The True Freedom of Radical Discipleship

Text: John 8.21-47

"As he was saying these things, many believed in him" (John 8:30). But Jesus wants no part of those who believe in him for the wrong reasons. His words may captivate the crowds, but their captivation will soon turn to offense and outrage. Jesus is not, at this point, gathering the flock so much as he is thinning the herd. Not everyone can accept his words, least of all those who believe they are children of Abraham simply by reason of natural birth. Their opinion of Jesus begins to change very quickly 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" (vv. 31b-32).

Jesus' detractors are a group of Jews who are apparently ignorant of their own sacred history. They respond to Jesus by claiming, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone" (v. 33). What true "offspring of Abraham" could be so forgetful of the Israelites' experience in Egypt, where they were enslaved for 400 years before God raised up Moses to lead them to the Promised Land?

It is no wonder Jesus' words are so offensive to his hearers. They hit too close to home. In their hearts, these "offspring of Abraham" are still in Egypt, still enslaved, yet blissfully unaware that they have been enslaved at all. Their response to Jesus seems rather perfunctory. First, they claim fatherhood from Abraham. Then, they claim fatherhood from God. Jesus, however, minces no words. Their failure to accept his words proves conclusively that they are not children of Abraham, much less children of God. Their father is the devil, and they are behaving exactly as he would. They reject the truth in favor of lies. They cannot bear Jesus' words because his words are the truth. But their father, the devil, cannot speak except to utter lies.

"He was a murderer from the beginning," Jesus says, "and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (v. 44b). To have the devil as one's father, then, is not only to believe his lies but to live them, as well. The tragedy for those who reject Jesus is their complete ignorance of the truth about themselves. They are slaves to sin and offspring of the devil. They are living lies. The truth, far from setting them free as it does for those who hear and believe Jesus' words, only sets them off on a tirade which does nothing but prove how utterly lost and enslaved they are.

Jesus speaks "the truth" because he is "the truth" incarnate. To know "the truth" is to know Jesus. To know Jesus is to be truly free. But this is a difficult truth to accept, and not just for people in Jesus' day. It implies that every thought we think and every action we take apart from abiding in Christ is a manifestation not of freedom, but of slavery. When we choose to follow after the world, we are not choosing of our own free will. We are acting under compulsion as slaves of sin and children of the devil. Jesus' words expose the deception under which we have been living; the utter folly of living in bondage while thinking we are free.

Jesus calls us out of that bondage, out of that deception, and into the true freedom of radical discipleship. It is a freedom which we cannot accept without first accepting the ugly truth about ourselves: that we are miserable sinners, undeserving of the least of God's favors, least of all the gift of salvation he offers in his Son Jesus Christ. But that is a truth we cannot accept unless Jesus' word sets us free. To hear his word and walk away is to continue down the path of slavery to sin which can only lead to death. To hear his word and obey is to know the true freedom which only he can bring.