10292022 – John 8. 31-36
There is a CONTEXT and a BACKGROUND to our Gospel reading. (Of course, there is!)
It is THE CELEBRATION of “Tabernacles.” Also known as being, the “Festival of Booths.”
Were you to be present in Israel it might be referred to as being “Sukkot” or “Sukkoth.”
Sukkoth is one of the three MAJOR Jewish “pilgrimage festivals.”
Like “a time of religious obligation…”
ALL JEWISH MEN were REQUIRED to ATTEND the three Great Festivals…and to make their way to the city of Jerusalem.
THIS was the culminating festival of the entire year, it was “a fall festival” and it celebrated THE CONCLUSION of “the final harvest” of the year, even as it looked FORWARD to the winter harvest, yet to come.
This was the time when all the GRAPES and OLIVES were being harvested.
It was a week-long-celebration that included the BUILDING or the CONSTRUCTING of temporary “shelters,” “tabernacles,” or “booths,” in which to RESIDE during the festival.
You might want to picture in your mind’s eye, a LEAN-TO, a rough shed, or shelter, made from various kinds of branches and tree limbs.
If you DID NOT RESIDE THERE, at least TODAY, you would eat your meals there.
It was a celebration recalling God’s PRESENCE and his PROTECTION during the “wilderness wanderings…”
John’s Gospel is the ONLY ONE of the four gospels, to mention “the festival” DIRECTLY.
Most Johannine scholars (the scholars of John’s Gospel) agree that the community for which John writes — represents a “Jewish group” that has been “EXCOMMUNICATED” from their Hebraic faith.
(Quite literally kicked out of the Synagogues and the Temple, itself.)
Three times in the chapters that follow there are references to a Greek word “apo-synagogos,” which translated means being “PUT OUT” of the SYNAGOGUE.”
We assume that “following Jesus” had caused their REMOVAL…and taken its toll.
Terms including “word,” “truth,” “freedom,” and “sin,” took on their own SPECIAL MEANING for these OSTRACIZED Jews.
They had heard the WORD and had RESPONDED TO IT with their very lives.
NOW they found themselves separated from family and loved ones…as a result.
Think back to when Jesus talked about “a household being divided,” “two against three and three against two” – it truly happened.
Homes and families and religious communities were ripped apart…torn asunder because of THEIR FAITH!
Push FAST FORWARD 1500 years and “these same words” took on “NEW and different MEANING” for another religious community…at the time of the Reformation.
WORD, TRUTH, FREEDOM, and SIN, this brief pericope FROM JOHN’S gospel appears to summarize “the MAIN THEOLOGICAL ISSUES” around which the Reformation took place.
The “Word” of God and the IMPORTANCE OF THE WORD, once again, was taking “center stage.”
And it was all about another little Greek word, “MENO” which means to “ABIDE,” or “STAY,” or “REMAIN,” or to “CONTINUE.”
In fact, this is A FAVORITE WORD of John “the gospel writer,” he uses this one little word OVER FORTY TIMES.
It is like a subliminal message, telling us to STAY, to ABIDE, to REMAIN, and to CONTINUE, in the faith that is IN US.
Grab it, hang on to it, hold dear to it…
The church was ONE MORE TIME in a time of transition.
And the words of Jesus in John’s gospel spoke LOUDLY and CLEARLY to “a whole new generation.”
We are all slaves to sin. We are all doers of sin. Jesus will not let us think that being a slave to sin ONLY APPLIES “TO OTHERS.”
It applies to US AS WELL. ALL OF US fall short – of “the glory of God.”
The church had slowly over time, slipped into CORRUPTION.
Some would even say it was RAMPANT.
It had STRAYED from Biblical Teachings, that God SAVES by FAITH, apart from WORKS.
Works are good, do not get me wrong! Works that flow from your life of faith.
But if your works are somehow SAVING YOU, then, you DO NOT need a Jesus.
No need for a savior.
No need for a cross of crucifixion.
YOU can save yourself!
It was because of the ugliness of sin, death, and the devil, that Jesus hung on the cross.
As Jesus trudged up the hill to Golgotha, he stared EVIL in the face and said, “GO FOR IT.”
You CANNOT accuse me of sins, for I have none.
But I will take the sins of everybody else, of every David, Dick and Debbie, and every John, Jayne, and Joyce, with me…and that is what he did.
We have done the crimes.
He did our time.
We have been SET FREE.
We GOT OFF.
He PAID the price.
He chose to do it, ALL FOR US.
And through his Holy Spirit he STILL breathes his “living faith into us.”
He feeds us with his WORD. And his body and blood sustain us!
Remain, abide, stay, and continue…he did it ALL FOR YOU!
THAT, is the message of John’s gospel…