Reformation
Observed – John 8:31-36 – October 28th
and 29th, 2017
In the Name of Christ Jesus +
In the Name of Christ Jesus +
What
defines a Lutheran? Here we are on Reformation weekend, remembering
how 500 years ago Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the door of
the church in Wittenberg – it’s a time for reflection, so what
defines you? What makes a Lutheran a Lutheran? What makes this
congregation different from all those other ones out there? Is it
merely that this is where your grandma and grandpa went? Is it
merely that this is where the nice, successful people happen to go?
Or do you even think sometimes that you are a Lutheran because we
Lutherans got it right, unlike all those other folks? No. None of
that is what defines a Lutheran. What shapes a Lutheran, what shapes
our worship here is this: we not only can be, but are wrong, and we
know it. What shapes a Lutheran is the knowledge that we need to
repent, that we need to be reformed and reshaped by God.
Consider
our text. Here in the Gospel of John we have Jesus having a
discussion with some pious Jews who believe in Him – and yet, there
comes a hiccup. So Jesus said to the Jews
who had believed in 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.” A great statement, a famous one
– the truth will set you free. And yet, the reaction of these
folks is… off. 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’?”
And here the trouble comes in. As a question – how did you define
a Jew? What made a Jew a Jew? Too often they viewed things in terms
of their birth – we are children of Abraham. Sort of like saying
“we’re good Germans”. They viewed their family lineage with
pride – same thing can happen today. But they missed the point,
they forgot who they were. In fact, what they say here is utterly
foolish. “We have never been enslaved to anyone!” They forgot
who they were.
Think
back to Exodus 20, where God gives the Ten Commandments at Sinai. He
doesn’t just start with the first commandment – rather this is
what God tells the Jewish people: “I am
the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.”
Who are you, Jewish people? You’re the people that God rescued
from slavery in Egypt – that’s how you are defined. That’s
your identity, that’s why you celebrate Passover. You are the
people whom God rescued… rescued from slavery in Egypt, rescued
from the Philistines by the hand of judges and finally by David the
King, rescued from exile in Babylon. The Jewish people were
constantly getting enslaved – in fact, even as they speak these
defiant words to Jesus, they were basically conquered and enslaved to
the Romans. And they should have had no problem admitting they were
enslaved – because they were the people of the God who frees the
slaves, who rescues them.
When
Jesus brings up the idea of being set free, this isn’t anything
new. It’s all over the place in the scriptures, it’s one of the
major themes of the Old Testament. To “redeem” someone in the
old testament was to buy them out of slavery and set them free. For
a Jew to say “we’ve never been slaves to anyone” is as idiotic
and bizarre as an American on the 4th
of July saying, “Independence? Bah, we’ve never been under
anyone’s thumb.” It is utterly stupid – I would say it makes
no sense… but actually it does. Just a very sad sense. The Jews
there who were talking to Jesus forgot who they were in relation to
God. Rather than seeing themselves as poor people who often got into
trouble but are rescued by God, they puffed themselves up, they
elevated themselves. We don’t need God, we don’t need this truth
to set us free, because we are great and good and wonderful and don’t
need any help from anyone, thank you very much.
Jesus
responds to them. “Truly, truly, I say
to you, everyone who commits 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.”
No, you are slaves, you are slaves to sin. And the same can be said
of us. I used to think when I was little that if I just tried hard
enough, maybe I could go a whole day without sinning. Yeah. No, not
going to happen. Especially when you stop defining sin as just the
big, bad, gross stuff. No, when we consider sin the way the
Scriptures do, when we consider that we are to be perfect as our
Father in Heaven is perfect – and not just perfect in what we do,
but perfect in thought and in word, as well as in deed now – eh.
No, every moment of every day, we are sinful, we are full of sin.
Even right now, sitting here in Church – have we done this
perfectly? No, wondering minds, callous and cruel thoughts
flittering in and out, distraction and disdain. Behold your sin.
Understand that you are sinful. Accept that this sin is something
you will have to struggle with and fight against your entire life –
that’s Thesis number 1 of the 95 – “When our Lord and Master,
Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life
of believers to be one of repentance.”
