Free At Last!
31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” 34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.
John 8:31-36 [CSB]
When we talk about the reformation, we have to ask why? Who and why and what for?
We have to answer: Luther and sin—his own. Then also the church and its inability to deal with it.
Luther was a slave to sin and he knew it. So, he went into the monastery to try and beat it out of himself—literally. With a whip. With fasting. With praying eight times a day.
Sounds like a slave to me. He was. And church did not help, but in fact made it worse. He wanted to be free, but he found in that monastic cell that he was more bound than ever.
A real slave is one for life. Few cultures in history ever had it different. We can talk about servants and such—the working class and all that, but they don’t fit into the definition, even if treated like slaves by some.
God allowed the Jews to have servants—indentured even—but this was never for life. Their masters also had to pay them, and then when their term was over, they had to send them off with property so they could start a new life. This was the law. This was God’s Law.
Get the point? The church of Luther’s day did not! Well, we almost always do not get it either.
It is only by God’s way, are we ever set free. Our way makes it worse, as we go from servant to slave—almost daily.
That is why we need God’s way each week.
Else we would keep it that other way, because this is all we know, being born slaves to our sin.
We would also choose to keep them all—any and all slaves, for life, until they were of no use to us. If we are not free, no way anyone else gets to be.
So, we have tyrants on the throne. We have oppressive employers. We have the slave trade. Remember 1860? Free labor makes for a comfortable profit. If we keep some down, then maybe we are a little more on the up-and-up…less enslaved ourselves….
Ah, no. It does not work that way.
So, the church, having people…and being human and all that, has also let us slip into the mode…into that way of thinking. It has and still does, unless someone is there to say differently. Like Luther and the 95 Theses.
This hammering… has to be done again and again. Each age…each generation…each day sometimes.
Or else we change things. We go back to thinking that God must be like us. So, we re-introduce teachings and church practice around our notions, rather than God’s. Then we tell the world that it is also fine to do these things as well.
Yes, the church of the past has condoned slavery! Indirectly and… yes directly!
Slaves. Never able to work it off, until we are dead. Debtor for life. Only to pay it off with our lives then…and if there is still more owed, into purgatory we go, for a very long time…all to pay…and then pay some more.
That is what the Roman sacrament of penance and doctrine of purgatory was all about. And Luther was all about that. With a slave’s whip in hand.
All of that. All that spiritual discipline, activity and work. But it all means nothing, because it is our way out, not God’s.
It is a slave’s way…not the way of the free-born.
Yet we were created to be servants, not slaves. To serve is to love, but to be a slave is bitter meaninglessness.
Jesus was a servant to all because of His love for us. This was a choice done because He was free to do so. He was not bound to anyone or anything.
Luther was thinking slave-like. He was thinking that maybe it all would eventually be paid off. Done with. Maybe at least he could avoid a million years or so in purgatory.
No. The way of a slave is always the way of a slave. There was always a difference between the slave born and the free born. Just read history.
Unless someone intervenes. Like President Abraham Lincoln.
And so it is the same with sin… for us. It is slavery for life. Anyone who commits sin, is a slave to sin, says Jesus.
Who here sins? All of you? Me? Yes. Then you are a slave. Get out the chains. Well… really… there is no need, as we are already wearing them. They drag us down into a grave.
Unless…unless someone intervenes. Like God, Himself, sending His Son.
So, unless the Son sets you free… Unless you are adopted by the only real free man in the universe—Jesus Christ, the son of Man and the Son of God… Unless He does, no one ever is.
Listen to what St. Paul says about this in Galatians:
28Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Yes, you are now brothers of Jesus, sons and daughters of freedom, children of His Father—all from the Gospel that brings freeing faith and trust in our kinsmen Redeemer, Jesus.
Free. Truly. Feel the chains coming off? No?
Well, that is because even though the emancipation proclamation had been issued, not all the chains came off right away. Many salves stayed on, thinking it could not be true. Many did not know what else to do as they were born doing it. Many did not hear it for a long time.
It takes time. And the free Luther, after discovering the Gospel—his and our emancipation proclamation—said that death is the last purgatory of the soul.
St. Paul tells us in the same letter to the Galatians, that even wealthy sons have to come of age before inheriting their father’s wealth. They are subject to the trustees—and not quite free to do what we please yet.
When we do get our new bodies, free from death and sin forever, we will be of age and mature enough to be able to use this freedom without sin.
And so, this life is a journey to cross over into the Northern states—escaping there—through the grave, until the entire nation is united under one banner—one standard—one Lord.
We are truly free, yes, but still in our former masters’ territories until the Northern armies reach us (Jesus comes back) or we die on the way.
The war is over, but there are still little skirmishes going on. The slavers won’t accept defeat yet. They are still trying to get their slaves back.
Our flesh, the world and the devil likes being served. They like the fat profits. They don’t like the idea of not getting what they want, when they want it.
They don’t like being told no—that we will not do their bidding any longer.
So, it is a struggle and a fight. As many of our leaders have said, freedom costs. It has to be fought for. This is the church militant after all. That is what we are, and up against.
Jesus knew that first-hand. He died to procure it for us. He became a slave to death, in our place. Yet this is really being a servant, not a slave. No chains could have held Him, had He decided otherwise. And death could not hold Him once our freedom was won.
And so, we are still here… to help free the rest by letting them know that slavery has been outlawed. We are here to rescue slaves. Tell them it is over. We are to read the adoption papers to them—the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By this we help break those chains. Yes, we who are free, serve. We can afford to.
Philanthropy, I think, it is called. The rich do this, right? How free does money make you? Well, in this world, money is freeing. Don’t have to work. Don’t have to answer to anyone.
The analogy still stands. With a hundred million dollars we would be very free to help a whole lot of people. And that is just it.
You see, Luther was a monk for himself. That is slavery. He had to work for those, his masters, to try and free himself. But how could anyone in a cell, chained to a wall, or bound hand-and-foot help anyone else?
The very rich who are addicted to themselves, spend on themselves…and horde the rest. Slaves to their money—to sin.
Even many who worked hard for it all their lives. They don’t want to lose it. Yet, some of them, or their children who inherit it all, take up causes—not always the best ones, but they do spend it on others. They can afford it. They were born into it and yes, almost think it grows on trees—to the pain of those who earned it.
Yet since Jesus has more wealth than could fit into this universe…since He is the one who set us free…and then His Father has given us all things with Him—earth and heaven—life immortal…
We are free to give and help as if it does grow on trees. It does. God’s tree of life is the source of life and of all things in it. This is a wealth that never could be used up. God cannot ever go broke. Even by giving His life for us all—the whole world.
So, spend. Give. Serve. Help. We can afford to do so indiscriminately—even our very lives to help free others. Many have. They are called martyrs. Those were really the free-born. The big spenders. They will also reap the biggest return.
The greatest in God’s eyes, is the biggest spender—the servant of all. This is Jesus. And because of Jesus, we can spend like He did. It’s His money anyway, so spend on others. Our bodies and our very lives are His anyway, so die trying to free other slaves.
Be free and serve. Live free or die. Yet even if we do die, we still will live, because we are free, and thanks to Jesus, death cannot keep us. Free at last! This is what the Reformation IS all about. Amen.
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