The Lutheran Hour
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"The Bondage Breaker"
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Text: John 8:31-36
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The text for my message is from the eighth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John. Listen to these words: “To the Jews who have believed in Him Jesus said, if you hold to My teaching you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth; everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” This is our text.
It was Independence Day! But fireworks, sparklers, parades and floats played no part. Neither did the Statue of Liberty. There were no hot dogs, no apple pies, no Chevrolets. On this day there weren’t even any patriotic songs like the Star Spangled Banner or Yankee Doodle Dandy.
It was Independence Day — but it wasn’t even the Fourth of July — in celebration of that great year of 1776. No, this Independence Day was 259 years earlier. A German monk of the Augustinian Order started the celebration — an unlikely candidate. For years he had known only bondage, captivity and a personal prison. This monk felt obligation to spend entire weeks without food, without speaking, without seeing the light of day. But taking hammer in hand, on Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the Wittenburg Castle Church door. In this courageous act Luther announced to the world he was on a journey toward freedom.
This declaration of independence was driven by these words of Jesus in our text, “… the truth will set you free.”
The Jews of our Lord’s day responded to this declaration of independence by saying: “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.”
Not when they were in Egypt before Moses led them out? Not when the Philistines invaded their land and regulated even the way axes and sickles were sharpened? Not when the Assyrians carried off as captives the people of the Northern Kingdom? Or when the Babylonians did the same to those in Judah? Not when Antiochus Epiphanies desecrated the temple with an image of Zeus? Or when Pompeii and his legions marched into Jerusalem to claim it for Rome? We “have never been slaves of anyone,” is a flat out denial of the facts. It’s a dream, a delusion.
You’ve seen the same prisoners. The alcoholic who won’t admit to his drinking problem; the woman who refuses to talk about her three-month affair; the businessman who adamantly rejects help to stop his addiction to work, work, work. You’ve seen yourself — caught in this same denial, this same dream, this same delusion.
The fact is, none of us can say we “have never been slaves of anyone.” Jesus hammers home this hard reality when He says, “I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.”
That’s us. Trapped in sin — locked in habits we cannot beat and bound in a bondage we cannot break. Worse yet, just like the Jews of our Lord’s day, you and I often live in denial, echoing the words, we “have never been slaves of anyone.” But sin makes everyone prisoners; everyone is powerless to break free.
Radio commentator Paul Harvey tells of an experiment involving a chimpanzee that scientists were determined to teach written communication. For 14 years project directors labored with this chimpanzee, providing symbols in its cage to enable him to form syllables. Finally, the day arrived when it seemed the chimpanzee was actually going to make a sentence. Word went out. Other scientists crowded into the room. They watched breathlessly as symbols were formed into words and words formed into a sentence. At last, the first message from the world’s most pampered, most cared for and most patiently trained chimpanzee was about to come forth. The scientists could hardly contain themselves as they pressed around the cage to watch the history-making sentence. What did the chimpanzee communicate? Three words: “Let me out!”
As ironic as that chimpanzee’s cry was, when we finally admit to our bondage it strikes at the heart of our human cry: “Let me out!” Some of you are in the cage of addictive behavior like high anxiety, unpredictable anger, or biting sarcasm. Some know the dark world of Internet pornography. Others are chained to a grudge that won’t leave until there is revenge. Still others are fighting an inner battle with a skeleton in your closet that is rattling louder and louder. Whatever your particular sin, it has left you in a cage of despair, darkness, even death. Your heart cry has become: “Let me out!”
Make no mistake. The devil wants to lock you up and throw away the key. If it is the truth that liberates and frees, then it is the liar who captures and kills. In the same chapter as our text Jesus describes this liar: “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Day after day we scream hopelessly, “Let me out.” Yet the liar keeps whispering, “There’s no way out. Do something drastic. Cut and run. Throw in the towel. Give in, give out and give up.”
Martin Luther knew this voice as well. He writes in his great Reformation hymn: “The old evil foe now means deadly woe. Deep guile and great might are his dread arms in fight; on earth is not his equal.” When we believe Satan’s lies we find ourselves going deeper and farther and longer, until we are bound, tied and fettered.
But Jesus has heard our cry; “Let me out.” He responds with this promise: “… the truth will set you free.” Our striving and planning doesn’t achieve liberation. Our best efforts and ingenuity are no help. No. It is the truth that sets us free.
John’s Gospel is full of fireworks as it celebrates this destiny-altering news: Jesus Christ is the world’s only liberating Truth. Listen to what John says of the Father’s only Son and our only Savior. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” Listen to what Jesus says: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life.”
Jesus is the truth that sets us free. To Nicodemus, caged in the hopeless laws of Rabbinic Judaism, He said, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” To the woman at Jacob’s well, bound to one broken relationship after another, He said, “The water I give will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” To the man born in the prison of blindness He said, “Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam.” To Mary and Martha, locked in grief over the death of their brother Lazarus, He said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” To Peter, who had publicly, openly and willingly denied Him three times He said, “Take care of My sheep.”
