Freedom [Trinity 4]

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Genesis 50:15-21
• Romans 8:18-23
• St. Luke 6:36-42

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.

Who speaks to you today in the Gospel, saying,

“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”

It is an eerie and ironic Independence Day this year as we celebrate away from each other, in fear, and only at the say-so of our government. It is exactly to this type of situation that the Constitution was written against, making a clear distinction between a free man and a slave.

And it is exactly this sort of situation, between freedom and slavery, that today’s Gospel touches on, as Jesus talks about freedom. The freedom to not be judgmental, to not be condemning, to not be unforgiving, and to regain sight. These things are what mark a truly free man, a noble among his peers.

You can not justify being a slave owner with the Bible. Its just not there. The Bible talks about slaves, but never says “slavery is the way to go”. You can not justify making another person less than human, either. Whether you judge him by his amount of melanin, intellect, or beliefs. Those things are not commandments. People engage in them, but God curbs these awful behaviors with His commands. 

Yes, there are comments on slavery and slaves. There was even an old Bible that was given to slaves that had most of the Old Testament edited out, literally called the Slave Bible. Why? Because, in the real Bible, there are more comments and examples and emphases on freedom than anything else. In fact, the very purpose of slaves in the first place, was freedom. You became a slave to be free or you acquired a slave in order to set them free. 

Slave was never a permanent or hereditary vocation. It was a temp job until freedom and freedom always came. That is a commandment. Even if the person has debt enough for ten lifetimes, 7 years is the limit. The purpose of becoming a slave was to provide you with a way to work off crimes committed by you. You broke the law. You need to pay. Why rot in prison when you can be productive?

Regardless, freedom wins out the day. Even when we don’t want it. For in your sin, not only do you wish slavery (of any kind) upon others, but you also wish it upon yourself. St. Paul even comments on this in 2 Corinthians, “For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face” (v.20). He is saying this to Christians.

Repent. Here is the satanic twist to Jesus’ words about judging and condemning and persecuting. The Prodigal son demands to be made a slave. Joseph’s brothers demand to be slaves. All of Israel clamor for Moses to take them back to Egypt. All because they think that being a slave or making slaves will atone for their own wickedness.

We make someone else a slave because we feel inferior. We make ourselves slaves because we feel inferior. This is the deadly cycle that involves any human action aimed at controlling another. It is full of self-loathing, self-pity, and self-hatred. None of which are ever a part of God’s plan.

So what is God’s plan for us, even for today’s independence celebration? Ask Joseph, for Joseph stands in the place of God as his brothers attempt to worship him. Ask Moses, for he also stands as God’s man on earth, even as all of Israel votes unanimously for ending their own freedom. Both Joseph and Moses and every “hero of faith” knows that God always chooses freedom over slavery.

Joseph had every right to take revenge upon his brothers. He had enough power and legal backing to make whatever decision he wanted and Pharaoh and all Egypt would approve and call it right. He probably even had God on his side. The Old Testament reading and Joseph’s struggle with it, is a precursor to Jesus’ temptation by satan.

Joseph set his brothers free. He chose freedom over anything else. Moses set Israel free. He chose freedom over anything else. So what do you suppose God will do with us, who literally deserve nothing but eternal enslavement?

“Your Father is merciful”, He says, and “your Father is merciful” He shows. Jesus tells us that the Son has come to set us free and shows us that God’s choice is always mercy and freedom. Jesus Himself says that He came to serve, not to be served.

It is God’s own choice to stand in front of His enslaved creatures and let us enslave Him. Love draws God near in order to set us free by His suffering, death, and resurrection. There is no third option. No one can be a slave in Christ, for freedom He has set us free (Gal. 5:1).

In Gospel fashion, Jesus offers Himself in our place and in fact lets us do the offering. Unlike Joseph, we demand vengeance and we demand it from Jesus. We can not tolerate that someone is free and we are not, so we cuff Jesus with our sin and death, and lock Him in the cross and tomb.

Jesus destroys the prison we built for Him, not just for His own sake, but for our sake. For we have built for ourselves an evil house (Eze. 16:24), a shrine to attend instead of Gods Church. The idol that we make dwell there demands death and we sacrifice whoever to it, as long as its not our turn in the furnace. 

Jesus willingly takes our yoke upon Him and lets us bind Him and throw Him into the furnace, but before He goes He reminds us that He will not bow down to us or our gods, and that even though the Father will not save Him from the flames, the suffering, or the death, He will raise Him up 3 days later. The same as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abendigo.

Out of the furnace, Jesus rises, in order that out of the furnace we arise. Out of the Lion’s Den, out of Egypt, out of debt, out of the slavery of sin, Jesus blazes the path of true obedience. He baptizes us onto this path, not that we may go through the same suffering as He, but so that we may participate in, commune in, and benefit from His works. 

For we can not set ourselves free, neither can we atone for our crimes. We need a Redeemer. We are still a part of the Household of God, but as slaves. The Son sets us free and we are free indeed. The Son, through His Word and Sacraments, adopts us as sons like Him, free like Him. Sons that are no longer beholden to debt or intolerance, but are free. Free from all earthly bondage and lord of all he sees. 

And yet is an utterly dutiful man, servant of all, subject to all. In the world we have such outdated ideas as “if there is a lord then there is a servant”. No, in Christianity, all false dichotomies are false idols. In Christ the Lord and the servant are one person. 

In 1 Cor. 9 [:19], ‘For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all” says St. Paul and Jesus, through Him. And in Rom. 13[:8], ‘Owe no one anything, except to love one another.’ Love by its very nature is ready to serve and be subject to him who is loved. So Christ, although He was Lord of all, was ‘born of woman, born under the law’ [Gal. 4:4], and therefore was at the same time a free man and servant, ‘in the form of God’ and ‘of a servant.’ [Phil. 2:6-7].” (Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian)

As utterly free as Christ was, He also bound Himself under the law to serve His creatures and win their salvation. Christ’s salvific example becomes the form of Christian freedom.

First, the inner man becomes righteous, free, and a pious Christian in Christ. The Word does it all. For, “One thing, and only one thing, is necessary for Christian life, righteousness, and freedom. That one thing is the most holy Word of God, the gospel of Christ, as Christ says in John 11[:25], ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live’; as John 8[:36], ‘So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed’; and Matt. 4[:4], ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'” (Luther, On the Freedom of a Christian)

Luther specifies which Word he means: “The Word is the gospel of God concerning his Son, who was made flesh, suffered, rose from the dead, and was glorified through the Spirit who sanctifies.” What a comfort this Gospel brings with it! By faith alone the Christian receives all that Christ gives. “Faith alone is the saving and efficacious use of the Word of God, according to Rom. 10[:9]: ‘If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.'” A man is “justified by faith alone and not any works; for if it could be justified by anything else, it would not need the Word, and consequently it would not need faith.”

Christian freedom is a gift from Christ Himself, “For freedom Christ has set us free…” (Galatians 5:1). What Christ did to win salvation in His divine and human natures, He now gives to those who by baptism bear His name: Christian. God justifies the sinner by faith alone. The sinner is changed in inner and outer man after the likeness of Christ. 

The Christian is at once utterly free in faith and a servant to all in works of love at God’s declaration. The constitution of Christian life is lived between these twin poles of faith and love. Faith that lets us see ourselves as redeemed by Christ and love that lets us see that all are worthy of that same free love of God, in Christ.