A Desire to Know More
I first remember noticing the powerful words from John 8:32 when they seemed to leap from the edge of the trays in the cafeteria. The school’s crest was emblazoned on the top right corner. Along with the laurels, the torch, the year of the school’s founding and other symbols were these words of Scripture—“Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” When Jesus spoke those words, He was immediately challenged by some who stated that they could not be set free because they had never been enslaved. They further argued that they were children of Abraham and, as a result, they had never at been slaves to anyone. Their responses, although stated emphatically, revealed the limitations of their perspective and understanding.
Jesus explained that those who sin are slaves to sin. There are many types of sin, but the sin being committed by those who dared to challenge Jesus was the sin of blasphemy. Blasphemy is the act of showing great disrespect, contempt, or lack of reverence toward God. To deny the authority of God, in the presence of God, would seem to be one of the greatest degrees of blasphemy. However, the limited knowledge of the Jewish leaders restricted their ability to even appreciate how much they did not know.
In His effort to offer a clearer explanation, Jesus states that those who are enslaved can only be set free by the Son. To which, the Pharisees argue that not only are they not slaves, they argue that they are sons of Abraham. Yet, as children of Abraham, they should have known the details of their history which included several times of enslavement throughout their history. Even more, their historical knowledge and their “situational awareness” should have made them aware of their enslavement at that time by the Romans. Amazingly, rather than perceiving the opportunity that Jesus offered to set them free from their enslavement both physically and spiritually, they became further entangled in limited understandings and misinformed arguments.
As the summer winds down and the focus aims more directly upon the preparations for the next phases of the season, we also long to be set free from the limitations that bind us and the sin that turns us away from God. We know that there is more to know about how to share the Words and the wisdom of God. There is a somewhat familiar and well-worn phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know.” This unfortunate reality is expressed throughout life in the quest to know more in order to better understand what remains to be learned. Some refer to this realization as the Socratic Paradox in which true wisdom is expressed in knowing how little we understand.
Fortunately, and in some cases ironically, freedom is discovered in sharing the truth with others. Just as the Pharisees could not fully understand their enslavement because of their flawed historical knowledge, there are critical and some times difficult details about the truth that keep us all enslaved. We find liberty in the truth that Jesus provides and in the truth that Jesus promises. We’ll see you in worship, in class and on the mission field.
“Come now and let us reason together” (Isaiah 1:18)
In Christ,
Jon McCoy