But freedom has a price. Of the 59 men who put their names to the Declaration of Independence for the United States of America, five were captured and tortured before they were killed. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons. Nine fought and died in war.
Freedom has a high price. On the night before His death, Jesus was bound and taken to Annas, the high priest. He was slapped, spit upon, and sent to Caiphas. Then, blindfolded, He was struck in the face with fists and beaten by guards. The next morning He was taken to Pilate who passed Him off to Herod. Herod dressed Him in a purple robe. Back before Pilate, He was crowned with thorns, stripped naked and scourged, just short of death. Struck and spit upon again, He walked the Via Delarosa. Finally, He was stretched out on two pieces of wood and three iron spikes were hammered into His flesh.
His friends had run away. His possessions had been gambled away. His strength was ebbing away. Even His Father had turned away. All He had left were three words, “It is finished.” But with these words our bondage was broken. The sacrifice was complete. Death defeated. Paradise restored. “It is finished!” A cry of defeat? By no means! Had it not been for the nails I dare say that a triumphant fist would have lifted toward the sky. This is the Savior’s cry of victory; “Let freedom ring!”
This is the honest-to-God truth. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ means you are liberated from the liar and your prison doors are wide open. Luther experienced this truth and wrote: “When I understood it, and the light of the Gospel came into my soul, the gates of paradise opened, and I walked through.”
This same liberating power sets us free from the condemnation of our sin, from the pain of our past, from worry about our future. No one can take this freedom from us; no law can stop it, and no power on earth or hell can destroy it.
And there is more freedom to come! As we grow in our walk with Jesus, His liberating power unlocks more and more prison doors. And finally, every believer will experience ultimate freedom in the resurrection of the dead and in the life of the world to come!
The message rediscovered by Luther and celebrated on this Reformation Sunday is loud and clear “…. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed!” Free in every way — full, final, forever! This is your Independence Day! Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for October 28, 2001
ANNOUNCER: Stay with us as we discuss the two kingdoms in which we live. I’m Mark Eischer. Joining me once again this week is Pastor James Gullen of Trinity Lutheran Church in Centralia, Ill. Pastor Gullen is also a former pastoral advisor to the International Lutheran Laymen’s League. Pastor Gullen, last week we started talking about Luther’s theology of the two kingdoms, the two realms. We said that God is in control of both of them, that He has established a civil authority and that He also rules in the church through the Good News of Jesus Christ. How does a Christian serve God in what has been called “the kingdom of the left hand,” the civic realm.
GULLEN: We have to understand, Mark, that God set up the government. So when the government calls us to serve it is our necessity, shall we say, to do that under the banner of what God said to us in the fourth commandment — honoring thy father and mother. And when Dr. Luther explains it, that’s all who are put in authority over us. So the government has the right, according to Scripture, to establish a force — an army, shall we say — to enact justice and keep peace and tranquility in the society in which we live.
ANNOUNCER: So it’s OK then for a Christian to be serving a just cause, to be serving as a soldier, as a policeman, using force, the sword that God has given the government in order to punish evil doers.
GULLEN: Exactly. Francis Scott Key in one of the verses we don’t sing in the Star Spangled Banner — and there are several — says, “When our cause it is just, let this be our motto: In God is our trust.”
ANNOUNCER: Isn’t there a paradox in that as Christians living in these two realms, we are on the one hand praying for the conversion of our enemies that they would come to faith in Christ. But on the other hand, we are also praying that God would protect and help our soldiers and sailors and policemen as they go about administering His justice.
GULLEN: Yes. Remember, the Good News says it is the good and gracious will of God that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of Jesus as Lord and Savior. I pray that the enemy who enacted this thing would come to faith. I pray that those enemies who did this injustice will realize their sinful acts and ask God to forgive them for the sake of Christ who died and rose for them. That I pray for. But I also pray for our soldiers, the military. I pray for those who have aligned themselves with us — our friends in Canada and throughout the world who want to stop this terrorism so terrorism will not go on. I believe God uses governments like the United States and those who align with us to make sure we can live in peace and tranquility in this world. If that means we must go to war; if it means we must secure justice and remedy injustice to stop terrorism so we can live in peace and safety, then I believe God will bless it.
ANNOUNCER: Finally today, how should Christians work with people of other faiths in the civic realm?
GULLEN: I think it’s necessary to remember this is a melting pot. There are people of different races, different creeds, different kinds of people who have all come together in this country. That’s the kingdom of the left in which we live. This is the world we all live in. It doesn’t mean they are in the church. It doesn’t mean they are the forgiven people of God because to be a Christian you must believe in the life and salvation that comes in Jesus Christ and in Him alone.
ANNOUNCER: Thank you, Pastor Gullen.