Slavery

We all want to believe that we are free and autonomous. We aren't really except through and in Jesus. Liberty is bound up in the human heart. We yearn to be free. The external slavery that plagues the world, be it human trafficking, bullying, extortion, debt, domestic violence, addictions, or fear may dominate the human spirit, but often a flickering spark of freedom's light smolders within and yearns for liberty. We all get excited as William Wallace lies dying as he is being drawn and quartered, yelling with his last ounce of breath-FREEDOM. He was expressing what is in all our hearts. When Jesus suggested that his Jewish audience were not free, but enslaved, the would-be disciples, bucked. I understand this. I grew up in the South. We have Southern Pride. The war (that is the civil war) left deep scars on the South. Even though this was 150 years ago, and 90 years from the day of my birth, there is a remnant of effect still in my heart. Setting aside the issues of slavery of blacks and states' rights (both major in and of themselves), the mere fact that the South was being told (made) to do something they did not want to do, and then the thousands that died to defend our right to do what we wanted, along with the suffering of Southern women and children, we were left with a feeling of defeat. So in order not to feel this, we developed Southern Pride, a type of denial that said we might be defeated on the outside but never on the inside.

I know all this sounds stupid, but it helps to explain the reasoning of the Jews of Jesus' day who declared that they had never been slaves of anyone. They conveniently forgot about the Egyptians, forty years in the wilderness, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans, 1500 hundred years of slavery only briefly interrupted by a period of prosperity under Solomon. Jewish Pride was so strong they could easily dismiss the fact there was a Roman soldier on every corner who could compel any one at any time to carry a load for up to a mile. They acted like Roman tax-collectors did not exist. They ruled out the daily politics of the realm where these Jewish leaders tried to keep the balance of power from being tipped by zealots on one side and Roman lovers on the other. Denial in this realm made it very difficult to see that there was a much more tyrannical master afoot in the land, named King Sin. They were so worried about King Caesar and King Herod on the outside that King Sin was taking them captive on the inside. But, they were Abraham's seed (sperma)! That was what they thought was their trump card. Linage, heritage, history, and religious ritual was clouding their perceptions of the enslaving nature of sin.

Paul's best commentary of John 8 is the book of Galatians. Abraham's offspring (sperma) was Christ, the one speaking to them, and promised in Genesis 12:1ff. The true offspring of Abraham are those who are sons of God through faith in Christ. These sons are the offspring of Abraham, heirs to the promise, those who belong to the Messiah, and clothed with the Messiah, whether slave or free, male or female, Jew or Greek. Paul explains that sons are products of redemption not physical birth. The new birth of baptism is accompanied by the giving of the Spirit that confirms sonship, and gives us voice to say "Abba Father." Paul paints a beautiful picture of freedom from the slavery of sin. This message was being missed by the Jewish Pride folks. They were too caught up in their heritage that they were missing their true heritage. This is another illustration of hearing things through earthly ears instead of heavenly ones.