Sermon - Reformation Day 2018 - John 8:31-36

Slavery, in and of itself, is a hot topic in the socio-political sphere of these United States of America. As soon as us Americans here the word slavery, instantly racism, Jim Crow laws, and racial segregation spring to our minds. If you had to think up words to describe slavery the first ones to come to mind would probably be: bad, evil, horrific, and disgusting. 

So when you hear Jesus say: “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin,” the first thought in your mind is probably that slavery is bad and I don’t want to be a slave, so I don’t want to be a slave to sin. But that’s not really the context within which Jesus spoke those words. That’s just our Americanized ears hearing Jesus speak that way. Because while it is true that Jesus releases us from our slavery to sin to freedom in Christ, this freedom doesn’t look like what we typically imagine. 

But before we get into all of that, it’s important that we first lay a foundation for what slavery looked like in the ancient near east. While in American history slavery was largely forced, racist, and dehumanizing, it wasn’t any of those things in antiquity. Slavery was actually typically entered into voluntarily, it had nothing to do with the color of your skin, and instead of dehumanizing it gave you a better shot at a better life. 

For the most part, slavery was entered into voluntarily because of indebtedness. Let’s say that you’re poor, you can’t afford to buy food, you can’t afford a house, and you can’t afford clothing. Today we have food banks that feed people for free, we have cheap clothes available at thrift shops, and there are housing shelters for the homeless. Those things didn’t exist in the ancient near east. If you couldn’t afford food, you’d actually starve to death, simple as that. 

What was in place however was slavery. You could enter into slavery for a wealthier person, who would then give you regular work which wasn’t always easy to obtain, and you’d be guaranteed food, clothes, shelter, and really a family. You’d be treated like one of the family, you work with them, you live with them, and you even eat at the same table as them.

According to Israelite law, after six years the slave’s master would offer the slave freedom. If they refused freedom, then they’d become permanent slaves. Believe it or not, many slaves would choose to be slaves to their master for the rest of their lives. They desired the comfort, stability, and friendship that they had in this relationship with their master more than they desired freedom to go it on their own in life. 

All that is to say that slavery wasn’t a bad and evil thing in the eyes of most people, but generally a way of life that brought stability and comfort. Now, was every slave master perfectly kind and loving? Of course not, just like there are parents who are cruel to their children, so were there likely masters who were cruel to their slaves. But that wasn’t the norm.

So when Jesus spoke about being slaves to sin, that’s the context within which people heard Him speak. To be a slave to sin means that you’re being cared for by your master the devil. The devil and sin becomes your stability, your comfort, and your family. You know this to be true if you examine your life for just a moment. 

Regular and habitual sins give your life the impression of stability, so for example, it’s difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with a spouse, but this intimacy is easily obtained when reading smut or looking at pornography. Sin gives our lives the impression of comfort. For example, loneliness, depression, anxiety, hopelessness are unfortunately experienced by many people in this life, but addiction to alcohol and drugs can easily mask the pain and give you the feeling of comfort that you’re looking for. 

The problem with making sin and the devil your master, is that it’s not healthy for you! The devil is a deceiver, convincing you that he is your master and what he offers you is better than what Christ can give you. But the reality is that you will simply receive the same inheritance as the devil, which as Christ says is “the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”

But Christ offers you freedom from this slavery to sin. “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” What is this truth that sets you free? What is the Word of God that we must abide in? What is this “little word” that can fell the devil which we sang of in the great battle hymn of the reformation? That little Word made flesh is Jesus. Jesus is the one whom the disciples on the road to Emmaus asked to abide with them. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life whom no one comes to the Father except through Him. Jesus sets you free from your slavery to sin! 

Jesus doesn’t just give you one opportunity to flee from your slavery to sin, but He offers you freedom with every breath of His saving Word which is spoken to you. He releases you from the bondage of your sin so that no longer does the devil hold you in his grip to live according to his command. No longer do you find your stability, comfort, and family in sin and Satan. No longer is your eternal inheritance the fiery pit of hell.

Jesus sets you from your slavery to sin! But like the saying goes, nothing in life is really free, neither is this your freedom without cost. Your freedom is expensive. You “are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” Yes, your freedom comes at a cost and the price of your freedom is the blood of Christ Jesus. He redeemed your life from the grip of Satan, He bought you without gold and silver, but with His precious lifeblood shed on the cross for you. 

“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” But thank God because He doesn’t just leave us hanging. We have certainly been freed from our bondage to sin to freedom in Christ, but the fact still remains that we have nothing on our own. On our own we will still most surely perish. But we are not on our own. St. Paul declares: “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness… Now you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” 

Our Lord and Master is God Himself now! God is the one who gives us stability, for we live in Him, His name is written upon our hearts, and He is the solid rock of our faith which no storms can shake. God is the one who gives us comfort, who soothes our sad and lonely hearts, who gives us the comfort and peace which surpasses all understanding. God is the one who gives us our family, He has caused us to be reborn, He has adopted us as His beloved children, He welcomes us to His table, and He dines with us at this altar.

So what this means very practically for you is that you’ve been set free from sin, you have new life in Christ, but you’re not free in order to sin. We Lutherans sometimes have a hard time understanding this, we think that because we are free from sin, we now have the freedom to do whatever we want. And that is true, so long as what we want is not sin. The moment we enter into sin, we enter back into our old slavery to sin, death, and the devil. So if you think that you’ve been freed in order to sin, and that sinning is an act of your freedom, you’ve been deceived by Satan. Sinning is truly slavery.

Instead, you have the freedom to not sin. You have the freedom to produce the fruits of your sanctification, to produce the fruits of love towards God and neighbor. That is truly freedom in Christ.