C, Commemoration of the Reformation - John 8:31-36 "Unhidden Truth"

John 8:31–36 (ESV)  Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practises sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

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!

B, Reformation Sunday - Psalm 46 & John 8: 31-36 "Fear and Love God"

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples,  and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”  Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (John 8:31-36 ESV)

How is it that we who are slaves of sin, find ourselves in the house of God, knowing and trusting we are free?

Is it because we have proven ourselves to have satisfactorily loved God?  No, not at all!

Is it because there is a divine spark within us that is capable of making a decision for Christ?  No, it’s not!

Is it because we have always been free and are not really slaves? Nope!

Is it because it is done by someone else who knows we are slaves of sin, who knows the divine spark was put out by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and who knows the freedoms we look to would cause us shame if they were unhidden? Yes, it is!

We are free because of Jesus, the Son of God, and God alone.  If the Son sets us free, we are free indeed.

Freedom for Christians allows us to have fear in God.  Having fear in God can be understood in a positive and negative sense.  As Christians, we fear God knowing our sin does not please him, and because of our sin, all of us deserve his wrath.

As we are told in Hebrews, “‘The Lord will judge his people.’  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:30b–31 ESV)

And Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.  But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!” (Luke 12:4–5 ESV)

Paradoxically, we also have a fear that fills us with awe! So much so, we are willing to throw ourselves down before him, seeking his mercy in spite of the reality we deserve his condemnation.

“Then turning toward the woman Jesus said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.”  And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” (Luke 7:44–48 ESV)

We can turn our back on God and disregard him with disrespect.  When one does this, one places both negative and positive fear in something other than God. One neither heeds God’s warning nor deems him good enough to lead us.

What we fear is what we face. 

In addition to this, what we love is what we face.

Love too has its positive and negative sense. But it’s slightly different to fear.  We always face what we love, but the motives for facing reveal the positive or negative of love. Love is about what we want, what we desire or seek, or what we worship.  The negative and positive of love can be uncovered only when we ask, “Why we want or worship that which we love!”

When we enter turbulent times temptation to fear and love other things than God also becomes murky and more difficult to discern and recognise. As the ship becomes unsettled, like the disciples, we are tempted to forget Jesus is with us in the boat.  He is still and resting as we’re tempted into panic. (See Mark 4:35-41)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,  though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. [Selah] (Psalm 46:1–3 ESV)

There is much civil unrest in the world at the moment.  Many hearts are in the mouth threatening to vomit up things that the turbulence tempts us to fear.  Adding to the foaming mess already swirling around us.

Fear of vaccination and fear of un-vaccination are making the sea of society roar and foam, making the mountains of our idols tremble at its swelling. 

Who can make sense in the midst of this mess in which we find ourselves?  There’s  so much venom and violence bubbling away in the hearts of humanity in the majorities and minorities.

When I am confronted with such fear it is easy to be swept up in the surging swell of it all.  I am tempted to add my sin to the sin of others adding mass to the mountains of majorities or minorities.

What mountain of fear are you facing at the moment?

What is your fear causing you to want?

Whatever it is, this is what you love!  This is what you are worshipping.

Like those who sought to silence blind Bartimaeus, as we heard in last week’s Gospel reading, are we not blinded by our superiority of our perception of other’s seemingly inferior fears?  (Mark 10:46-52) 

Yes!  I am just spewing into a sea of churning and foaming chaos.

Now we move onto a new picture painted by the psalmist in Psalm 46

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.  The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. [Selah] (Psalm 46:4–7 ESV)

Here we have a picture of tranquillity. It is the same picture of peace amongst the chaos, as Jesus sleeps in the boat while the disciples face their fears in the death and destruction of the churning storm on lake Galilee.

Jesus is with us in his church.  He is with us in his word, and he is bodily with us in the sacrament.  Fear him, not the unvaccinated! Fear him, not the mandate to vaccinate.  The kingdom of God is not concerned about being vaccinated or un-vaccinated. 

The morning will dawn, and God’s hand will be revealed in all of this.  He may choose to reveal what that is in our life, or we might have to wait until the resurrection to know exactly what that is.

But for now, in these days of darkness what is God’s will for us?  What is Jesus’ will for you, in his boat?  To where is the Holy Spirit leading us?

Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth.  He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.  “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”  The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. [Selah] (Psalm 46:8–11 ESV)

We are called to fear and love God?  We are called to behold the works of the Lord!

But what are the works and will of God?  We are called to be a community gathered under Christ’s love.  By this love the Holy Spirit gathers us in forgiveness. By this love we know we need forgiveness for our faithlessness. By his love we know we are forgiven.

Through his love and faithfulness, we know others need the same forgiveness. And by his love we petition God to help us forgive them as the Father has faithfully forgiven each of us and seeks to still the churning storm within you and me.

Our loving Heavenly Father wants to dissipate your venom, and clean up each person’s vomit, swirling the seas of spewing churning darkness.  He does this by the power of the Holy Spirit calling us to the stillness of Jesus on the cross.  This is the reformation into which God calls you and me daily. 

As we all face the cross, he calls us to know that he is God!  He will be exalted by all people when the curtain of chaos is finally torn in two.  It will reveal the hidden presence of the God of peace. The whole of creation will exalt him for the peace he returns to it, when he finally restores it to its former glory, which he created for us.

He promises us in his Word, he will usher in the eternal era of sabbath rest. This is where all who abide in the work of God’s forgiveness will stand face to face, fear and love God, the Lord of Hosts forever. Amen.

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for evermore. Amen.