The Joshua Victor Theory

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. “Freedom” is, at least in principle, highly prized by Americans. Judging from the attitudes and answers of the Jews who listened to Jesus’ teaching in John 8, 2,000 years ago, they also highly prized freedom. The question is, do we truly understand the nature of freedom Jesus teaches, any better than they did? Freedom and slavery are opposites. To understand one, you need to understand the other. Jesus is talking to new believers in the crowd, when He says “ If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The word “abide” or remain, talks about continuing in something, or living together with someone. When Jesus calls His true disciples to “ abide in my word ”, He’s saying His Word is their continuing life. Jesus calls this vital relationship being living branches connected to the Vine. Outside the vine, disconnected from Christ and His Word,...

This month we have focused on themes of the Lutheran Reformation, leading up to today, the 499 th year anniversary of the Reformation of the Christian Church. We’ve touched on themes of repentance and forgiveness, Law and Gospel, the hiddenness of God, and being justified by faith. Luther and his colleagues, usually called the Reformers, made important contributions to all of these Biblical teachings, bringing clarity and returning the church to the fountain from which these teachings flow—the Bible—God’s Word. Having this rich spiritual heritage, with next years’ milestone of 500 years, is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, the truth is a powerful weapon against error and the enslavement of sin, as Jesus teaches in today’s reading. But on the other hand, it’s dangerously easy to fall into that same sense of special privilege that Jesus’ confronts in the reading. The Jews had a rich spiritual heritage, and they claimed their ancestry back to Abraham, and they took pride t...