FAMILY LIKENESS
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Opening Prayer
‘Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.’1
Read JOHN 8:31–47
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Dispute Over Whose Children Jesus’ Opponents Are
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.[a]”
39 “Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would[b] do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested. “The only Father we have is God himself.”
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”
Footnotes
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What does Jesus’ gift of freedom look like in your life?
I vividly remember an encounter as a schoolgirl with a couple who had been imprisoned following the Iranian revolution. They brought posters with black words such as ‘hatred’, ‘envy’, ‘selfishness’, ‘pride’, and ‘greed’ like bricks one on top of the other. ‘These are what really binds us,’ they said, ‘not locks and keys.’ In the center was the shape of a person through whom a sun-bathed scene of vibrant green fields and mountains beckoned. Below were the words, ‘If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’
As the mob around Jesus becomes angrier, the gloves are off. When accusations are fired at him, now with words, soon with nails, Jesus responds bluntly. His truth penetrates sin-soaked layers of deceit in devilish family likeness: stubborn presuppositions, idolatrous ‘orthodoxy’, willful deafness, addiction to power. In the struggle to determine truth, source is key.
Jesus maintains that truth and, through it, freedom are not found in blessed genes and ancestry. They cannot be secured through sheer birthright and religious adherence. Truth comes through him. Genuine disciples not only assent to his words but walk in the light of his teaching, recognizing that it comes from the Father.
I wonder: what is in Jesus’ heart as he speaks these piercing words? How is his tone of voice? When we take the high ground in theological arguments, imagining we are defending the gospel, we easily become as self-righteous and twitchy as Jesus’ opponents. The chisel of truth Jesus applies to their wall of empty legitimacy is held by a hand that will soon be crushed for their iniquities. In the harshest of public exchanges is the merciful invitation to step into the freedom of living the Father’s way through him alone. He is the truth.
Apply
How could freedom in Christ transform my community?
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, help me to stand firm in the teachings of Jesus and live in freedom only he can give—no matter what are my circumstances.
1 Ps 25:5
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