Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin

They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, 'You will be made free'?"

Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father."

They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father -- God." Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me. Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which if you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God."

- John 8:33-47

In the recent several readings, Jesus has been preaching at the temple in Jerusalem. It is the Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus has preached that He is the light of the world, that He comes from the Father and the truth He preaches sets free. See He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness and If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. At this time, there is great controversy over Jesus, and we are also told (in yesterday's reading) that many have also believed. The temple authorities, though, are already seeking to be rid of Him.

They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, 'You will be made free'?" In yesterday's reading, Jesus stated (to those who believed in Him): "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Here, the leadership quizzes Him. What freedom is He talking about?

Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham's descendants, but you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with My Father, and you do what you have seen with your father." My study bible notes (covering the central portion of today's passage): "Who are the true children of Abraham? Jesus makes it clear that one lives either by God's way or the devil's way (vv. 37-59). There is no middle ground (vv. 42-44)." When Jesus preached about Himself as the bread that came from heaven, He taught that "whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." He has preached clearly a message of relationship and bonding: He abides in us and we abide in Him. This leads to everlasting life, in the sense that He does not lose any of us - we are with Him, and He seeks to keep us with Him. Jesus has taught that this life is of the Father - that the Father gathers those to Jesus that are His, and He will keep them with Him, even to everlasting life. He has also preached that had they known the Father, they would know Him - and vice versa. Therefore their father is elsewhere. It is a question of what is most deeply loved and cherished in the heart of a person. The freedom Jesus preaches is a spiritual freedom.

They answered and said to Him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill Me, a Man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father." Then they said to Him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father -- God." My study bible notes here: "St. John Chrysostom writes: '[Jesus] wished to detach them from this racial pride and to deflate their excessive conceit, and to persuade them no longer to place their hope of salvation in Abraham, or in nobility of race according to nature, but in that according to free will. For, this was the thing that prevented them from coming to Christ; namely, they thought their descent from Abraham sufficed for their salvation.'" Jesus points to Abraham as one whose faith gave him recognition of what was of God. For this reason, He says, they are not faithful sons of Abraham - they do not do as Abraham did; they don't have his kind of faith. Their father is, again, elsewhere. They seem to understand Jesus' words and what He is implying when they reply that their one Father is God. I think it's important to understand that Jesus is speaking about a living faith; that is, something that is alive to the workings of Spirit in the here and now, in one's presence. This comes from the heart and its love of the Father and the willingness to hear Him "in the secret place." There are all kinds of things in which we take pride which blind us to such a relationship.

Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God; nor have I come of Myself, but He sent Me." An interesting note here in my study bible, about the wording in Greek and its conferring of notions of relationship: "Proceeded here, referring to Christ, translates the Greek exerchomai, whereas "proceeds" in 15:26, referring to the Holy Spirit, translates the Greek ekporeuomai. Christ's eternal relationship to the Father is one of Sonship rather than procession." Once again, Jesus teaches about relationship. The love of the Father in the heart leads to the love of Christ and His words - because His words are true to the Father who sent Him. In yesterday's reading, Jesus preached that "He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."

"Why do you not understand My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word." My study bible notes here: "They are not able to listen to His word because they are not willing to learn from Him. Spiritual truth can be genuinely heard only if there is willingness to know God and to do His will." This is the gist of repentance, that we be able to reconsider; that we be open to a better truth, a greater truth, something that will cause us to "change our mind." (As we wrote yesterday, the Greek word translated as "repentance," metanoia, means literally "change of mind.") In any therapeutic program, change is necessary. Therapy is impossible without this basic willingness to listen to what is better. A person stays stuck in their own blindness otherwise - they are not free. This is the spiritual freedom of which Jesus has been preaching. Programs for dealing with personal change, such as those based on the "Twelve Steps" refer to reliance upon a "Higher Power." In that sense, this is what Christ is preaching. Because they do not truly have the love of the Father in their hearts, they are unable to listen to Jesus..

"You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which if you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God's words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God." Clearly here Jesus refers to the adversary of God, the devil. This is the father of lies. To murder the truth is to be a murderer - it is to seek to blot out that which is real, the living Person of God, from the midst of what we see as our reality. Evil, then, speaks lies from its own resources, of itself, because in God there is only truth. So, Jesus asks, which of them convicts Him of sin? Why then do they not believe Him? It is a question of relationship, what we love, what we choose. Jesus has put this in other words elsewhere in the Gospels. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

The greatest emphasis in John's Gospel is on spiritual truth - on the heart of what is truth. How do we know truth? How does it make us free, and break the bonds of spiritual slavery? This is what we come to understand. And it is deeply linked to judgment, as Jesus speaks here of the devil, the father of lies, the murderer. What is it to murder? What is it to do away with an inconvenient truth? To seek to blot it out and remove it from our midst? This is really the gist of darkness and blindness, and all that it leads to, including murder. When we cannot change our perspective, because it means letting in an inconvenient truth, then we cannot practice repentance. We cannot expand to hold that much. We live in denial, or darkness - or worse, we may seek to rid ourselves of the messenger of our spiritual blindness. This is a very real problem with which we live in our world every day, every moment. Jesus is still calling us to embrace spiritual truth, to find the love in our hearts of the Father that will lead to our greater "enlightenment." Can we know the truth that makes us free? Do we want that freedom? We consider murder, and its impact, and its roots as referred to here by Jesus. Let us embrace the light, and learn the love He preaches here, in proper relationship or righteousness.