To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free… So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-32,36)
Independence Day is a good day to reflect on the important subject of freedom. Freedom is defined as the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants; or the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved. Slaves seek freedom from masters, colonies and protectorates seek freedom from imperialists; and more commonly in life, children are looking for freedom from parents, and billions of Asians and Africans are seeking freedom from the shackles of poverty. The question of freedom has been around from thousands of years, and in one of Jesus’ conversations with the Jews, he points us to true freedom. But before we listen to Jesus, some leaders in our recent history have made important reflections on the subject.
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini said something that apparently remains true sometimes even in our days: “The press of Italy is free, freer than the press of any other country, so long as it supports the regime.” Is that freedom really? Long after the hard and ‘long walk to freedom’ that saw apartheid fall in 1994, in his book Conversations with Myself Nelson Mandela wrote: “The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.” In these and many other similar assertions, we see the elusive nature of the freedom our fathers have fought for, even to the point of death. Songs have been sung and frustrations reel as disappointed men and women stare at abuses that they didn’t expect in the ’freedom’ they celebrated!
Now Jesus’ conversation with the Jews, he saw their prevailing slavery and offered them a solution. Yes, they had long received freedom from their slavery in Egypt, but they were not yet really free. The Egyptian master had just been replaced by an invisible master called sin, and they needed freedom that would be ushered in by one greater than Moses. Jesus’ message to them is ours too because that master called sin has permeated the generations and still tortures people today. Come to Jesus and receive real freedom, for if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. And that is the freedom citizens will enjoy in the everlasting Kingdom of God. Don’t miss out!
God bless you all.