First Pass at This Weekend's Bible Lesson: John 8:31-36

[Most weeks, I present as many updates on my reflections and study of the Biblical texts on which our weekend worship celebrations will be built as I can. The purpose is to help the people of the congregation I serve as pastor, Friendship Lutheran Church of Amelia, Ohio, get ready for worship. Hopefully, it's helpful to others as well, since our Bible lesson is usually one from the weekly lectionary, variations of which are used in most of the churches of the world.]

The Bible Lesson: John 8:31-36
Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Some General Comments
1. This lesson is the appointed text for Reformation Day. The actual day for this festival is October 31, commemorating the actual day in 1517, when the young monk, priest, and professor, Martin Luther posted 95 theses for debate on the Roman Catholic Church's sale of indulgences.

The theses sparked a firestorm within the Church and moved Luther and others to a position of greater certainty about how one is justified (made right) with God: not through human works, but solely through the charity of God by which God offers forgiveness of sin and everlasting life to all who believe in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

Many Protestant churches celebrate the ongoing call to reformation in the Church and the centrality of justification by grace through faith on the Sunday closest to October 31. This year, it's October 29.

2. The day on which Luther posted the theses already was a church holiday. Hallowe'en, hallowed evening, was the night before the November 1 celebration of All Saints Day.

In much the same way that God's Old Testament people claimed high places once devoted to the worship of idols for worship of the one true God of the universe, the early Christians would reclaim the special days of other God for the worship of the Hebrews' God, Who was fully revealed in Jesus Christ. For example, the Roman holiday, Saturnalia, was taken over by the Christians, converted to a festival celebrating the human birth of the Light of the world, Jesus, as Christmas.

Pagans had commemorations that involved the dead and their supposedly wandering spirits which they celebrated at the cusp of October and November. Christians took over this celebration and made it a holy day (holiday) to remember all who died believing in the God revealed in Christ.

3. Specific to the lesson: Jesus' encounter is with some of His fellow Jews "who had believed in Him." What isn't clear--and the ambiguity may be deliberate on the part of John, the writer of the lesson--is exactly what this means:

• Have they given up on believing in Jesus?
• Have they believed in Him superficially?
• Do they still believe in Him but for the wrong reasons?

In the end, I think that there's little reason to choose between these (or other) possibilities. Perhaps every permutation of meaning was evident among this crowd.

4. The overarching conflict here is that between religion versus faith.

• Religion is about rules and traditions.
• Faith is about relationship and freedom.

Jesus is about faith and not religion.

5. This doesn't mean that Christianity is without law. Christians, like other people recognize that the highest law in the world, entails loving God and loving neighbor. The fact that we fail to do these things indicates that we are deeply enslaved to ourselves and our desires. We need to be freed. Jesus is the Word (John 1:1-14) Who comes to set us free. I plan to speak more about what we need to be freed from and what Christ frees us to be in my message on Sunday.

Lord willing, I'll share some verse-by-verse commentary on this text tomorrow.