“FREE INDEED”
Reformation Sunday
October 29, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
John 8:36 (ESV)
Five hundred years ago this coming Tuesday an apparently insignificant event took place in Wittenberg, Germany--an event that has had profound consequences ever since, not only for the Christian Church, but for the whole world. On that Eve of All Saints' Day in the year 1517, a young monk (just a couple of weeks shy of his 34th birthday) posted for debate ninety-five statements in which he addressed matters on which he took issue with his church. The event was (and still is) hailed by many as an act of great courage, and the movement that it started (known as the Reformation) is recognized by people of various religious traditions as a movement of freedom. In one sense, I suppose, our times aren't all that different than the days of Martin Luther. People today still cry out for reformation and freedom. The problem is that we can't be sure just what a person is talking about when he or she uses the word freedom. To some, freedom is the permission to do whatever they feel like doing with no restraints whatsoever. To others freedom means being given on a silver platter not only the opportunity but also the guaranteed results of success. So in the universal quest for freedom, it is not at all clear what people are really looking for.
The people of the sixteenth century were unclear about freedom as well. They were ready to tear down the Church (which no doubt had become far more powerful and corrupt than it ever should have been) but they weren't quite sure what they were going to build in its place. They found in Luther and in his teaching a convenient excuse to oppose the authority of the Church, but that's not what the Reformation was or is all about. Oh, it's about freedom, to be sure, but not that kind of freedom. It has nothing to do with nationalism or political power or disrespect for authority. The freedom proclaimed by Martin Luther and the other reformers of his day was nothing new. It was the freedom established by our Savior Jesus Christ some fifteen hundred years earlier. In keeping with the purest Reformation heritage, let's examine this freedom of the Gospel, acknowledging it once again as a freedom that is given through Christ, and also as the only freedom that really matters.
The Reformation freedom that we celebrate today and that we rejoice in every day is a freedom that is given to us through Jesus Christ. It is not something that we can purchase like the freedom of slaves in ancient and not-so-ancient times. It is not something that we can declare or fight for like our freedom as Americans, which we all hold so dear. It is not something that we can attain by our own efforts like the financial freedom that is held before us like a carrot by so many investment firms. No, this freedom is a gift, pure and simple--a gift of our gracious heavenly Father, given to us by the grace of His only Son through the faith created in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
There's a strange irony in human nature: People are constantly trying to do what they cannot do, while at the same time they refuse to do what they can do. Give a person the ability or authority to do something, and chances are that he won't much care. But tell that same person that he can't do that very same thing, and guess what he'll immediately try to do? There are so many people in this world who, because their conscience convicts them when they are confronted with the Law of God, desperately try in vain to make things right. They don’t want to hear about grace and forgiveness because in their minds that’s not being responsible. You see, it all boils down to a matter of pride. Pride is what got Adam and Even into so much trouble in the garden and it’s still what gets so many people into so much trouble today. Because pride is such a driving force, many people turn a deaf ear to the Gospel and consequently they live and die enslaved to their sin.
This freedom that is ours in the Gospel of Christ is the only freedom that really matters in the end. It is certainly the only freedom that has any spiritual or eternal consequences. The freedom that is ours in Christ is a twofold freedom: First of all, because of what Jesus has done for us we are free from the guilt of sin. No longer do we need to be haunted by the nagging question that tormented Luther in his earlier years, that question being: How good is good enough? How good do you have to be to satisfy God’s justice and thus be spared from His punishment? You don’t ever have to ask yourself that question because Christ has freed you from such concerns. Since you can’t possibly be good enough to meet the perfect standard of God’s Law, Christ has done it for you--fully and completely--in His perfect life and His innocent suffering and death on the cross. The more profitable thing for you to do is to constantly repent of your sin and look to the cross of Jesus for the comfort of forgiveness.
A far more challenging issue for us today is the other freedom that we have as a result of what Christ has done for us and that is freedom from the power of sin. You see, we are not (as we sometimes assume) helpless pawns in the devil’s hands. Because Christ died and rose again and because in Baptism we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection, we don’t have to sin. Granted that, because of the weakness of our flesh, we still sin every day, there is no reason why the child of God in Jesus Christ should be compelled to sin. We are free--free to live in freedom, forsaking sin and glorifying God by serving our neighbor according to His good and gracious will. And even when we fail at this (as we inevitably do) there is, in Christ, forgiveness and the strength to go on, knowing that even our imperfect efforts are accepted as perfect in the sight of God for the sake of our perfect Savior.
So what is the Reformation all about? It's about freedom. Not the freedom of Lutherans from Roman Catholics or the freedom of laity from clergy or the freedom of nationals from foreigners. It’s about real freedom--freedom from sin--from both its guilt and its power. This is the freedom that our Savior purchased for us by the shedding of His own precious blood. God’s Holy Spirit, working through the Gospel, continually blesses us with a knowledge of and a confidence in this freedom, constantly reforming our individual lives and the life of our church--always tearing down error and replacing it with truth, tearing down superstition and replacing it with faith, tearing down doubt and replacing it with trust, tearing down self-pride and replacing it with a humble acceptance of His grace, His forgiveness, and His hope. Five hundred years later, it's still all about Jesus.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.