Every time I read the passage from John that we had as our gospel reading I have to hold back a sarcastic snort. And I believe that’s what John intends his readers to do. Jesus says to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.” They respond, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”
“…descendants of Abraham who have never been slaves to anyone.” Yeah, no. Their whole religious and national identity originated with being enslaved by the Egyptians for 400 years! Moses is the one whom God works through to free them from slavery. Then, when they did reach the Promised Land they were always struggling to fight of forces who wanted to oppress them. When they did manage to actually make a nation under King David it didn’t last long. Within two generations they had a civil war and split apart. The northern kingdom later collapsed to the Assyrians. The southern kingdom held on but they collapsed to the Babylonians. Who, as we’ve been recently talking about in worship, carted their leaders off into exile. From there it’s a story of domination and enslavement by every Middle Eastern and European empire that arose since the Bronze age: The Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Ptolemies, and the Seleucids. They managed to get freedom from the Seleucids for a few decades before being taken over by the Romans. In other words, they’ve been enslaved by everyone!
Are they really that blind to their own history?!? We do have to note that John’s gospel often creates these scenes where Jesus and others talk past each other. The results are often comic, as is the case here. But John uses it to convey meaning. Here it brings up a bigger question. Can you be enslaved and not even know it?
Ask an American if they’re enslaved and they’ll probably say no. With the exception of those of African American ancestry, and some of Chinese ancestry, they probably don’t have a history that includes slavery at all. Many will say, “Of course I’m not enslaved. It’s a free country. I get to choose my own life path. I have freedom of speech. I get to choose my own career. I get to choose my own spouse. I get to live where I want. And all of these rights are protected by the Constitution and cannot be taken away without due process of the law.”
Technically all of that is 100% correct. And yet, they may be deeply enslaved and have no idea of it; especially when we consider enslavement to sin.
To understand enslavement to sin we have to go back to the Adam and Eve stories in Genesis. They live in the Garden of Eden and are allowed complete freedom to do whatever they want. Except for one thing. They are not allowed to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. So what do they do? They eat from it! The story goes downhill from there.
While eating what they are forbidden to eat is their physical disobedience, the name of the tree is significant. Adam and Eve want to claim for themselves the knowledge of good and evil. They believe that God is holding back on them – that God has made them somehow less than whole. And if they take this one step towards full self-actualization they will be made whole. And perhaps even better they think, they’ll have been made whole on their own terms; rather than on God’s terms.
That’s the fundamental disobedience and the fundamental distrust of God that all us humans are enslaved by. We just won’t trust God has actually made us whole and we decide we want to be our own source of self-fulfillment. Everything always goes wrong from there. Our own bid for freedom ends up enslaving us.
People think they’re free to do what they want.
I believe most people do what they feel pressured to do socially so that they fit in, are acceptable, and maybe even be highly regarded. But free? Mo.
I have some friends who live in Webster. It’s a mom and a dad, three kids of middle school and elementary school age plus a dog. I’ll call them a highly successful family. Both parents have jobs that are professional, public, and prestigious. There was only one problem. Until recently they lived in a pretty basic three bedroom split level house in the suburbs. I say “until recently” because last month they moved to a much larger stately four-bedroom home in a high-end neighborhood. Why did they make this move? Was there not enough room having three kids and a mom and dad in a basic three-bedroom house? No. It was perfectly fine. It was that that house was still their starter home. It was functional but relatively modest compared to the homes their professional colleagues were moving into. And their kids felt pressure from friends because all of their friends had better houses.
Now to be fair, the dad owns his own business and serves clients of great prestige. It would not look good for his business if he had to entertain clients at his home. It would be the wrong image. So, I don’t want to paint the family in a shallow or negative way. But they are an example of people who are not really free. Their old house was fine at a functional level. It had a big back yard and suited them well. Their new house has a tiny yard but is much more impressive to look at.
Buying the new house was somewhat of a stretch for them. They got into a bidding war, paid more than the asking price, and had to make the decision of forgoing the home inspection. Meanwhile, when they put their old home on the market they did find a couple buyers. But there was no bidding war and no offers over asking price; which they were kind of counting on.
So, there’s another form of enslavement. It’s not only enslavement to needing a house that sends the right message, it’s also enslavement to the financing of it. And of course with the new house comes higher maintenance bills, higher insurance bills, and higher property taxes. All of these will keep them working and working and working.
Are they truly free? Are they self-determining their lives, or is society leveraging them into an almost enslaved position?
Of course there are much more shallow things that enslave people: having the right friends, distancing from the wrong people, having a car, clothes, and vacations that all send the message of success.
Plus, these days there’s the enslavement to youth sports. Prior to the pandemic I thought sports were getting out of hand for many people. It’s only gotten worse since then. There is great pressure for all kids to be in sports and to accel in them. Never mind that every pediatrician and youth psychologist that I’ve talked to says that a light level of youth sports is beneficial, but this level is detrimental to both physical and mental health. So… freedom? I think not. We’re destroying the fabric of our selves from childhood.
Jesus says that his disciples will know the truth and the truth will make them free. I think the first step is recognizing our own enslavement to many things. For the things I’ve listed already are just a partial list.
It is Reformation Sunday. We celebrate Martin Luther posting the 95 Theses. Those theses can give us some wisdom for our situation. The first thesis is, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent’, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Then thesis two, “This word cannot be understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.” And we’ll roll on into thesis three, “Yet it does not mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortifications of the flesh.”
Theologian David Losse says that for Luther, true repentance is a kind of truth telling that allows you to be honest about how you are deceiving yourself, or letting yourself to be deceived by the world. That at least gives you an opportunity to think and speak and act differently. Or to put it another way, to live in freedom.
We can never be free if we can never even identify the things that enslave us, and realize just how much of our lives that enslavement drains away. Recognizing that enslavement may not free us in and of itself. But it is the first step.
How much of what you put your time, your thoughts, and your money towards is really about fulfilling who God made you to be, and how much of it is about succumbing to pressures of getting acceptance or keeping up a necessary image for the world? I don’t mean this as if we’re being shallow ‘surface looks oriented’ people. I mean it as the necessities imposed upon us by society that enslave us, even if in our hearts we know it isn’t life-giving; or perhaps know it is even downright wrong.
Such freedom is not easy to attain as individuals. Part of the power of the church is that it is a community that builds itself around God’s priorities and God’s purposes for wholeness. The church isn’t perfect. But when it is good it provides a community of faith and truth.
Jesus would free us from all that binds us. Jesus wishes to give us a permanent place in God’s household. We need to recognize our enslavement and pray for God to give us perspectives and priorities that put us in his kingdom this day and every day. For that is truly wholeness of life even it if does not look at all like the way the world defines it.
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