Free Indeed

The Pharisees answered Jesus, “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. I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.” They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me. Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot accept my word. You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. “Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is from God hears the words of God. The reason you do not hear them is that you are not from God.” John 8:33-47

All of us want to be free. Free of the worries and pains that bind us and free from the brokenness we hide from the world. We want to be set free, and yet none of us is truly free without our neighbors being free. And, we often want our freedom without being truthful and admitting to our mistakes. Jesus gives us freedom daily, and we often refuse it by keeping it to ourselves. We want comfort for ourselves without having to share. 

Loving God, you bless us with freedom daily

you forgive us our blindness and our cruelties

setting us back on a right path of love

calling us to true freedom as we serve others.

Forgive us today for the ways we hoard freedom

let us be made humble and ready to serve again

help us to not lose heart as we walk the world

always ready to be servants of your divine love. Amen.