of him as Saviour and Lord can cure the individual soul and cure the world.
We are only too well aware of the disease which haunts and wrecks the world; the cure lies before us. The responsibility is ours if we refuse to accept it.
THE TRAGIC INCOMPREHENSION
John 8:21–30 (contd)
THERE is no verse in all the New Testament more difficult to translate than John 8:25. No one can really be sure what the Greek means. It could mean: ‘Even what I have told you from the beginning’, which is the meaning the Revised Standard Version takes. Other suggested translations are: ‘Primarily, essentially, I am what I am telling you.’ ‘I declare to you that I am the beginning.’ ‘How is it that I even speak to you at all?’ which is the translation of James Moffatt. It is suggested in our translation that it may mean: ‘Everything I am saying to you now is only a beginning.’ If we take it like that, the passage goes on to say that the real meaning of Christ will be seen in three ways.
(1) It will be seen in the cross. It is when Christ is lifted up that we really see what he is. It is there we see the love that will never let us go and which loves us to the end.
(2) It will be seen in the Judgment. He has many judgments still to pass. At the moment, he might look like the outlawed carpenter of Nazareth; but the day will come when he will be seen as judge, and what he is will be known.
(3) When that happens, the embodied will of God will be seen in him. ‘I always do the things that are pleasing to him,’ Jesus said. Other people, however good, are spasmodic in their obedience. The obedience of Jesus is continuous, perfect and complete. The day must come when it becomes plain to all that in him is the very mind of God.
THE TRUE DISCIPLESHIP
John 8:31–2
So Jesus said to the Jews who had come to believe in him: ‘If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth; and the truth will make you free.’
FEW New Testament passages have such a complete picture of discipleship as this.
(1) Discipleship begins with belief. Its beginning is the moment when we accept what Jesus says as true – all that he says about the love of God, all that he says about the terror of sin, all that he says about the real meaning of life.
(2) Discipleship means constantly remaining in the word of Jesus, and that involves four things.
(a) It involves constant listening to the word of Jesus. It was said of the eighteenth-century cleric John Brown of Haddington that when he preached he paused every now and then as if listening for a voice. Christians are people who all their lives listen for the voice of Jesus and will take no decision until they have first heard what he has to say.
(b) It involves constant learning from Jesus. The disciple (mathetes) is literally the learner, for that is what the Greek word means. Throughout their lives, Christians should be learning more and more about Jesus. The shut mind is the end of discipleship.
(c) It involves constant penetrating into the truth which the words of Jesus bear. None of us can hear or read the words of Jesus once and then say that we understand their full meaning. The difference between a great book and one which is fashionable and of the moment lies in the fact that we read the latter once and never wish to go back to it; whereas we read a great book many times. To remain in the word of Jesus means constantly to study and think about what he said until more and more of its meaning becomes ours.
(d) It involves constant obeying of the word of Jesus. We study it not simply for academic satisfaction or for intellectual appreciation, but in order to find out what God wishes us to do. The disciple is the learner who learns in order to do. The truth which Jesus brought is designed for action.
(3) Discipleship issues in knowledge of the truth. To learn from Jesus is to learn the truth. ‘You will know the truth,’ said Jesus. What is that truth? There are many possible answers to that question, but the most comprehensive way to put it is that the truth which Jesus brings shows us the real values of life. The fundamental question to which everyone has consciously or unconsciously to give an answer is: ‘To what am I to give my life? To a career? To the amassing of material possessions? To pleasure? To the service of God?’ In the truth of Jesus, we see what things are really important and what are not.
(4) Discipleship results in freedom. ‘The truth will make you free.’ ‘In his service is perfect freedom.’ Discipleship brings us four freedoms. (a) It brings us freedom from fear. Those who are disciples never again have to walk alone. They walk forever in the company of Jesus, and in that company fear is gone. (b) It brings freedom from self. Many of us fully recognize that our greatest handicap is our own self. And we may in despair cry out: ‘I cannot change myself. I have tried, but it is impossible.’ But the power and presence of Jesus can recreate us until we are altogether new. (c) It brings freedom from other people. There are many whose lives are dominated by the fear of what other people may think and say. H. G. Wells once said that the voice of our neighbours sounds louder in our ears than the voice of God. Disciples are people who have ceased to care what people say, because they think only of what God says. (d) It brings freedom from sin. Many people have come to the stage when they sin, not because they want to, but because they cannot help it. Their sins have so taken over their lives that, try as they will, they cannot break away from them. Discipleship breaks the chains which bind us to them and enables us to be the persons we know we ought to be. The prayer that the old self may be put aside and that as disciples of Christ we may become new people will indeed be answered.
FREEDOM AND SLAVERY
John 8:33–6
They answered him: ‘We are the descendants of Abraham and we have never been slaves to any man. How do you say: “You will become free”?’ Jesus answered them: ‘This is the truth I tell you – everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave is not a permanent resident in the house; the son is a permanent resident. If the son shall make you free you will be really free.’
JESUS’ talk of freedom annoyed the Jews. They claimed that they had never been slaves to anyone. Obviously there was a sense in which this was simply not true. They had been captives in exile in Babylon; and at the moment they were subjects of the Romans. But the Jews set a tremendous value on freedom, which they held to be the birthright of every Jew. In the law, it was laid down that no Jew, however poor, must descend to the level of being a slave. ‘If any who are dependent on you become so impoverished that they sell themselves to you, you shall not make them serve as slaves: . . . For they are my servants, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt; they shall not be sold as slaves are sold’ (Leviticus 25:39, 42). Again and again, Jewish rebellions flared up because some fiery leader arose who insisted that the Jews could obey no earthly ruler because God was their only King.
Josephus writes of the followers of Judas of Galilee who led a famous revolt against the Romans: ‘They have an inviolable attachment to liberty, and they say that God is to be their only Ruler and Lord’ (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18:1, 6). When the Jews said that they had been no one’s slaves, they were saying something which was a fundamental article of their creed of life. And even if it was true that there had been times when they were subject to other nations, even if it was true that at that very moment they were subject to Rome, it was also true that even in servitude they maintained an independence of spirit
