Passage: John 8:31-36
Liturgical week: Reformation Day
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the eighth chapter:
So 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.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
And the Truth shall set you free! This Truth is the Truth of God’s Word, and we are free indeed! Today we celebrate a movement begun by a simple monk who was tired of the beating of God’s sheep with an unrighteous law of man. Today, we celebrate the reclamation of the Gospel. Today we are free indeed for today we shall have Christ’s body put upon on our tongues and His blood poured into our mouths. Today we are free for we ARE baptized. Today, we are free from sin, death, and the devil, not by own works, but by the very work of Christ for us upon the cross.
And the Truth shall set you free! Jesus says to those who were believing in Him to abide in His Word, abide His Scripture, abide in His commands, His sacraments, His teachings, and there we find that we are truly His disciples. But, how do we abide in His Word? How do we choose to abide in His Word? Truly, by our own power, we cannot. But because Christ has baptized us, because He feeds us, because He speaks to us from His Holy Word, we abide. We live, we dwell, we meditate in His Word by His Holy Spirit. And when we feel we cannot, He still yet will come to us and strengthen us in the same faith unto everlasting life.
And the Truth shall set you free! This abidingness is freedom, for when we live in Christ, all else fades away. The sin that so easily ensnares us cannot hold us in its cage any longer. The death that all sinners die cannot hold you in your grave. The devil that would see you rot and perish can no longer accuse you. You are free from sin, death, and the devil. The Son has set you free by His blood!
And the Truth shall set you free! And you will be free indeed! The Lord has promised this to you. Though we continue to practice our sin, though we love the sludge of sin between our toes, under our fingernails, in our ears, masking our eyes, that sludge is nothing compared to the might of the Lord. With each pounding of the nails into His hands and His feet, with the thrust of the spear through His side, the echoes of the sound come throughout all time and space and they shout out that you are free indeed!
And the Truth shall set you free! Though we love our sin more than our God, our Jesus, Jesus declares to you today that you are His disciple. You are His own, for you are here, in this place, hearing His Word, receiving His gifts, honoring the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, which is to not despise the preaching of the Word, but to cherish it and seek after it. You love God’s Word, and thus abide in it. You are free indeed!
And the Truth shall set you free! And indeed it has, for today we celebrate this Reformation Day, begun by our denomination’s namesake, Martin Luther, a man who saw the injustices of the Roman Church perpetrated against its people, keeping them in bondage to sin, withholding from them the cup of Christ’s sacred blood, telling them they could buy their way into heaven. It held these saints of Christ to the ground, ensnaring them with unholy teaching, teaching that comes from the mouth of a man rather than the mouth of God. Our Luther saw that our Lord desired compassion, our Lord desired repentance, our Lord desired that His people would be free from their sin and free from their bondage to false doctrine, and so our Lord saw to it that we would be free indeed!
And the Truth shall set you free! And you shall be free indeed. The Son has set you free. He has loosed our chains of bondage to the false doctrines of this world and of its princes and antichrists, He has given to us good gifts. The Son has given us His inheritance. The heir, to whom all that God possesses belongs, gives us His inheritance, eternal life, salvation, His righteousness, good standing before God. He gives this to you freely for He has died for you. He washes you in it, He feeds you with it, He sharpens your hearing with it. Our Lord has done this.
And the Truth shall set you free! “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” We are free to worship our Lord in Spirit and in Truth, and the Truth shall set us free for the Spirit has given that Truth to us in God’s Word. We hear in the Creed the Good News that our Father, the creator of all things, has sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world to give us all things, and the Spirit tells us this always and forever. There is nothing more that we need when we have the Spirit of God, given to us in our baptisms, strengthening us in the Lord’s Supper, delivering to us grace upon grace upon grace as we hear the words of absolution, ego te absolovo, I forgive you.
And the Truth shall set you free! We are free from our sins, dear friends, we are free from the wrath of God. We are free from death. We are free from the devil. And though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill, they shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none, he’s judged; the deed is done; One little word can fell him. That word is Jesus, the Word Incarnate.
And the Truth shall set you free! Jesus has freed you from that very devil, He has freed you from all evil, and He shall see you through to the Resurrection from the dead. Christ has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows, was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace. Upon His God poured out His wrath.
And the Truth shall set you free! “So it is meant to happen: all ruthlessness is meant to fall upon Christ and His Gospel, so that the devil pours out all his wickedness and all his power upon Christ and in Him becomes powerless, for the salvation and comfort of us who believe in Christ. Thus [we] may drive back the devil with a single word and cast him down. To the godless and unbelieving, the devil is a prince, indeed, a god of this world. But to believers [the devil] is powerless. When he hears a Christian speaking the one word ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ with true faith, he falls down as if struck by a thunderclap.” (Martin Luther)
And the Truth shall set you free! We abide in Christ’s Word, we abide in His name, the name of power, the name above all names, the name by which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. This Lord has set us free by His Gospel, and He gives it to us through faithful men and faithful preaching because He is the faithful Word. Our Lord has given us His gifts, gifts of Word and Sacrament! The Son has set you free! And you shall be free indeed! In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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