That’s
where we as Lutherans start. The acknowledgment not just that we
have happened to do some bad things (but we’re better now), not
just that we sometimes sin; rather, we are sinful, full of sin, and
that as long as we live, every minute of every day, our entire lives,
we need to repent. That over and over again, we are wrong. We take
sin, our sin seriously. And that’s what shapes and defines
Lutherans. Our Roman friends – The Church is never wrong, when the
Pope makes the official decree from the seat of Peter it cannot be
wrong. Or our Eastern Orthodox friends – when the bishops gather
in council and agree, they can never be wrong. Or the protestant
folks who think that if they just keep growing in the Spirit they’ll
stop sinning, or let's not talk about sin because it's depressing;
let's just be affirming instead! All a denial of reality, all a
denial of the fundamental problem. I have sinned in though, word,
and deed by MY fault. And I can’t fix it. Of myself, I am a slave
to sin.
“If
you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know
the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” I
can’t fix it, but Christ Jesus can and does. This too is part of
your identity as a Lutheran – you are a sinner, but you are a
sinner who hears the Word of God, and that Word makes you to know the
Truth. Now when we hear Jesus say “the Truth”, He’s not just
talking about facts that are correct and accurate. He’s not just
talking about being able to win at bible trivia or what have you.
Just a few chapters later, Jesus says, “I
Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but
by Me.” Do you want, O Christian, to
be set free from sin, do you want your sin forgiven, do you want
everlasting life? Then there is only One who can do that – and
that is Christ the Crucified. Christ Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world, who sheds His Blood for you
upon the Cross – He alone, Christ alone can set you free and free
indeed. But How does Christ set you free? He, Christ Jesus, is the
Truth - “If you abide in My Word, you are
truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth shall
set you free.” The Holy Spirit takes
the Word, the proclamation of Christ Jesus and His death and
resurrection for you, and with that Word He makes you to know Christ,
and He sets you free from sin. It all happens by the Word of God.
Just as in the beginning all things are created by the Word of God,
so too, in your life now, forgiveness and salvation and eternal life
are given to you by the proclamation of Christ and Him Crucified, and
we look no place else. As Hebrews proclaims, Let us fix our eyes
upon Christ Jesus, “the founder and
perfector of our faith.” Christ Jesus,
who starts our faith and preserves it, the Alpha and Omega as
Revelation puts it, the beginning and the end, the all in all.
Everything drives to Christ. The Word points us to Christ.
And
yet so many care little for this Word of God that points to Christ.
It’s what we just sang, “The Word they still shall let remain,
nor any thanks have for it.” People will ignore the Word, they
will ignore Christ. They will look to their traditions, or to their
own thoughts, their own feelings, their own hearts. We're constantly
tempted that way too. That’s the way things have gone since the
fall – since we were first tempted away from the Word… “did God
really say”? But here is the reality for you. God has come to you
by His Word. That Word has been preached and is being preached to
you right now. God took water and tied it to His Word of Truth and
Life and washed you in it in His baptism. He will take His Word and
tie it to Bread and Wine and give you His own Body that was crucified
and His own blood that was shed for you – and why? Because He
knows your sin, He knows your struggle, but He will not abandon you
to sin and death. Luther’s hymn continues, “He’s by our side
upon the plain with His good gifts and Spirit.” He is with us now
in this battle plain of life, this constant struggle against sin,
with us by His Word, by His Baptism, by His Supper, by the Spirit
that makes us to hear and believe - I cannot by my own reason or
strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him – of
course not, for everyone who sins is a slave to sin… but the Holy
Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened with His gifts of
baptism and preaching and absolution and the Supper, sanctified and
kept me in the true faith. He is by our side, now, even in the midst
of this fallen world. And you know what – this world is hard and
ugly, and we ourselves often act hard and ugly too. We need not deny
it, or pretend otherwise. Why? And take they our life, goods, fame,
child and wife – though these all be gone – though everything in
this life fall to pot, though we be shown to be the poorest and most
miserable of sinners – our victory has been won, been won by Christ
Jesus. The Kingdom ours remaineth. When you abide, when you remain
in Christ’s Word – there is nothing that can be done to you or by
you or against you which changes this truth. Christ Jesus is King,
His Word is truth, He is Truth, and He says you are free and forgiven
in Him. The world, the devil, our sinful flesh always strive to
distract us, to tempt us, to lead us away from this truth, but God in
His mercy and by the power of His Word and Spirit continually calls
us to repentance, makes us to repent. Dare I say, He reforms us.
That is what we celebrate this Reformation Day – that though we
often are wrong, Christ Jesus is always right and pure and holy for
us, and He is faithful and just to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. All glory be to God alone – in the Name of Christ
Jesus. Amen.