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, but 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 in the final year of His life and ministry.  He is at the autumn Festival of Tabernacles.  Yesterday we read that Jesus spoke to them again, saying, "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."  Going away, according to my study bible, refers to Christ's death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven.

 

 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, but I always do those things that please Him."  As He spoke these words, many believed in Him.    Let us remember once again that the term the Jews refers to the leadership.  My study bible comments that lift up has the double meaning both of being nailed to the Cross and also being exalted by His Father upon the completion of His work.  

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed."  The Greek word for disciples literally means "learners."   It is also a word for "students."  My study bible notes that Jesus expects all who follow Him to be disciples, learners.  To abide in His word is the responsibility of all believers, it says, not only of the clergy or of an elite class of zealots.

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  My study bible says that the truth refers both to the virtue of truth, and, more importantly, to Christ Himself (14:6).  To be free is a reference to the freedom from darkness, confusion, and lies, as well as freedom from the bondage of sin and death.  

Jesus tells those who believed Him, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."  It seems from the text that He is directing these words at members of the leadership.  We've already been told that there were many people among the general crowds at the festival who believed in Him, as well.  But what leads Him to make this statement?  What is the truth?  What does it mean to be made free?   Jesus' statement connecting truth and freedom is predicated upon this teaching:  "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed."   So it is first of all abiding in Christ's word, becoming His disciples -- those who learn from Him --  that leads us to know the truth, and from there the truth makes us free.  What is this truth He offers?  Is it freedom from the law?  Certainly that is a part of it, although Christ specifically calls Himself the fulfillment of the Law, and that as disciples our righteousness should exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:17-20).  As is so often the case, a great clue is given us by His earlier statements regarding Himself.  He tells them they will die in their sins without this faith, because where He goes they cannot follow.  So one freedom, as stated by my study bible, is surely freedom from sins.  That is, the freedom of a life where mercy and forgiveness rule.  This is only possible through a deep and close relationship with God; purely human rituals and rites cannot free us in this sense to a closeness of communion with God in which to find the kind of truth and freedom that Jesus is talking about.  Jesus emphasizes the communion of wills between Himself and the Father:  "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."  So truth is directly connected to this closeness to the Father, the One who sent Christ.  Jesus later says, "He who sent Me is with Me.  The Father has not left Me alone, but I always do those things that please Him."   So here is a key to truth.  Christ presents Himself as a disciple to God the Father, as one who will "always do those things that please Him."  To abide in Christ's word, therefore, is to do the same, and to draw closer to the Father as Christ shares communion with the Father.  This is both our truth and our freedom.  The communion of this relationship enables us to know who we are, and sets us free to be -- and to more deeply become -- the persons our Creator knows us to be.  This is the homecoming of truth and freedom,  to the place where we are deeply loved, deeply accepted, and also where we can find the correction that frees us from our illusions about ourselves, the world, and our place in the cosmos.  The light that illumines our own darkness makes us free from that darkness.  To my mind, and in my own experience, this is how we are set free.  We find that rather than pleasing the crowd, we seek to please God.  We compare the hostility of going against the groove of the world to the love we find -- even in our mistakes -- with God.  We compare that place of homecoming with the world that will penalize us for being different.  We are free to forego the praise of men and seek the praise of God instead.  In chapter 12, John writes, "Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (12:43).  How will those rulers who believed in Him, the ones He addresses in today's reading, come to truth that liberates and frees?  How do we get there?