worth celebrating
Freedom is worth celebrating–even beyond the 4th of July. It is central to Passover feasts. It’s what kids think about on the last day of school. Freedom is vacations, the day we burn the mortgage or pay off that student loan, the day the cast comes off or the mortar board comes on. And freedom gets that graduation hat even higher into the air when the solemnities are over, diplomas awarded. Jesus said to a group of believing Jews, “If the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8: 36).
meaning?
Free? What does he mean? Jesus has linked true discipleship with staying in his word. Then he says: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). His listeners claim to be the people of Abraham, those who have “never been enslaved.” Responding, he turns everything around and defines sin as slavery: “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Jesus sets up a contrast to illustrate—the authority of a slave as different from the authority of a child and heir. One, ordered by the home owner, will open the door to an invited visitor and say, “Welcome.” But a welcome by the owner or one of his children is a different thing. The house is theirs. They can invite in those they want to welcome and leave the door closed on those they do not. This scenario is played out in Jesus’ parable about the wise and foolish virgins. The unprepared, foolish virgins run out of oil as they wait for the Bridegroom to come. When those with lighted lamps celebrate his arrival, they are welcomed in to the festivities. The ones whose lamps are dark say, “ ‘Lord, lord, open to us,’ but he answers, ‘Truly, I say to you, I don’t know you,’” and they are not admitted (Matt 25: 1-12).
boundaries
Both the parable and Jesus’ teaching on freedom imply boundaries. A life without boundaries isn’t recommended by anyone, psychologists or theologians or Jesus or his disciples. Like the door in the parable, open to some but closed to others, the slave’s provisional welcome is contrasted with the freedom of the house an owner or his children may offer. Both make a common sense point. “Everybody needs a line that must not be crossed. Boundaries create trust,” says Caspar Walsh in his March 2010 piece for The Guardian, “A Life without boundaries is a Life out of Control” (www.casparwalsh.co.uk). Who questions that?
One
On the week of the 4th, we think about freedom more than boundaries–however much, however ironically the one ensures the other. Jesus’ statement about the Son setting us free has the swish of an opening door, and it’s a topic worth pursuing. He’s speaking of himself when he refers to the Son. In thirty translations of John 8: 36 there are few exceptions: The word is Son, not son (www.blueletterbible.org), and the equivalents in German, Spanish, French, or the Latin Vulgate also have caps. Jesus is talking about himself here. His favorite self-designation was Son of Man, but when he said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10: 30), his meaning was plain. Jesus is indeed the Son of Man, but the title, though Ezekiel’s also, seems, in the case of Jesus rather like many common plant names that refer to a unique identifier, something notable, exceptional. The prickly poppy, e.g., unlike other poppies, has thistle-like leaves. That the Second Person of the Trinity in what we still call the first century should accept the constraints of time and mortality changes nothing of his absolute identity. God the Son has always been God the Son. Though a Son of Man is now enthroned at the Father’s right hand, the Sonship is the same–even as humankind is exalted.
free
Think about an invitation from such a source—better, an invitation from this Source. If God the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed!
access
You can count on it because the veracity of one who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14: 6) is tested and proven. Jesus also called himself the door (John 10: 7). Who has access and who doesn’t is the point of more than one of Jesus’ parables—the Sheep and the Goats, the Wise and Foolish Virgins. What he’s saying about freedom is that those who, hearing his knock (Rev. 3: 20), decide to welcome him in will find themselves ushered in–into the kingdom by the King himself. He has the right to say “Mi casa, su casa.” He has the authority to graciously welcome us into the Father’s house. It’s his house, and he’s dealt with the sin that would keep us on the outside. If you haven’t gone to that door to open it, I encourage you to do so now.
revised from The Edgefield Advertiser, oldest newspaper in South Carolina
July 7, 2021, edition
with thanks for a great image: brian-fegter-gfQO8pXhX7I-unsplash-scaled.jpg
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