Sermon text: John 8:31–36
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
So says our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel reading for this morning, on this Reformation Sunday. This is the text upon which the Lutheran Reformation stands: the Word of God, and the freedom that the Word gives.
The Reformation was, at its heart, a catechetical movement. Luther did not set out to found a new church. He set out to teach the church what she had forgotten: that the Word of God is the final authority, that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law, and that the church’s task is to put that Word into the ears and mouths and hearts of her children.
This is why Luther wrote the Small Catechism. This is why he insisted on catechesis — on teaching, on drilling, on repeating the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Sacraments — until they are written on the heart. “If you abide in my word” — abiding is catechesis. It is staying, remaining, dwelling in the Word. Not visiting it occasionally. Abiding.
“And you will know the truth.” The truth is not a proposition. The truth is a Person. “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” To know the truth is to know Christ. And to know Christ is to be free.
“And the truth will set you free.” Free from what? Free from sin. Free from death. Free from the devil. Free from the tyranny of having to justify yourself before God. The Jews who believed in Jesus answered Him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
This is the Reformation in a nutshell. Rome had put the church’s children back into slavery: slavery to the law, slavery to penance, slavery to indulgences, slavery to the fear that God could never be satisfied. And Luther, with the Word, set them free. “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
But freedom is not the end of catechesis. It is the beginning. For the free man does not use his freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. The free man abides in the Word. He returns to the Catechism. He teaches his children. He confesses his sins and receives absolution. He comes to the Supper. He lives as a son in the house forever.
“The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.” The slave is always afraid of being cast out. The son knows he belongs. This is the difference between Rome and Wittenberg. Rome kept Christians as slaves, always afraid, always working, always wondering if they had done enough. Wittenberg — the Reformation — proclaimed Christians as sons: sons who remain in the house forever, because the Son has set them free.
So on this Reformation Sunday, return to your catechesis. Open the Small Catechism. Teach it to your children. Abide in the Word. For “if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
And “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.