Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
[Intro]
Why do we celebrate Reformation Day? Isn’t today all about Martin Luther? Where does Jesus fit in?
When Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses for Debate into the Wittenberg Castle Church door on that All Saints’ Eve in 1517, do you think he had any idea what his future would be – and how the Church would react?
As Luther hammered his theses, each hammer blow would change the course of Christianity and of western civilization itself. Now, Luther may not have known his future, but the Triune God – the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit – used Luther and his fellow reformers to get the Church back on track. God used Luther to get the Church back to the source, that is, back to the very Word of God.
You see, the Reformation is a good reminder that the Church can easily get untethered from God’s Word and instead follow man’s word, either by scratching our “itching ears” or by following man-made tradition rather than God’s truth that never changes. So, why do we observe Reformation Day? We observe Reformation Day because we all need to be re-aligned and corrected by the Bible.
Beginning in 1517, God called Luther and his fellow reformers to put their lives on the line. That was the moment God chose to reform His Church. We, too, are also called to speak God’s Word of truth to our friends and neighbors. Like the reformers, we too, are tempted to avoid the truth for fear of consequences, but the Holy Spirit always empowers us – through the study of the Scriptures – with the words we need to say when we don’t know what to say.
[Jesus is the Source, the Anchor, the Root]
Today’s Gospel text is all about getting back to the source. And the source is and always is Jesus.
Many of the followers of Jesus were beginning to be untethered from Him, as their faith was beginning to wither. We, too, are prone to untether ourselves from Jesus. Now, make no mistake, they certainly believed in Jesus as their Lord. Just as we do. But for many, their belief in Jesus was only for a flashing moment.
For these people, they were attracted to Jesus because of the miracles He performed. They liked the idea of never worrying where their next meal would come from. They believed they found their “bread king.” But when Jesus spoke, many of them weren’t actually listening. They were like plants that sprung up in rocky soil, but they thought they were giant redwoods. In fact, they had no root. They bore no fruit. They only had tradition and heritage for which they took for granted.
With their tender faith in mind, Jesus says to them, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31).
So, in order for their faith to grow, Jesus teaches them that they must cling to His teaching. Again, for many of these followers, they were attracted to Jesus because He fed hungry crowds and healed illnesses. But how did He make disciples? He taught them about Himself. How did He keep disciples? He held them by His Word.
We still have Jesus’ Word today. His Word leads us to Him and keeps us with Him. In fact, those very words of Jesus, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free” is in a nutshell what the Reformation was all about. The Reformation was all about remaining in the Word of Jesus, without adding to, or delating from, or altering that Word, so that the true Church would proclaim the truth that salvation is by grace through faith in Christ Jesus alone, so that through faith in Jesus we are set free from sin and its wages, eternal death in hell apart from God.
The Word of Jesus is our anchor and our root. So, if we attempt to be a Christian apart from the Word of God, we are like a boat at sea drifting away, because of no anchor.
So, we must abide in Christ’s Word. To be truly His disciple, we must hear it, read it, and study it.
But what do those Jews with tender faith say to Jesus? “We are offspring of Abraham” (John 8:33a). Instead of listening to Jesus, they just imagine that their ethnicity and DNA would save them. We must apply this warning to ourselves, as well. It is possible to fall away, just as they did. It is possible for Lutheran congregations to become nothing more than heritage societies.
Sadly, so many churches have taken that route where their only bond as a church is hosting German or Scandinavian dinners. Those events are well and good, but they prove to be no anchor or root, if they are not connected to God’s Word and His Sacrament.
The Jews continue questioning Jesus saying: “[We] have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” (John 8:33b).
Oh, how quick they are to overlook their current condition. At that moment, these Jews did not have their own nation, since they were subjects of the Roman Empire. And not too long ago, these same people were ruled by the Babylonians and the Persians. At present, they are held in bondage to the laws of outsiders. They were not free.
But as Jesus always does, He dives deeper than just surface level as He replies, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34).
[The Savior from Sin]
You see, Jesus came as the Savior from sin. He came to set us free from sin. The matter of freedom was not about being direct descendants of Abraham or defying all earthly captors ruling over them. It was and is about the universal truth that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. And only those who are set free from sin are truly free.
We are all enslaved by sin. Jesus is talking about us. We are naturally inclined to focus on our wants and our desires, rather than abiding in Jesus and loving our neighbor as yourself. We sin and therefore are slaves to sin. We have all sinned on purpose, with full knowledge, repeatedly. We’ve all heard the voice of the New Man telling us to stop gossiping, stop coveting, stop lusting. We’ve all heard the voice of the New Man tell us to stop harming ourselves and our neighbor. Every time we commit sin, we show that we are slaves to sin. One sin leads to the next sin. It’s a slippery slope. When we sin, we are untethering ourselves from God. When we finally realize our condition, our reaction naturally turns to desperation, since the wages of sin is eternal death.
Only Jesus, the Son of God, can free us from our sinful state and our sins of thought, word, and deed. “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). This is what Jesus does for us. He does this by taking on our human flesh and blood and becoming one of us. He took upon Himself our sin as He died to the punishment we deserve while nailed to the cross. And while on that cross, through His death, God the Father forgave the sins of all who cling to His Son Jesus as their Lord and Savior. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and 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” (Romans 3:23-25a).
Only Jesus sets us free from sin. No multi-step program. No “how to” book can set us free. Only Jesus. It is only through Christ’s propitiation by His blood on the cross that we receive forgiveness by faith. He sets us free by His death and His bodily resurrection. He sets us free through repentance and faith in Him. He says, “Repent, receive My forgiveness, and abide in Me!”
Jesus, the Son, remains in the House forever. Here in the Divine Service is where we are freed and cleansed from sin. It’s where we hear the liberating words of our Lord’s absolution. The house of His Church is where we receive our Lord’s holy Body and Blood given for us to forgive our sins and strengthen our weak faith as He leads us to resist slavery to sin.
Here, Christ says, “You are free!” He says, “You are clean!” But do you believe Him? That is the Truth Jesus tells us. This is the Truth He tells, into which you have been baptized, and by grace, you believe. Through that belief, by faith, we receive the Truth He tells.
We celebrate the Reformation, because we have been set free by the Truth. We have been set free by Jesus. By abiding in His Word – by remaining tethered to Him and His Word – we are truly His disciples, for in Him, our sins are forgiven, since He is the Truth who sets us free. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
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