In the book of John, truth and freedom are a really, big deal. These subjects of truth and freedom are not new to John, but John treats the subject of truth and freedom differently than many of his contemporaries. The subject begins long before John with Plato among others. Still Plato struggles with the subject of “What is true?” and “What is truth?”.
I have always thought that it is interesting that Plato writes that the things we see before us in the world have a reality to them that cannot be denied. A table is a table. A chair is a chair. Yet the table and the chair are, in and of themselves, not the true table or chair. He hypothesizes that in the heavens, beyond the ninth sphere of understanding, that there is a true table that defines all tables; a true chair that defines all chairs. What we have on earth is a shadow image, a verisimilitude (a reflection) of what the true table or true chair is.
In this sense, a table looks like a table, it acts like a table, it has legs like a table, but it is not a true table. It is a representation of the true table to be known in the heavens. Plato says that what we have as a table is a corrupted version of what the true table is. He further says that when we die and our divine essence is returned to that great divine essence recycling center in the heavens, then we will know what the true table is before our divine essence is again sent to live in another corrupted body.
Aristotle comes along, and he is less concerned about the true table. He is concerned with naming things correctly. He believes that if you can name a thing correctly then you can have control over that thing. He gets into common names and secret names and needing to know the secret names of things in order to properly order the world.
Truth for Plato is rightfully beyond our knowing. Truth for Aristotle is about control, naming things correctly in order to have power over them. And so, the great thinkers of time continue to struggle with “What is true?” and “What is truth?”. Most of these people will use the thoughts of Plato or Aristotle as their starting point and then go on to define truth in their time.
As we move through history, we encounter Thomas Aquinas, Kant and Hegel, Descartes (“I think therefore I am”), John Locke and David Hume, Soren Kierkegaard (“On the last day, we shall all stand alone before God to be judged.”, Fredrich Nietzsche (“We create our own gods.”), into our modern age where with Adler, we now claim, “Truth is relative.” We have come to think that truth is ever changing and therefore illusive.
All of these concerns about truth are based, that is, founded or anchored, in the idea that truth is a quantity, or a quality, something we can claim and control, something we can hold on to, something that will not change. We talk about empirical truth in science, work with provable truths in mathematics. We look for truth in politics, parsing sentence structures trying to determine whether what we hear is truth or some shadowy facsimile of truth. We listen to the news and hear truth being claimed, but as we switch channels and stations we hear truth differently. These differences are so great at times that we sometimes need to do our own research to find out what truth is. It seems that the harder we try to discover truth the slipperier it becomes until, ultimately, truth becomes a commodity. It is something to be traded, something to be bought and paid for. I find this to be deeply disturbing.
As advanced as we get in our thinking, we continue to come back to this single issue with Pilate at Jesus’ trial asking, “What is truth?”
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Today John captures Jesus’ words for us and changes the entire conversation. This change is important for us as Christ-followers because John tells us that truth is not a what but a who.
In John chapters 7 & 8, Jesus is confronting the politics and the powers of his time. Near the end of this long passage Jesus turns to his followers and addresses them concerning this subject of truth. He tells those who have been believers to this point that they should continue in his word. By doing this they will know truth and the truth will make them free.
Now this passage has all kinds of meaning for us today as we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. In Greek the word for freedom is “eleuthero”. We will come back to that in a minute. For now, it is enough to know it is not a coincidence that the Greek word freedom, “eleuthero”, and the name “Luther” look and sound similar.
In this passage, Jesus tells the people that truth is not a concept but a relationship. Continuing in his word is to continue to be in relationship with Christ himself. For, we have already learned at the beginning of John’s Gospel that the word of God is revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ, that the “word became flesh and dwelt among us”. So, to continue in Christ’s word is to continue to be in relationship with Christ.
Discipleship then is continuing to be in a learning relationship with Christ. And, by continuing in this learning relationship, we will encounter truth, that is, the fullness of who Jesus is. To know the fullness of Jesus, you must continue to read the Gospel of John because the cross and resurrection, Jesus’ death, his burial in the tomb, the open tomb on Sunday morning, Mary’s tears of lament, and her recognition of Jesus in the garden are still ahead. These life-changing events are how we come to KNOW the truth of who Jesus is. Knowing that truth frees us to live life in new ways, in new relationships, will sustain believers through the centuries.
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“Continue in my word and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
Now we can talk about what it means to be free. This Greek word has a more basic meaning of being revealed, uncovered, a sudden or new realization. It has little or nothing to do with living in a democratic society, voting for those whom we wish to govern over us, although it does embrace living in a relationship with others in an egalitarian way. This freedom has everything to do with loving our neighbor as ourselves, walking together in Christ. It is that moment of full knowledge that allows one to act without fear of the future. It is not reckless, but it is empowering and energizing, helping one to clearly see the way to go, and then going there without distraction or fear.
Indeed, this truth that frees is not and cannot be a what, a simple principle. It must be a who, the who, who leads and teaches the believers in right paths, in right ways, in right relationships with God and our neighbors—Jesus, himself.
This word, this truth that has been hidden, that at times seems to be distant from us, is revealed, has come into existence in our presence, in the person of Jesus Christ. This truth frees us, with all of the believers throughout history, to live in new ways.
It is this freedom, this relationship, that Martin Luther (eleuthero) wishes to commemorate in a new spelling of his name. He is Martin The-One-Who-Is-Free, free from the power of the Pope, the traditions of the Church, the mediation of the saints, the baggage of 1500 years of man-made hurdles to jump in order to be saved. “We are saved by grace, in faith through Christ alone.”
