The Truth Will Set You Free

So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him. So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:28-32

Very few people really want to know the whole truth. As we have been preparing for a family wedding, we have been asking each other, "how does this look?", trying to be at our best when attending the big affair. And yet there are more than one answer to the question, always. "You could wear a paper bag and look beautiful to me", is one. The other might be some honestly about size and shape - but we don't have to go there. Some truth is just too obvious, some truth is unique to the individual. Sometimes people have been brutally honest with someone and say they are trying to set the person free. Honesty is not always truth. Sometimes it can be cruel and abusive, when there is more truth than anyone of us humans can perceive. Most of us would be right and in control - not a vessel of the truth that sets us free, but rather truth that binds others and free only me.

Jesus was talking about a different kind of truth than most of us are willing to tell. He was talking about God's love which is so massive and un-measurable that few can perceive the reality, the truth of it. God's love which says beauty is measured in the heart and truth is measured in the freedom it brings. Truth is love which unbinds us, has us turn from the mirror and gaze into the eyes of love. When we behold the love of our creator for creation than we are free to delight in our world and do justice to others.

Today, I want to seek that truth in my life. Not the newspaper, headline truth but the deep within truth where love abides. May we all seek to know the love of God, so that we might share it with a world so desperate to be loved and be set free.