Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
Free Indeed!
John 8:31-36
Introduction: William Wallace knew freedom’s value. If you saw the movie Braveheart, you will likely never forget the climactic ending. Bravehart told the story of William Wallace, the leader of the Scottish rebellion against the English in the 1400’s. Mel Gibson directed and starred in the 1995 movie.
Wallace rallies a rag tag band of rebels who battle the larger and must better-armed English. Despite the odds, Wallace’s men win battle after bloody battle against the English. Longshanks, the villainous English leader, grows more and more impatient with Wallace with each passing day. He is determined to kill the rebel leader and teach the Scots a lesson once and for all.
As the movie ends, Wallace is betrayed by a friend and captured by Longshank’s men. He is hauled before a jeering English crowd in the courtyard of one of Longshank’s castles. The crowd spits on him and shouts for his death. Soldiers drag him to the executioner’s platform. They beat and torture him. If he begs for mercy, they say, they will make the death quick.
This is the day Longshanks has waited for. But it is not as he had hoped. The English leader lay on his death bed. In his room not a hundred yards from the chaotic scene below. He knows his hours are numbered. Yet Longshanks holds out for one thing. He wants to hear Wallace beg for mercy.
At first Wallace remains silent. He refuses to respond to his torturers. Finally, he tries to say something. He struggles. The beating has left him hoarse and hardly able to speak. A soldier motions the crowd silent so they can hear Wallace beg for his life. The camera zooms in on Wallace as he gasps for air. With great difficulty he lifts himself on one elbow. Everyone awaits his words. As the sounds leave his lips, the movie changes to slow motion. The camera angle widens until you can see both Longshanks on his death bed and out the window the Wallace on the executioner’s platform. The movie fades to black as Longshank strains to hear Wallace’s cry for mercy. Instead the Scottish patriot screams one word. His cry of FREEDOM echoes through the palace and across the highlands.
The cry of freedom is what America celebrates this week. Freedom, however, comes in many forms. The political freedom Wallace heralded and that America celebrates is but one. We would do well to remember the others. That is at least part of what Jesus referred to when he said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Consider the freedoms we celebrate today.
First, we can celebrate political freedom. That’s what this week’s holiday is all about. It is good to celebrate our liberties. I fear many of us take for granted the liberties we enjoy in this land. We are blessed with freedom the like of which few elsewhere enjoy—freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to elect our own leaders and make our own laws, and then the freedom to complain and criticize. Whatever else is true—America remains the freest country on this planet.
You might wonder what political freedom has to do with our text. It relates in two ways. First, did you catch the objection of the Jews in our text? Jesus had been explaining his mission and his identity. He was the Son of God doing the Father’s business. His listeners take exception not only to his claims but his assertion that he can make men free. We are nobody’s slaves, they insist. The Jewish nation was famous for its stubborn resistance to rule by other nations. Individually, Jews, then and now, were known for financial independence. Jesus reminds them that there is more to freedom than that. He then points them to the ultimate source of freedom.
We need to hear that second truth. We celebrate July 4th because on that day in 1776 our nation’s founders signed the Declaration of Independence. Many call it our country’s Birth Certificate. Do you remember its opening words?
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes
which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Did you hear that all-important line? “Endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights!” Thomas Jefferson and company knew that our freedoms are a gift of God not a grant from the government. The founding fathers were not all Bible believing Christians. Most were, but not all! But to a man they anchored their convictions about liberty in a firm belief in the authority of the creator.
Admittedly, our ancestors have not always been consistent. It took nearly a century for our nation to recognize that slavery and a belief in liberty for all cannot stand side by side. It took even longer to challenge the evil of racial bigotry. No doubt, learning to live consistently as a free people is a process that will always continue. That can only happen when we remember that those liberties flow from our Maker.
Before we leave the subject of political freedom, one other reminder needs mentioning. Our freedoms are not free. Those who have gone before us paid a huge price for what we so easily take for granted. Some of you in this room fought for freedom on battlefields across the world. Men and women in uniform still serve in harm’s way. We must never forget their sacrifice.
We must also realize we all have a part in preserving freedom. It is not a small thing to be informed, to speak up for our convictions, to become involved in public service, and most of all to vote at every opportunity. That’s how freedom will be preserved for our children’s children.
But there is more to freedom than political liberties. Most of us in this room know the blessing of spiritual freedom. That’s the main issue of our text. Slavery comes in many forms. As does true freedom! This was a notion Jesus’ listeners didn’t want to hear. They were proud of their heritage. Freedom was important to them. To suggest that they were anything less than free men and women was an insult they took personally.
