If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free

 Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.  Where I go you cannot come."  So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?"  And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world.  Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."  Then they said to Him, "Who are You?"  And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.  I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him."  They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father.  Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.  And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed 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."

- John 8:21-32

In our current readings, Jesus is at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem.  It is the final year of His life.  In yesterday's reading, He said, "I am the light of the world.  He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life."  The Pharisees therefore said to Him, "You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true."  Jesus answered and said to them, "Even if I bear witness of Myself, My witness is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going; but you do not know where I come from and where I am going.  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.  And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.  It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true.  I am One who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears witness of Me."  Then they said to Him, "Where is Your Father?"  Jesus answered, "You know neither Me nor My Father.  If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also."  These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no one laid hands on Him, for His hour had not yet come.

  Then Jesus said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin.  Where I go you cannot come."  So the Jews said, "Will He kill Himself, because He says, 'Where I go you cannot come'?"  And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above.  You are of this world; I am not of this world.  Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins."  Then they said to Him, "Who are You?"  And Jesus said to them, "Just what I have been saying to you from the beginning.  I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but He who sent Me is true; and I speak to the world those things which I heard from Him."  They did not understand that He spoke to them of the Father.   When Jesus says that He is going away, He refers to His death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven.  He refers here to His role as Judge, as Son, as the One who reflects the Father in the world and will return to the Father when His time has come.  In all ways, we can understand Jesus' attempt to save even those who do not want to hear Him.

Then Jesus said to them, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.  And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.  My study bible notes that lift up as Jesus uses it here has the double meaning of being nailed to the Cross and of being exalted by His Father upon the completion of His work.  Jesus always returns to the basic source of all of His ministry:  His union with the Father.  It is important that the Gospel tells us that as He spoke these words, many believed in Him.

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed."  We are all expected to be disciples.  In the Greek, that's a word that means "learners."  We are to be learners of His life and His way, to imitate Him in our own lives, to "follow Him."  To abide in His word, my study bible tells us, is the responsibility of all believers, not only of the clergy or an elite class of zealots.

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  We note how to know the truth follows upon discipleship.  This is the truth that makes us free.  My study bible says that the truth refers both to the virtue of truth and -- even more importantly -- to Christ Himself (14:6).   Being free, it says, refers to the freedom from darkness, confusion, and lies, as well as the freedom from the bondage of sin and death. 

What is truth, and what is freedom?  Jesus' truth is more than a set of teachings, as He will say in chapter 14:  "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."  This is an absolute, a way of understanding that He is the Person who is Truth.  It implies not mere relationship, but communion and participation.   At this place in His ministry, He preaches, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed."   He's already using the language of participation and communion.  To abide in His word implies more than simply doing what He says and teaches.  It is the language of dwelling within a particular place, His word.  Living within it.  The word in Greek is linked to the meaning "to wait."  We are to stay in this place, to continue in it.  All of these meanings are suggested by the text.  Jesus says, a little further above, ". . . as My Father taught Me, I speak these things.  And He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him."  If we abide in His word, then, we abide not only in Christ, but also in the Father.  This communion and participation isn't separable.  What that means is that His truth and His freedom are at once for those who are willing to dwell in that word so that it illuminates our way.  The freedom that is offered here, my study bible says, is freedom from "darkness, confusion, and lies, as well as the freedom from the bondage of sin and death."  I recently heard a video of Oprah Winfrey giving a commencement speech at Harvard.  She frequently speaks of the authenticity of being truly oneself.  But in this speech, she gave us a hint about where that authenticity really comes from; she said that in the midst of what was for her a shocking and embarrassing failure, the words of hymns came to her:  "By and by, when the morning comes" and "Trouble don't last always."  She spoke of the necessity of each person developing an internal compass, in her words, a "moral, emotional G.P.S."  Of course, she didn't suggest that the connection to the inspiration in the words of the hymns nor that internal "G.P.S." had to come from somewhere that was in communion with us, within which we abide, so that it is in that truth that we have the true freedom to find ourselves.  Neither did she mention the faith of countless people that forms the substance of how hymns come to us and have meaning for us.  Oprah spoke of reaching out in kindness to others, but there was no mention of grace, nor the thanks to the source and origin of our understanding of the depth of significance of kindness to one another.  In fairness to Oprah, she may have a strong faith life that I don't know about, but that wasn't given in the context of the speech.  To live in His truth and to have the freedom that He names is precisely the freedom to rise above whatever circumstances the world offers to us, and to say that we are not merely victims of those circumstances.  Neither are we simply people who have no choices in life but the options for "success" offered by popular culture -- or else we are merely losing out.  We have something more, in addition, in which we may live and move and have our being, and that is meant as the G.P.S. that we need.    We know that Christ will go to the Cross, and He will teach us that each must take up his or her own cross who wish to follow Him.  His wisdom teaches us that to find ourselves, we lose ourselves.   The freedom He offers is freedom from the obligation to set for ourselves the limited goals the world offers us, and to know the transcendence of His word, His meanings, His truth, and His love, and to dwell in that place, to abide in Him and in His word.  He offers us to seek first the Kingdom, whether in midst of abundance or not, and all things shall be added.  We will hear all kinds of things that sound great in this world, and be led in many directions that sound good but may be missing something important, not giving us the full picture.  His is the truth that sets us absolutely free.