Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent – March 24, 2010
John 8:31 – 42
To the Jews who had believed 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, "Very truly I tell you, 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. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father."
"Abraham is our father," they answered.
"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father."
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me."
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.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in pre-war Nazi Germany, coined the phrase “cheap grace” for a Christian faith that wanted to receive God’s goodness without radical reordering life as Christ advocated.
So today I’ll use the phrase “cheap truth” for the way these words of Jesus have been watered down without the radical reorientation of life that Jesus believed would set a person free.
This verse has been used and misused and badly abused for a long time. It gets co-opted by anyone who thinks he/she represents an underappreciated political position or the correct theology or the single way to do a given task. People are quick to associate their way with the “truth,” substantiating their position with the Jesus-claim that their way of doing things – as the truth – will set you free!
It’s really a false argument and a distortion of what Jesus said.
Neither does it mean what I’ve heard preached often, that a simple recognition of the truth, even the acknowledgement that Jesus is the Truth – the Way, the Truth, and the Life – is enough to make us free. There may be an initial step into freedom that accompanies this acknowledgement, but it doesn’t get us very far in.
Jesus invites us to a reorientation of life. He asks us to lay aside the ways we order life around ourselves, around what benefits us and our tribe, and around what puts me ahead of others. This is difficult work, because most of us don’t know any other way to live life.
As long as we live this way, orbiting around ourselves or around our own ego, we have no steady point of reference. So we look to others to gauge how we are doing. And when others become our reference point, we begin to wear masks, because we want the others to think we’re doing better than we really are. In fact, we want to convince ourselves that we’re doing better than we really are. We spend a lot of time invested in what others think of us, always manipulating opinions so that we show up as more or better.
When we live this way, there is no freedom. We live in a prison of our own making. We live imprisoned to the expectations of others and to our own expectations. There is no truth that could set us free in this life of illusion.
The “truth” to which Jesus invites us is the ordering of life around God, who is the Center and Source of all life. In Jesus’ scheme of things, God is the reference point. And while none of us can measure up to God, God’s own Self is mercy and grace. You don’t have to measure up! That’s the good news of the Gospel! There is no need to try to be more or better. God’s mercy and compassion are extended to you just as you are!
When life is centered on God, then, there is no need to please others or meet their expectations. Rather, there is freedom.
The freedom Jesus promised from this “truthful” living is not freedom predicated on outward circumstances, but rather is an inside job. It is the inner freedom to be the person God created you to be without fear and without having to measure up to some external standard. It is living the truth of your own God-created purpose, living fully the life you were meant to live.
Living true brings that kind of freedom!
To the Jews who had believed 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, "Very truly I tell you, 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. I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father."
"Abraham is our father," they answered.
"If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of your own father."
"We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."
Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me."
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.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in pre-war Nazi Germany, coined the phrase “cheap grace” for a Christian faith that wanted to receive God’s goodness without radical reordering life as Christ advocated.
So today I’ll use the phrase “cheap truth” for the way these words of Jesus have been watered down without the radical reorientation of life that Jesus believed would set a person free.
This verse has been used and misused and badly abused for a long time. It gets co-opted by anyone who thinks he/she represents an underappreciated political position or the correct theology or the single way to do a given task. People are quick to associate their way with the “truth,” substantiating their position with the Jesus-claim that their way of doing things – as the truth – will set you free!
It’s really a false argument and a distortion of what Jesus said.
Neither does it mean what I’ve heard preached often, that a simple recognition of the truth, even the acknowledgement that Jesus is the Truth – the Way, the Truth, and the Life – is enough to make us free. There may be an initial step into freedom that accompanies this acknowledgement, but it doesn’t get us very far in.
Jesus invites us to a reorientation of life. He asks us to lay aside the ways we order life around ourselves, around what benefits us and our tribe, and around what puts me ahead of others. This is difficult work, because most of us don’t know any other way to live life.
As long as we live this way, orbiting around ourselves or around our own ego, we have no steady point of reference. So we look to others to gauge how we are doing. And when others become our reference point, we begin to wear masks, because we want the others to think we’re doing better than we really are. In fact, we want to convince ourselves that we’re doing better than we really are. We spend a lot of time invested in what others think of us, always manipulating opinions so that we show up as more or better.
When we live this way, there is no freedom. We live in a prison of our own making. We live imprisoned to the expectations of others and to our own expectations. There is no truth that could set us free in this life of illusion.
The “truth” to which Jesus invites us is the ordering of life around God, who is the Center and Source of all life. In Jesus’ scheme of things, God is the reference point. And while none of us can measure up to God, God’s own Self is mercy and grace. You don’t have to measure up! That’s the good news of the Gospel! There is no need to try to be more or better. God’s mercy and compassion are extended to you just as you are!
When life is centered on God, then, there is no need to please others or meet their expectations. Rather, there is freedom.
The freedom Jesus promised from this “truthful” living is not freedom predicated on outward circumstances, but rather is an inside job. It is the inner freedom to be the person God created you to be without fear and without having to measure up to some external standard. It is living the truth of your own God-created purpose, living fully the life you were meant to live.
Living true brings that kind of freedom!
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