What about you? Are you free? I would wager that there are more than a few slaves in this room. When I say “slave” I am talking about someone who is trapped by something or someone. They are not free to pursue the life they truly desire. Jesus suggests that at least some of his listeners who proclaimed so loudly that they were no man’s slave were actually far from free. He claims he change that. He still can!
I ask again, what about you? Are you free? Freedom and slavery come in many forms. Let me list a few:
Let me start with an obvious one. Some are slaves to debt. That’s one of the chief forms of slavery in Bible times. A person might become a slave as a prisoner of war. However, among the ancient Jews, more often than not, it was a financial transaction. If a person couldn’t pay their debts, they could sell themselves to the lender to satisfy the obligation or to someone else who would agree to pay the debt. They would work off their debt. After so many years, they would be released. If the statistics are correct, a lot of Americans are in debt over their heads. Hopefully, this group is an exception. Many, however, are far from free. Financial choices can steal the future and limit our freedom.
Slavery to debt is directly related to another form of servitude. A lot of folk’s lives are a financial mess because of something deeper. The Bible calls it greed, envy, or covetousness. Whatever the name, a lot of people buy stuff and spend money in a vain attempt to fill an emptiness inside themselves. They seem to think that more of this or more of that will make them feel better or look more important in the eyes of the right people. Jesus called it “the deceitfulness of riches.” He said, “That a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” The flip side, what the Bible advocates, is contentment. This is an inner satisfaction that is not dependent on outward circumstances. The fact that somebody has something you don’t doesn’t matter. A contented person knows that joy, happiness, and peace come from in here, not out there. Some folk are slaves to want.
Similarly, other habits can enslave. I don’t have to tell most of you this. We have all seen too many examples of social behaviors that take over a person’s life. It is not a pretty picture when it happens. Alcohol, drugs, and tobacco trap millions into self-destructive, addictive behaviors. In our day, gambling and pornography can be added to the list. Even a necessity like eating can take over a person’s life and enslave. Even natural things like the desire to be loved and accepted can cause a person to sell their souls to an oppressive taskmaster.
Others are enslaved to the past. They can’t get over something that happened years ago. Maybe they were wronged. Perhaps they were lied about or betrayed. It could even be a childhood experience. It is amazing how some unkind word, cutting remark, or a name that you were called years and years ago can stick with you. Fatso, stupid, clumsy! Some off-hand criticism by an overly critical teacher can keep replaying itself over and over in the back of your head for a lifetime. The scars of the past can even include neglectful or abusive parents. It is sad, but it happens. The consequences can be devastating. But when a person cannot let go or forgive, they can become slaves of a negative past.
Some are trapped by fear and worry. I am not talking about the momentary anxieties and concerns that are a normal part of life. I am talking about a lifestyle of worry. We have all seen people who can’t see anything but the dark side of life. When all the superficial stuff is skimmed away the paralyzing kind of fear and worry actually flows from a lack of faith. If a person, doesn’t know or believe that the God of the universe care about them or is not bigger than their problems, of course they will have reason to fret and worry about whatever may come down the pike next. There is something powerfully freeing about knowing that even if we don’t know what tomorrow holds, we know who holds tomorrow!
The ultimate enslavement is to sin. In some ways, all of these other taskmasters are merely reflections of this one. Listen to how the Bible explains it. “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” (Rom 6:14-18).
This is precisely the Good News of the Bible—the truth that sets you free. Jesus came to set us free from the power of sin. We are all sinners. We have all broken God’s commands and failed to give him the love and allegiance he deserves. The wages of sin is death. God could have justly condemned us. Instead, he graciously offers forgiveness. Jesus Christ came. He lived a perfect, sin-free life. He went to the cross to lay down his life as a sacrifice for our sins. He paid the price for our sin. He forever satisfied the just demands of the law and at the same time demonstrated God’s amazing grace toward us. When we confessed Christ as Savior and Lord, obeyed him in Christian baptism, and set out on the growing life of a Christian, we were set free. Sin has no more claim over us. If the son sets you free, you are free indeed!
Conclusion: We are blessed with great freedom. Everyone in this land knows political freedom much of the world only dreams about. Lest we forget, that freedom is a gift from the Creator. We owe it to our fore-fathers and to those who will come after us to preserve that freedom and to never forget the foundation upon which it rests.
But simply being an American doesn’t make you truly free any more than being a Jew made those in our text free men and women. There is a deeper, ultimately more important freedom. The freedom that flows from the heart ultimately comes only through Jesus Christ and the grace of God he offers.
To those who already know that freedom, I remind you that with freedom comes responsibility. You need to live as free men and women. You need to share that freedom. To those who may not know these last freedoms, I say, “How long will you remain slaves?” It doesn’t have to be! Isn’t it time to declare your independence?
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
