Reformation Day
October 30, 2005
John 8:31-36

^8:31Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; ³²and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." ³³They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?" ³⁴Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. ³⁵The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. ³⁶So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (NRS).

Freedom!

  Throughout human history there has been a constant struggle for truth. Adam and Eve’s first challenge was whether or not to believe the serpent or God. God said not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die. The serpent said that they would not die but would have their eyes opened and become more like God himself. God told the truth, the serpent lied, and they died.

  Since that moment in history, we have been struggling to know the truth that will right that wrong and set us free from death. For a brief moment in history, God became a man and proclaimed that truth to us. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, John says. He was a light shining in the darkness who revealed grace and truth, the very truth we seek, the truth that repairs the rift between us and God and frees us from death. "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

  But once again, the devil, that ancient serpent has raised his voice and said that you don’t need to be a follower of Christ. There are other truths that will set us free. And just as Adam and Eve believed the first lie, so countless millions of us have believed all the devil’s subsequent lies. We have embraced lies instead of the truth and have not been set free from the fear of death. Truth has been obscured and our struggle for the truth has continued.

  Today we mark the beginning of the Reformation. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed a paper to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. We call that paper the 95 Theses. He called it, Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences. It was an invitation to other theologians to debate the practice of selling indulgences. An indulgence was the elimination of the punishment due for sins committed. The idea was that when you confessed a sin, you would be forgiven but you would still have to make satisfaction for that sin, i.e., to do something as a punishment to make-up for it. What you left unfinished in this life you would take care of in purgatory. An indulgence allowed you to buy a release from punishment and purgatory.

  Luther wanted to debate this practice because he knew it was wrong. The truth is that we are justified--freed from sin--by an act of God’s mercy. We are justified through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. We don’t have to make-up for our sins. Rather God changes us so that we leave sin behind and begin to do what is right.

  The selling of indulgences was a lie based on greed. And in its own way, the selling of indulgences made people yet greater slaves to sin. Like someone wasting his family’s food money on a lottery ticket, they would squander the money needed to support their families on a worthless piece of paper. Instead of freedom, indulgences increased people’s misery.

  Luther was after the truth, the truth of the Gospel. So he begins the 95 Theses with these words. "Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology." Then follow 95 statements that expose errors and reveal truth.

  The rest is history. Those theses launched a struggle for truth within the Western Church that resulted in a great persecution and Luther being declared an outlaw. Many people lost their lives and property. But by holding to the truth of God’s Word, Luther and others prevailed and were set free from error and slavery to sin. Jesus’ words proved true. "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

  We are the heirs of that struggle for truth. Since the time of Adam, every generation, every person, has had to learn and cling to the truth that Jesus is the only one who restores us to God and sets us free from death. He is the way, and the truth, and the life. No one is reconciled to God and freed from death except through him. And so every one of us, like the Jews in Jerusalem and like Luther before us, must hear Jesus say, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

  Why is Jesus’ word the truth that sets us free? Why not the word of Confucius or Buddha or Mohammed? Why not the word of Darwin and Dawkins and Gould? Because, unlike any of those men, Jesus didn’t speak his word. Throughout his ministry, Jesus said, "My teaching is not mine but his who sent me" (John 7:16). In other words, Jesus wasn’t giving his opinion about things. It wasn’t the world according to Jesus, a carpenter from Nazareth. His word wasn’t what he had learned as a man through experience and scientific investigation. He didn’t teach math and physics and biology or philosophy and logic. Instead he taught a truth that was foundational to all those disciplines. He revealed God. He transmitted and explained the very thoughts and intentions of God.

  To know Christ, i.e., to understand and trust his word, is to know the truth that makes sense out of all facts. We have discovered many truths about the world, but like the person who misses the forest for the trees, we have a hard time putting them all together in a way that lets us see the big picture. God put the picture together; he holds the whole truth. He alone can tell us how to make sense out of all the details. He holds the key to understanding all of life because he knows what we do not know and cannot know unless he tells us. Christ is God in the flesh, the one "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Christ, by whom all things were made and are sustained, gives intelligible order and purpose to nature and history.

  Without Christ, we’re left with a meaningless, chaotic mess of data and lies. You will either follow a false explanation for life--like evolution or some philosophy--or you will wander aimlessly because you have no explanation. Just as the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, so, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

  Yet like the Jews, we object. "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?" Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed."

  Like Adam and Eve, we have disobeyed the truth we know. We are generally quite aware of what’s right and wrong for God created us that way. We have a natural knowledge of right and wrong and so knowingly do what is wrong. We have sinned and will again. We can’t stop! We don’t have the power to be perfect. We are slaves to sin. We obey what we know is wrong.

  That is why we will not stand up to God’s judgment on our own. He knows our truth, our very thoughts and intentions, the evil desires that cause us to do what we do. Like Adam we lie and try to cover up our sins. Like Cain we kill our brothers because we’re jealous. Like David we commit adultery. Like Peter we deny our faith from fear of persecution. We are slaves to sin! We need a Saviour!

  "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Here is Jesus’ word, the truth that we have heard today.

• The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant . . . I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. (Jeremiah 31:31, 34).
• So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36).
• For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law. (Romans 3:28).

  God has forgiven our sins; we have been justified by faith in Jesus’ death on our behalf. The son has set us free! We don’t have to buy indulgences to be set free. We don’t have to make a pilgrimage to some place in the Middle East to be free. We don’t have to repeat some mantra and try to convince ourselves that we are in touch with a higher power to be free. We can continue in Jesus’ word and be his disciples. We can remember our Baptism done at his command, with his promise of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit. We can remember his words, "Take and eat, this is my body given for you. Take and drink, this is my blood shed for the forgiveness of your sins." There is the truth that sets us free!

  The glory of the Reformation and the heritage of especially the Lutheran Church is that we were directed back to the word of Christ, the truth that sets us free. Like Luther himself, as we cling to Jesus’ word we rest from the struggle for the truth. Men will deny that truth and the devil will continue to lie, but we are free.