To the Jews who had not yet believed him, Jesus said, If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth; everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36)
Jesus was a problem for the Jews. He didn’t fit their mold. Here he had just denied the law, as far as they were concerned, because he didn’t agree to stoning a woman caught in adultery, and now he wants to accuse them of being slaves to Satan. What?! Is he serious?!
You could almost hear them saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let’s get this straight: You let this sinful woman, this woman CAUGHT breaking the Law, you let her go without condemning her or her sin, but to us you say we are slaves to the devil? Don’t you have your positions off a little bit?”
Then there is “us”. We sit back, read the story, tell the Jews 2,000 years after the fact, “Duh, you guys just don’t get it do you? Hello! This is the LOOORRDD!! He came to die for you”
But most of the time, we don’t get it either. We truly are sons and daughters of the devil until and unless “the Son has set us free.” That is what Jesus did for the woman. He set her free. He didn’t condone her actions. He didn’t condemn her. Notice what he didn’t add to his statement, he didn’t say to her, “I don’t condemn you, but wait until my Dad gets you. Boy, then you’re in for it!” He said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
Do not continue to be a slave to sin, he told her and tells us. But we do. We run from the “God-stuff.”I have to borrow this statement from Wayne Jacobsen (http://www.lifestream.org/transition.php), “There are two ways to run from God-rebellion and religion” We excuse our sinfulness behind wild living because, “We are free.” Or we hide behind it in religion and become slaves to the Law, to a legal requirement we believe we are under now that we have been, “Washed in the blood of the Lamb.”
I wish I could truly say I understand completely what it means to live my life free from sin, to live in the freedom Jesus has given me. But the fact is I run “from ditch to ditch” either falling into the trap of rebellion by not wanting to look religious in my presentation of a life of freedom in Jesus; or in the condemnation (of self and others) and fear of trying to live a “pious” life. I either cuss too much, drink too much, lust too much, or I am looking down my nose at people I see cussing, drinking and lusting.
But I CAN give you a glimpse of what this life is like because I truly have experienced it. I can share what is the crux of a life in Jesus’ freedom. It starts with knowing deep down, “Neither do I condemn you.” (John 8:32) To know that you can stand before the Lord and have him tell you, “I am not condemning you” automatically takes a weight off our shoulders.
I had a conversation the other day with someone who was a bit pre-occupied by death. He didn’t understand it. Wasn’t sure what, if anything, waited on the other side. But he was burdened, and it was obvious, by his life. We all know who we truly are on the inside, don’t we? He didn’t want to say it, but you could easily get the sense of his main concern, “What will God say to me. How bad will hell be? I certainly know I don’t deserve heaven.” What if he knew he would say, “I don’t condemn you.” How would that change him? How would it change you?
But that is only part of the story and part of the problem. You see, in John 8, Jesus is standing before the Jews, people who need to know his freedom. He is saying he won’t condemn. He is setting people free because the Father sent him to proclaim “freedom for the captives.” Isaiah 61:1 says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”
What the Father-Son-Spirit has given us in Jesus is not only the key to the prison cell door, he is giving us training and a purpose for living. I saw a great story on Fox News a few weeks back. It is a story about a business called, “Felony Franks.” It is a hot dog stand in Chicago that hires ex-convicts to run the business. They serve “Pardon Burgers” and “Misdemeanor Wieners.” Their slogan is “Food so good, it’s criminal.”
The owner, Jim Allen, only hires ex-cons. Here’s the rub: Mr. Andrews is legally blind. He also owns a paper company that hires ex-cons as well. “Best crew I’ve ever had,” he says. It is his mission to give people that second or third or fourth chance no one else will give them. (http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking06/FelonyFranks.html) When you are in prison you know it. You have no freedom. Even if someone lets you out, you still feel like you’re in prison because you can’t find work. Mr. Andrews is truly setting people free. He is giving them a life to live, not by watching them, he can’t, but by giving them a reason and a means to get on with life.
That is what we get in and by and through Jesus. Once we recognize Jesus for who he is and what he is giving (it’s still an active giving) to us, we don’t need to live like hellions nor saints. In fact, the best way for us to live is just to spread the blessing of this freedom with people we know. Set prisoners free. Proclaim this great news to the poor in heart. Let those who are caught up in their own darkness that they are free.
So what about me? How did I know it? How did I sense it? How do I know I am free? I know I am free because I don’t condemn people for who they are as often as I did. I am free to love and forgive and accept people for who they are. I am free because I know that Jesus doesn’t condemn me, doesn’t condemn you and isn’t asing me to do anything to earn his love. I don’t need to feel religiously superior because other people are either caught up in their own sin, or religiously locked in a prison of performance.
I have friends in imprisoned in both categories. Some feel they can do whatever they want. They condemn themselves to hell, in their own minds, because they would rather be in hell having lived a “free” life than to be caught up in the condemnation of religion. On the other end of the spectrum I have friends who feel it necessary to quote scripture at the drop of a hat. Of course they leave the blessings for themselves and the curses for others.
Both groups are in prison, still, because neither believes there is a way out. The way of freedom is too scary for them. They fight and kick and scream that there is no other way. But there is for Jesus said, “I.” Let me emphasize that word, “I.” He didn’t say religion. He didn’t say church. He didn’t say the Bible. He said, “I.” “I am the way.” I don’t feel freedom because of something I’ve done or do. I feel freedom because Christ says, “I am the way.” In other words, I (Frank) don’t have to worry about the how as long as I am focused on the who.
This is hard. I have moments and days where I believe I’m free. I live in the lack of pressure to live up to what my society thinks I am supposed to do. Then I feel the pressure of not being what I or others feel I should be. I’m not a good enough dad. I’m not a good enough husband. I’m not a good enough neighbor or teacher or pastor or coach or whatever.
None of this can change the reality of what the Son of God has done. That is why HE is the way. HE has lived a life in perfect obedience to the Father, something I could never do. HE has destroyed the pain of death by providing resurrection. HE has destroyed the corruption of sin that would have otherwise destroyed all humanity and me. HE has given me a place in the Father. HE has given me a union with the Trinity and with all humanity that makes me feel as if I belong. I feel free and know I am free because HE has done for me what I cannot nor would not do for myself.
I am free to love. I am free to give. I am free to care. I am free to care. I am free to mourn with those who are mourning and laugh with those who are laughing. I am free to rejoice with the rejoicing and free to comfort those who are hurting. I am free to enjoy a snoring baby, a cool waterfall, the roar of the ocean and the dance of dolphins. I am free to roast marshmallows and free to smoke cigars. I am free to dance with my wife and free to cry when my son or daughter is in pain. I am free.
The Jews just couldn’t get this because they wanted to hold on to their idea of what God wanted. The evangelical right is doing the same thing. They set up standards, all in the name of the glory of God, that are nothing but prisons; prisons because no one, not even they themselves could live up to those standards.
True freedom only comes when we trust that God is doing something in us and for us and to us that is happening solely because of his love for us. We don’t earn it, accept it, have a personal relationship with it, get baptized in it (unless it is he who is doing the baptizing), or anything else. “It is the gift of God lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:9) Remember, Jesus HIMSELF is telling you, “Neither do I condemn you.” Be free.
