How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Even believers often imagine that we begin by having freedom and that Christianity is an imposition on that freedom. This certainly seems to be the case when we consider that without religion there are possible choices that are closed to us if we decide to follow Christ. Following Christ seems like one choice, possibly even the right choice, which nevertheless closes more possibilities than it creates. Yet we, even we Christians, consistently misunderstand freedom.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
When we allow ourselves to practice things like "envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these", (see Galatians 5:19-21) we may experience an initial thrill that we mistake for freedom, a feeling which is actually the result of doing something that we know we ought not do. Yet this feeling isn't freedom. And these actions that seem to offer so many experiential possibilities actually enslave us. We are speaking here of addiction. As sin increases in our lives our ability to refrain from sin becomes less and less until we become full fledged addicts. The more we tell little white lies the harder it becomes to tell the truth. The more we steal the harder it is to come to terms with earning the things we want. If we use pornography we render ourselves incapable of true fidelity to our spouse. Jesus told his hearers that this was already their condition, the condition, indeed, of the whole human race apart from his saving power.
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
While it is shocking to realize that our apparent freedom was only an illusion, it is nevertheless a good realization because in it is the invitation to receive true freedom. Knowing the truth about virtue and vice is a good start. We really do realize from such knowledge that there is freedom in virtue, like the Jazz musician who is free to improvise after years of diligent practice. Yet to disentangle ourselves from the habit patterns of sin we need more than abstract knowledge about ethics.
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of what Jesus said in the Gospel today: that he himself was the way to freedom, the truth that could truly set us free. Why is this the hardest part, even harder than realizing that we are not so free as we had imagined? Because it means that we cannot save ourselves. Our desire for freedom is so confused and bound up with our desire for autonomy that we feel we can't have one without the other. Yet the paradox here is that we must trade our autonomy if we want true freedom. If we look back on our lives, autonomy has never delivered on any of its promises. It is rather the freedom that is offered by the Son that our hearts truly desire.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
How do we receive this freedom? Jesus said, "remain in my word". The more the words of and about Jesus fill our minds and hearts, the more we speak them in daily life, the more their reality we transform us from the inside out. This is the basis for the renewal of our minds about which Paul speaks.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (see Romans 12:2).
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego gave us an example of remaining in the word. They demonstrated the true freedom that they had because they chose to do so. It might have seemed that idolatry would be the path to freedom from being bound and cast into the fiery furnace. And the world's freedom is usually like that, in that we feel pressured and even forced to choose it. But these three young men realized that there was a greater freedom that King Nebuchadnezzar could not take from them, even in the fiery furnace.
“Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”
“Assuredly, O king,” they answered.
“But,” he replied, “I see four men unfettered and unhurt,
walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.”
May we reject the world's lies about freedom and fulfillment. May we choose the ways of God and remain in his word, no matter how hot the furnace is heated. The fourth, like a son of God, will be there with us whenever we do so.
Blessed are you who look into the depths
from your throne upon the cherubim;
praiseworthy and exalted above all forever.
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