Reading
John 8,31-42
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me.
Meditation
Eternal life is only by faith, but to be true disciples it is necessary to dwell (Gr. Meìnete) continuously in Christ. Obedience and perseverance to the word of Jesus allow us to experience truth and freedom (v. 31). The reference is not to a truth that is the fruit of intellectual speculation, but to the truth which is Christ himself ("I am the way and the truth and the life"; Jn 14:6). It is not a question of a simple adherence of the will to the contents of the faith. Authentic Christianity is the experience of a sanctifying relationship with Christ, which frees us from the works of the law to make us live in grace.
The Jews who respond to Jesus by protesting that they have never been slaves of anyone do not refer to the political sphere, since Israel in the course of its history has almost always been subject to the dominion of other peoples, but to the slavery of sin, from which they believe they are free because of the simple carnal descent from Abraham and because of the possession of the Mosaic law.
The type of slavery Jesus refers to is not physical but spiritual, which is why he never wanted to be identified as a political liberator of Israel. Those who allow themselves to be freed by Jesus from the slavery of legalism are truly free.
Jesus gives a practical example of the difference between the slave, who can be sold by his master, and the son, who remains forever in the family (v. 35). Since all but Christ have sinned, all are slaves of sin; but since Jesus is the son of God, whoever abides in him is free from the penalty of sin by justification and from the power of sin by sanctification.
No "lineage" is a guarantee of salvation, be it sonship from Abraham, belonging to the "Christian lineage" or an alleged apostolic succession. Paul too will exhort "not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith" (1 Tim 1:4).
Jesus teaches us the profound link between truth and freedom, inviting us to give up those masks that make us feel sure of ourselves but make us slaves to lies. Looking at what we really are in the face, we can allow ourselves to be transformed by God, in a relationship of authenticity that makes us real and ready to conform to his image.
Prayer
May your truth make us free, o Lord, so that we may grow in holiness by abiding in your holy word and doing the good works you have called us to do. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
