s love of goodness borne in the righteousness of the self.
The Christian church was being enslaved by sin, while
individuals within Christendom had lost their freedom through faith being
replaced with the desire of one’s own feelings.
In practice, they had replaced the Holy Spirit who calls,
gathers, enlightens, makes holy and forgives, with the human spirit who desires
through self-love to climb up to God.
The starting point and the goal of this desire was egocentric. Human desire and the satisfaction of this want
was the goal.
Humanity had become enslaved to itself in the church. Humanity needed to be set free from itself so
the one true Holy Spirit could once again lead us to the unhidden, one true body,
one true hope, one true faith, one true Lord Jesus Christ, who puts us right,
and justifies us in one baptism, before the one true Father and God of heaven.
Because the devil and the world wills your old Adam to rise
up against the baptism in which he was drowned, you and I need to daily welcome
his death through the truth of confessing sin, having the lie and liar within exposed,
and having the truth within ourselves unhidden.
Jesus’ unhidden truth kills sin and our old selfish selves with his light
and life.
We cannot climb up to God through our own desire, the truth
of our sinful nature is that we are too weighed down by sin to climb anywhere,
let alone up to him. Believing we can, and working accordingly, is believing a lie, wastes time, and distracts us from
receiving God from where he is given.
As children of the Reformation, we are called to wash our
robes in Jesus’ righteousness. The Holy
Spirit is the only spirit that will lead us to do this. Left to our own spirit we will end up seeking
to wash our robes in our own righteousness, where we find ourselves being
enslaved by a lie once again. Our own
spirit will see us hidden again from living free to be in Jesus Christ.
So, practise your freedom!
Be true Christians! Reveal,
repent, reform each day under Jesus Christ.
Remain in God’s word, in Jesus Christ.
Be disciples, disciplined to receive God’s love. Walk in your true unhidden weakness with Jesus
Christ, with God’s Word made flesh. If
you want to put on the truth of Jesus in your life; read, study, and listen to
God’s written Word!
Jesus’ life and death is for you, and it will set you free.
Amen.
Lord God Holy Spirit, free us from ourselves to receive the
true life-giving waters, the true life-giving light that comes into the
darkness of our days and lifts us into an eternity of light and life where you
reign, together with the Father and the Son, one God, now and forever, truly,
truly, Amen, and Amen!
