The truth that makes free

They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’

Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.’

They answered him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.’

- John 8:33-47

Jesus elaborates further, in today's passage, on the theology of Father and Son, and the freedom from sin. There is a careful analogy, to my ears, here, that lays out relatedness and its relation to sin and to truth.

We first have the depth of the relationship of Father and Son - if you know One, you know the Other. But then there is the inclusion of humanity in these relationships. Are we, as individuals, related to Father and Son? Or are we outside of such a relationship, so that we recognize the nature of neither - in one or the other? In other words, if we "know" One, we know the other, but this knowing and this knowledge - this faith and trust and recognition - constitutes relationship. It is a conferring of relatedness, of one house or clan, of inclusion. It is similar to the idea of being "in the name." Relationship extends and includes. So, in such a relationship, the Son sets sinners free. By faith, by relationship of this type, one is no longer a slave to sin but becomes free in the truth expressed in the relationship. The very understanding, recognition and knowledge itself has the ability to set free.

And then there is the notion of a different relatedness, of the devil in this picture. The one who is the father of lies, and does not love truth. The manipulator who would rather murder truth than face what denies control, material power, and the ability to deceive. The exclusion from this relationship is the desire to hang onto a type of power that relies on lies and manipulation, and makes of others slaves - because it is a continuation of condemnation in sinfulness. And that is altogether a different kind of relatedness, it is no longer love - it is control, manipulation and condemnation. And above all, it is no longer freedom. It is a love of truth that sets us free.