Are you really free?

Jn 8:31-42

31 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. 32 Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you." 33 Surprised, they said, "But we're descendants of Abraham. We've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, 'The truth will free you'?" 34 Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead- end life and is, in fact, a slave. 35 A slave is a transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. 37 I know you are Abraham's descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. 38 I'm talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father." 39 They were indignant. "Our father is Abraham!" Jesus said, "If you were Abraham's children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. 40 And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. 41 You persist in repeating the works of your father." They said, "We're not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God." 42 "If God was your father," said Jesus, "you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn't come on my own. He sent me.

Food for thought!

In today's gospel, Jesus is speaking to a group of people who thought they were free. They believed that because they were the sons of Abraham, they enjoyed spiritual freedom, v. 33. Jesus lets them know that because they are sinners, they are slaves to sin, v. 34. This same truth is repeated by Paul in Rom 6:16

Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

Jesus wanted his audience listening then as well as now, to know that He has the power to make men truly free, v. 32. He reminds them that because they are slaves to sin, they are not truly free. You see, a person can be locked away in a prison and still be free in Jesus. Another can be out of prison and not be free. Many of us are slaves. That's the bad news. The good news, Jesus has the power to make us truly free. Regardless of our kind of prison, regardless of how long we have been imprisoned, Jesus can and does sets us free. This is the Good News that he is trying to tell the people in the gospel reading.

Another message from Jesus to the people is that holiness is not hereditary; it is not inborn; it is not automatic. It is personal. In this passage Jesus is dealing a death-blow to a claim which to the Jews was all-important. For the Jew Abraham was the greatest figure in all religious history; and the Jew considered himself safe and secure in the favour of God simply because he was a descendant of Abraham.

The attitude of the Jews is not without parallel in modern life.

(a) Even today, some people think that because they belong to a family or a church or a congregation, that they are special because of that. But belonging to a great name or family should never be an excuse for inaction; great name or family should always be an inspiration to new effort.

(b) There are those who try to live on a history and a tradition and a spiritual capital of the past; but if the capital be always drawn upon and never put up anew, the day inevitably comes when it is exhausted. No man or church or nation can live on the achievements of the past. That is what the Jews were trying to do. It is not enough to belong to a great family; it is equally important to struggle yourself. God will judge us not according to our ancestors, but according to our acceptance or refusal of Jesus.