WE ARE FREE
Three years after Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the Castle Church door, the pope issued an official document called a “papal bull” against Luther and those who agreed with him. In this public proclamation the Roman Catholic church listed 41 teachings Martin Luther promoted that disagreed with Catholic doctrine and they concluded that, “We condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected… under the penalty of an automatic major excommunication.” This same papal bull also prohibited anyone in the kingdom to read, print, or defend anything that Luther wrote or taught as well as including a command to Luther himself to stop preaching, teaching, or carrying out any of the duties of a minister.
Two months later, because Luther did not take back any of his writings or bow to the authority of the Roman Catholic church, he was officially excommunicated along with anyone who supported him. The next year, at the Diet of Worms (the meeting in the city of Worms) Luther was placed under the imperial ban by the Holy Roman Emperor, a decree that condemned him as an outlaw, stripped him of his rights as a citizen, and made it legal for anyone to rob him, injure him, arrest him, or even kill him without any repercussion. Soon after that event, some of his friends “kidnapped” him and took him to the Wartburg Castle where he was not allowed to leave for a time because his life was in so much danger. In 1530, when the Lutheran leaders gathered together in Augsburg to present their confession of faith, Luther himself was not in attendance. He was back at a place called the Coburg Castle 160 miles away because he was still under the imperial ban and he could have been killed if he had made the trip. Throughout his life Luther was prevented from doing what he wanted to do, going where he wanted to go, and in fact he wasn’t even supposed to say what he wanted to say. And so why, after all of the freedoms that had been taken away from him, would Luther say to his students in Wittenberg in one of his classroom lectures on Psalm 45, that “We are free”?
Free? Luther and those with him didn’t seem to be free at all. He was still under the imperial ban (a civil sentence he would live under until he died), his life was still in danger if he left certain parts of the kingdom, he was still under the excommunication of the only church that called themselves “Christian” in the world at that time, and he was still technically not allowed to preach or teach or write anything in any place for any reason. Free? I think if we were to describe his situation and the situation of all those involved with the Reformation of the 16th century, we would probably say that they was more oppressed and confined and restricted and subjugated rather than being “free.”
Because if anyone knows what freedom is, we do, don’t we? We as people living in the United States know what it’s like to be free. We love being free. We fight to be free. And we complain and kick and scream when any of our freedoms seem to be impinged upon in any way. And in our expert opinion: those Christians during the time of the Reformation weren’t free at all! They had none of the liberties that we enjoy in this country and none of the rights that we take for granted. The Roman Catholic church and the governing authorities of that area had made it impossible for them to live in freedom because they were declared to be enemies of the state. “We are free”? It seems like a strange thing for Luther to say to people who were anything but free.
But the freedom Luther was talking about, of course, was of a different kind. The freedom he was referring to had nothing to do with what was happening in the world around them; it had to do with what Jesus did on the cross a millennium and a half before. This is the fuller version of what Luther said to his students on that day in 1532, “Through baptism and the Word we are free from death, sin, and the devil.” And what Luther taught his students in a Wittenberg classroom on Psalm 45 was really just a repetition of what Jesus teaches all of us in John 8:31: “If you remain in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the Truth and the Truth will set you free.” Jesus, of course, wasn’t talking about the freedom to say what you want to say or the freedom to go where you want to go or the freedom to have the rights and privileges that you think you are entitled to. He was talking about freedom from sin and guilt, freedom from the punishment and consequences that we rightly deserved. A freedom not given to those born in the right place at the right time, but a freedom given to those who are born again in the water and Word of baptism. A freedom not brought about by any flag or any country, but a freedom brought about by the Truth of God’s Word. A freedom not obtained by privilege, but a freedom given to those who had no right to have it at all.
Because the fact of the matter is: we were not born free; we were born chained. We were not born in a neutral place at a neutral time in a neutral way; we were born as prisoners in a maximum security facility automatically on death row. We were not born with guaranteed rights and privileges; we were born with a sentence of death hanging over our heads. And we deserved it! We were sinful human beings from the very start and nothing but unbelievers when we entered this world. Which means we were more than indifferent; we were indignant! We were directly opposed to God before we even had a conscious thought float through our minds! “Surely I have been a sinner from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me,” David says in Psalm 51:5. We were shackled in sin while we were still in the womb. We were sealed behind the iron doors of eternal death that wouldn’t open and trapped behind towering walls that we could not climb. And there was no way out. There was no possibility of pardon or release or escape. There was no hope, no prospect, no chance to be set free.