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“You will know the truth and the truth will make you free.”
That freedom is known in a loving relationship with Christ and our neighbor. A relationship with Christ is one that will reveal the pain and distress of life, of death itself, as being powerless for Christ will conquer death that all may know the power of the resurrection through him.
In baptism we enter into this relationship with him. As we die with him in the waters of baptism, so we are raised up with him to live a life like his, reaching out to our neighbor in healing and loving ways, lifting them up into new ways of living through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is a relationship of walking with, alongside of, working together, in the body of Christ. Jesus calls us into this relationship of having already died in baptism and being raised up in the world of the resurrection with Christ, freed to also live with Christ and one another, walking alongside the neighbors that we meet.
If Lutherans have anything to offer on this day that is unique, it is that Luther’s understanding of our relationship with Christ frees us to be in relationship with our neighbor. Indeed, Luther develops an entire theology of neighbor based on the event of the cross. Christ died on the cross for us, so we, in baptism, die to ourselves for the sake of our neighbors that we might walk with them, not only with the people we like, but with all of our neighbors, freed, liberated, given the opportunity to work for a better world and society. We do not do these things in order to be saved but because we are saved. So, it is that at the heart of Lutheran theology, we reach out to the poor, to the dishonored, the disenfranchised, the oppressed, to raise them up into Christ’s relationship of wholeness.
I find it interesting to note that the first real Community Chest program, the first welfare program, that western society knows, is created by Martin Luther. Luther finds a way to have funds set aside for the less fortunate of his world. These funds are locked in a box to be distributed as needed. Yet, it is not up to a single person to distribute these funds, but to three people. The priest and two others must agree that someone needs help. It takes three keys, one held by each person, to open the chest and the funds. Even in distributing the funds for the poor, Luther has found a way to build community relationship awareness.
Trying to keep Luther’s extravagant giving in check, Katie Luther insists she needs to be in control of the household finances because, if Luther were in charge, he would give everything they have away. We always need a balance of Martin and Katie because, from the beginning, Lutherans have this commitment to the oppressed and the poor. Luther firmly believes that we are freed to do that because of our relationship with Christ. Christ gave up everything for us, so that we should be willing to give up everything, or at least something, for our neighbors, to be little Christs to one another.
In today’s Gospel, speaking to the people of his time, Jesus confronts the leaders with this new understanding of truth and freedom. Their response is to ignore their history, even their own present circumstances. They say, “What are you talking about? We are children of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.”
We immediately want to say, “Wait a second! Don’t you remember Egypt? What about the Babylonian Exile? Do you not know that you are living under the thumb of Rome at this very moment?” Jesus could have been equally judgmental and harshly ridiculing concerning their answer, but Jesus changes the game. He says, “Anyone who sins is in bondage to sin and is a slave to sin.”
In the 19th century William Loehe takes Luther’s words and ideas. What Loehe composes helps us speak Luther’s theological understanding of this passage in our Brief Order of Confession and Forgiveness. “Most merciful God, we are in bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed; not only by what we have done, but by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart (i.e., we have not honored the first commandment). We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves (that whole issue of relationship, i.e., we have not fully entered into a relationship with one another in a way that helps us all to lift one another up). For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways to the glory of your holy name. Amen.”
Having spoken this truth, we are assured of our freedom from sin when we hear, “In the mercy of Almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all of our sins…. Your sins are forgiven.”
This whole understanding of relationship with one’s neighbor begins with confession. We are not fully able to enter into a full relationship with our neighbor until we are forgiven. It is how we move from the world of selfishness to selflessness.
Luther tells us that we live in two kingdoms: The kingdom on the left, that is, the kingdom of the world, and the kingdom on the right, that is, the kingdom of God. These kingdoms are not mutually exclusive. They overlap or intersect like a Venn diagram or that familiar image of two marriage rings interlinked, with a parenthetical space in the middle. We live in that in-between, overlapping, interlinked place, in the intersection or marriage of the two kingdoms, being drawn in both directions. We understand that institutions, authorities, and law-giving powers, those kingdoms of the world (the kingdom on the left), pull us in one direction while the kingdom of whole, right relationships with God and God’s will, the kingdom on the right, first shown to us in the person of Jesus, that relationship of loving, gracious embrace, a relationship of forgiveness and peace that is extended to our neighbors, indeed to all people, draws us inevitably to God’s grace and mercy.
We are not citizens of the world alone for in baptism we have been raised up with Christ into the Kingdom of God. Yet, although we are drawn, at times, in one direction or the other, Luther understands that God is at work in both kingdoms always, for God is Lord of all and gives both kingdoms to us for the good order of the world. In this way, God uses both kingdoms in order for God’s work to be done.
From this dynamic relationship we come to understand that we are neither fully engaged in the world only nor fully engaged in God’s kingdom only. We are at the same time fully engaged in both. We are simultaneously saint and sinner. We are always in a state of sin, needing to be forgiven, and always in a state of grace having been forgiven and assured of God’s love.
On this Reformation Sunday, we lift these things up because we have come to know that truth is not a thing, or a quality, or a value, but a who, a relationship with God’s only son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the relationships with our neighbors we have in him.
Luther’s words and writings changed the world he lived in, and his words continue to be a reforming presence in our world today for we are not only concerned about the what of truth, but we are firmly grounded in the who of faith, in the Word of God revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ, in the Truth that sets us free indeed. Go and share the good news.
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