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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
This coming Wednesday, not just trick-or-treat, this coming Wednesday is All Hallows’ Eve. It is the day before All Hallows’ Day, which also is known as All Saints’ Day. It was on this coming Wednesday, 495 years ago, in the town of Wittenberg, Germany, a young German priest named Martin Luther wanted to discuss theology. And in wanting to discuss theology, he wanted to bring to light truth again and let truth be what reigns and remains. So he nailed on the door of the chapel door in Wittenberg 95 statements or theses to discuss. On this coming Wednesday, it is the 495th day; October 31st, 1517, was when he did this.
Now, he didn’t bring forth a brand new discovery about truth. He brought forth the truth that salvation is found only in the Scriptures, nowhere else. And in the Scriptures, they reveal Jesus Christ. He alone is our Savior. And in these Scriptures where Jesus Christ is revealed, it is revealed to us that we are saved by grace through faith—alone. And that wasn’t a brand new discovery. It had been a part of the church. Why? It had been a part of the church since Christ proclaimed it and the apostles taught it. It had been obviously a part of the church long before Christ came into this world with the prophets of the Old Testament. They proclaimed the same thing, the same truth. This truth is spoken of in this morning’s gospel reading.
This truth that is spoken of by Christ, the truth incarnate. For Jesus said about himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus, who is truth in the flesh, proclaims this truth about himself to these people for the sake of not disturbing them or upsetting them or dividing them. He spoke these words in this morning’s Gospel reading to dispel doubt, to nullify despair. To put it away from them and make it flee from them, that there would be sweet comfort and consolation of Jesus and His forgiveness and His mercy. This truth and this truth alone is what brings true freedom. Now, we live in a country where we hold dear our earthly freedoms.
These earthly freedoms in our country, which we hold so dear, are governed by the Constitution. So in our country, in our nation, the Constitution reveals earthly truths for the sake of earthly freedoms. In the church, it’s totally different. In the church, the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone reveal spiritual truths to bring spiritual freedom. There is a major difference between these two truths. A major difference between these two freedoms. Earthly truths and earthly freedoms do not bring eternal salvation.
And for that matter, there isn’t a specific type of governing authority in the history of mankind that is better or worse than another. You can find faults with all forms of government. But whether the government is oppressive, dictatorial, or free, it doesn’t bring anyone salvation or release from spiritual tyranny and spiritual oppression. But the devil loves to bring confusion to these two realities: earthly freedom and earthly truth; spiritual freedom and spiritual truth.
There is a confusion that’s already welling among the bosoms of these Jews who gathered there to hear Jesus. Notice the text. Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him. It’s not as if these guys aren’t believers. It’s not as if these guys are complete pagans. These guys do believe in Jesus. But there is a confusion that Satan has continually stirred in their hearts to think that these two can go together. To make the assumption that to be truly released from spiritual oppression implies that they would be truly released from earthly oppression, as if spiritual freedom and earthly freedom were synonymous. And they’re not.
That’s why the very words that Jesus speaks when he says, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Now, that was meant to bring comfort to these men and women. That was meant to bring hope, joy, peace, deliverance from what’s inside of a man or a woman. The kind of stuff that you go to bed with and can’t seem to escape. The kind of stuff you wake up in the morning, and you still sense it within you.
But the Jews who heard this, who were believers, received this great good news with indignance. They were offended. How dare you imply that we are slaves, that we are bound to anything? Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? Because if you’re not bound to anything, if you’re not tyrannized by anything, then you don’t need freedom from those things. You just deny that they really exist.
In the baptism this morning, we had a day 15 service in the baptismal service, which you have heard many times. It talks about us being born and conceived as slaves of Satan. There are only two wills in this world: God’s will in a believer, Satan’s will in an unbeliever. That’s it. We are either possessed by God and slaves to God, or we are possessed by Satan and slaves to Satan.
Now, it doesn’t look that bad, does it? But the most common form of demonic possession is unbelief. Because there are only two options in this world: believer or unbeliever; possessed by God or possessed by Satan. That’s it. But Satan, this world, and your own flesh doesn’t want to acknowledge how slave-like we really are. Paul wrote about it in this morning’s epistle reading when he said, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And all you got to do is look around. Well, you don’t even have to look around, do you? You just got to look inside. And that’s a scary place to look, isn’t it? There you see how utterly slaves we are and how desperately we need freedom from spiritual oppression and tyranny.
This very statement that should have brought great joy brought indignation and offense. That’s why Jesus said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” If you don’t sin, you’re not a slave. Well, there’s only been one person who did not sin and was not a slave to sin, and that is your and my Savior, Jesus Christ. The rest of us, we know in our heart of hearts that we are slaves to sin and need deliverance, freedom from bondage, oppression, and tyranny.
“If the Son sets you free,” Jesus says, “you will be free indeed.” Now, this kind of freedom doesn’t always look like earthly freedom. Here’s an example: Peter and Paul, the apostles, they were imprisoned because of their proclamation of this truth that brought true freedom. And yet they were imprisoned in the darkest and dankest cells. And yet in the midst of their being imprisoned wrongly for proclaiming truth, they still were free. Because you cannot imprison the freedom that God gives you. No earthly government, no corrupt society, nothing can enslave that which God has set free, which is your soul.
So in the midst of their persecution and imprisonment, they did not bemoan the injustice. They did not cry out, “Foul! Not fair!” They praised God and sang hymns and even brought about a conversion of a Philippian jailer and his family.
Consider the Germans in the 1800s or the waves of the 1800s. Either one, they left that part of Europe to come here to America for earthly and temporal freedom. And they had it. They settled all along from Houston to San Antonio and Boston, moving up north and then west. They settled in other places like St. Louis area, Missouri, Chicago, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Detroit, all across the fruited plains of the Midwest and the East Coast. And they left earthly oppression. You know what? Not every one of them left. Many of them remained in that oppression forever, and their faith continued to thrive. Many remained and stood firm in the midst of Hitler’s persecution in the 1930s and 40s. Many could not have this faith enslaved because you can’t.
When Jesus sets you free spiritually, nothing temporal, nothing physical, nothing earthly can enslave it. Just like Peter and Paul in the prison cells, so these faithful who remained behind. There were Lutherans in Russia, all across the fruited plains of Russia, from the 1700s all the way to 1917 when the communist revolution began. Some of our brothers and sisters in Siberia had their churches burned, their pastors exiled to the gulag out in Siberia, and yet… They who were enslaved and completely oppressed, earthly and temporally, were free because they were freed from the spiritual oppression.
Regardless of the government, regardless of the style of government, regardless of the location, the language, the time, the era, regardless of all of that, that’s not the same as spiritual freedom and the spiritual truth that Jesus proclaims. That makes you truly free indeed, as Jesus spoke about, whether you are oppressed by a dictator or not.
Speaking of dictatorial leadership, in a country off the coast of Cuba called Haiti, Papa Doc Duvalier was the dictator there for several decades. The Lutheran Church sprang up in the midst of Papa Doc Duvalier’s oppression and dictatorship. The Lutheran Church continued after that, and the corruption of the government, even though they are a democracy, still very corrupt, and yet the Church continues to bear witness to the truth. Spiritual oppression and tyranny are broken because of this truth.
It’s the same for you and for me. Regardless of what happens in this country, no one, no one can enslave that which God has set free within your heart. You are free indeed. Free from the devil’s accusations and condemnation. Free from the world’s taunting and ridicule. Free from your own beating of self and guilt. Because Jesus has set you free. You are free indeed.
No matter the persecution. No matter the situation in which you find yourself, we, on this 495th celebration of these truths, remain standing firm. We can do no other. God help us. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