Remember what you used to be. Remember where you used to live. And remember why you enjoy the freedom that you have right now. It wasn’t because of your efforts. It wasn’t because of your desire. It wasn’t because you were so good or so determined or so stubborn. You are free today because the Truth of God’s Word has set you free. And what is that Truth? The Truth is this: Jesus took the shackles of sin that were tightly clamped around your wrists and ankles and he placed them on his own. He took that sentence of death that was hanging over your head and he placed it over his. He took the guilt and the punishment and the responsibility and the blame that was weighing on your shoulders and he placed it on his. And he lifted it up onto a cross and he carried it down into hell and he bore up under it while his own Father left him there to suffer all alone. Jesus let his hands and feet be pounded through with nails so that the chains could fall from your own hands and feet. Jesus bound himself in the torments of hell so that you would be released before you ever got there. Jesus underwent his Father’s just anger so that you could be free to experience his Father’s merciful love. That is the Truth about your freedom. And that is the Truth that can only be found in God’s Word.
That’s what the Reformation was all about. It wasn’t about a leader’s strong personality. It wasn’t about a group of Christians simply standing up to a religious bully. And it wasn’t about bucking the system or refusing to conform. It was about the clear Truth of God’s Word. The Roman Catholic church at that time had hundreds of years of traditions and big-name theologians and grand cathedrals and lavish ceremonies and countless commands and rules and laws, but the Christians of the Reformation had the true Word of God. They had the Truth about what Christ had done and what Christ had won. This is why the Reformation is so important to us as Christians living in the 21st century. And we celebrate it each year not because of the people back then, but because it was the place in which the Lord brought his people back to the Word of God. It was the time during which he revealed to them the Truth. It was the way with which Christ and his cross and his tomb were finally brought back into focus without any of our works or any of our efforts getting in the way of what Jesus did to set us free.
Not that this was the first time that the Lord had to bring his Word back into focus. The people Jesus was speaking to in John 8 about this kind of freedom didn’t quite understand it either. Just like the Roman Catholic church that excommunicated thousands of Christians during the time of the Reformation, some of the Jews during Jesus’ time didn’t comprehend that freedom really had nothing to do with them either. “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone,” they said to Jesus, “How can you say that we shall be set free?” They figured that because they were of Jewish origin, because they were blood relatives of Abraham himself, they were good! They didn’t have to be set free because they already were! They were guaranteed a spot in heaven simply because of their lineage! Of course, that wasn’t the way it worked. They were not free from the consequences of sin and the punishment of eternal death just because of their ancestry. Nor was that the way it worked for those in the Germanic states in the 1500s or the way it works for us today either. Just because you call yourself a Lutheran doesn’t mean you have a ticket into heaven. Just because you grew up in a Christian family doesn’t mean you have an automatic spot in Paradise. Christ does not give out family passes. He does not base heaven’s membership list on a membership list of any congregation here on earth. Now, it is certainly very important to belong to a church that teaches the true Word of God; you want your faith to be fed with the uncontaminated words of Scripture on a regular basis, and you want to worship and interact with like-minded Christians. But to think that eternal life has something to do with you or the list your name is included on or the group to which you join together with is a dangerous mistake. Eternal life has only to do with Christ and what he has done to set us free.
Martin Luther preached quite a few sermons on this very topic: the freedom we receive from Christ and his Word in John 8. And some of his words are worth repeating here: “We who believe in Him are promised a good conscience, salvation, a merciful God, and freedom from all harm. But we must advance beyond the position of beginners or novices, who never reach the point where they taste and experience that God is a Man who can deliver from both physical and spiritual need…. The divine Word alone is the cornerstone, the I-beam, the girder, the stanchion, and the pillar undergirding our constancy. Therefore it is imperative that we hold to the plain Word of God, that we cling to the words of Christ. Then we will experience God’s help in the midst of danger and upheaval.” There are few Christians in this world who knew how important God’s Word was “in the midst of danger and upheaval” than those Christians did during the time of the Reformation. They had to hold on to God’s clear Word and the freedom that it offered because they had nothing else; they had no other allays, they had no other freedoms.
I would pray that a day like today and a worship service like we have this morning would remind you of your freedom in Christ and the Truth of God’s Word that made it possible. Remain in that Word. Continue to read and to hear and to study that Truth. You were once chained and barred and shackled by sin. But those days of imprisonment are long behind you. Because you have heard the Word of Truth about Christ your Savior who was imprisoned for you, who was sentenced for you; who was executed for you. You are pardoned. You are released. You are free.
Amen.
“May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our fathers. May he never leave or forsake us.” - 1 Kings 8:57
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