Religious heritage does not bring freedom; truth does.
Who is Jesus? part 90 – John 9:27-43
What is freedom? It all depends on who you ask.
There are two main ideas when you hear politicians speak about freedom.
There’s a positive idea, where people want the freedom to do things that would make life easier. The freedom to access healthcare, to access education, and to be paid a decent wage. These people talk about protecting the weak and vulnerable.
Then there’s the negative form of freedom. That is freedom from things. Freedom from excessive taxes, freedom from overregulation.
It is not all onesided The positive freedom people will also talk about freedom from oppression, for instance.
The problem for me is that these two sides do not talk to each other, when I find both kinds of freedom in the Bible. The problem with both kinds of freedom is that neither of them goes far enough.
27 They did not understand that he had been speaking to them about the Father. 28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. 29 And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” 30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 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’?”
34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains for ever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38 I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
39 They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works Abraham did, 40 but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. 41 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
John 9:27-43 ESVUK
There is a structure to this passage, which is chiasmus. Chiasmus, meaning crossing over, is a mirror-image form used in nearly all Psalms and often in the New Testament. It is a repetition of similar ideas in the reverse sequence. Where there is a central section, it is often the main theme. It may surprise people that the central section is not the passage most commentators focus on, which is, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (v. 36). Although freedom is the theme of the passages framing the centre section. The centre is words about slavery, not freedom.
You become like what you worship
“34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not remain in the house for ever; the son remains for ever.” Theologian NT Wright says in his book Simply Christian, “You become like what you worship. When you gaze in awe, admiration, and wonder at something or someone, you begin to take on something of the character of the object of your worship.” The idea of becoming like what you worship, as poined to by Jesus, saying that if we sin, we become slaves to sin, we become trapped. But in saying, “The slave does not remain in the house for ever;” Jesus is offering a way out. He offers himself as the way out.
You become what you worship is a theme found in the Psalms, including Psalm 115:8, which says about idols:
Those who make them become like them;
so do all who trust in them.
Don’t be confused when I talk about sin. I’m not talking about offences against an old-fashioned morality, particularly to do with sex. But that’s a small-minded view. Sexual sins matter. A lot. They can destroy marriages and families, even communities. But there is more to sin than sex. When people rebel against God, new forces come into being, and people and societies alike become enslaved. Gossiping is as much rebellion against God as extra-marital sex is.
If you worship power, your own or by following powerful people, it leads to being cold, heartless and scheming. If you focus on God, then you get transformed into living image bearers of Jesus Christ, full of his grace and truth. But our image of God is important here. If we focus on a God of anger, one who will strike people down for stepping a little out of place, then that’s what we become, which is why there is such a focus on the character of Jesus in the New Testament – Jesus is God in a human form, and Jesus shows us what God is like. This is why I am focusing on what John says in his Gospel about who Jesus is and what he is like.
So what does this passage say about Jesus?
Jesus is the one who brings freedom
Jesus is offering freedom. Freedom is what the Gospel promises. It wasn’t just freedom from this world, for life after death. It is that to be sure. But it is also a promise of freedom in the here and now.
There are two promises of freedom in this passage, which flank the central part.
You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (v. 32).
If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (v. 36).
Free from sin, free from slavery, free from the law, free fromdeath, free from injustice, free from debt free from tyranny: There are needed as much now as they were then is all these ways and more. Slavery and tyranny depend very much on lies, they thrive on half-truths and cover-ups. Freedom and truth go hand in hand.
Jesus was offering what Israel was longing for, Freedom that goes deeper than they could have imagined. Especially those who have come to believe he is the Messiah (v. 30). But no. They hear that Jesus is offering something more than what they want, which is freedom from Rome, and they react against the idea. “We are Abraham’s children,” they say, “We have always been free.”
Jesus does not do what I’d expect here, he seldom does. I’d expect the history of slavery in Egypt or exile in Babylon. But Jesus goes further, too far for his listeners. There is a worse slavery than the one in Egypt or the semi slavery under Rome that thet were currently suffering. It is the slavery of sin.
John’s Gospel keeps saying that Jesus himself is the truth, starting in 1:14, here and more empatically (spoiler alert) in chapter 14. John does not tell here that it is Jesus on the cross that brings freedom.
The Jews thought that being descendants of Abraham made them God’s people. But the people who were called to bring God’s light into the world were instead sharing in the darkness. They were putting religious heritage in the place of truth. As are those today who think that nominal membership of a Christian church means they are in God’s favour,
A sobering thought. Even the Church called to bring the light of Christ into the world can be affected by darkness. I know I am. Religious heritage does not bring freedom, even the heritage of non-traditional churches as well as the traditional ones. We need the truth of Jesus.
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