Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 - 5th Week of Lent - Wed
[Dan 3:14-20, 91-92, 95 and John 8:31-42]"If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." [John]
The discourse and dialogue in the Gospel According to John that follow the incident of the woman caught in adultery are extensive and cover several different ways in which Jesus reveals himself. It could be a continuation of the discourse from chapter 7, since the incident about the woman seems to stand alone with little relationship to what comes before or after it. Today's gospel scripture is one segment and hinges on the meaning of "truth" and "freedom/slavery." It begins with Jesus speaking to "those Jews who believed in him." Part of the quote above has become a kind of adage: "The truth will set you free..."
At first, as usual in this gospel, the audience misunderstands Jesus' use of "free." They think he is referring to the social institution of slavery that existed in the Mediterranean world of the time. Jesus promises to set us free from a slavery to sin. In the Gospel According to John, "sin" is first and foremost a refusal to believe in Jesus as the one whom God has sent. It is this "sin" that Jesus is referring to. The moral failures that we struggle with and bring to the sacrament of reconciliation must first take their meaning from our faith in Jesus as the one whom God has sent, because we bring them to him for forgiveness.
Faith in Jesus as the one whom God has sent is a recognition of God's sovereignty not only in our moral lives but in all of creation (cf. the Prologue to this gospel). It is this "truth" that gives meaning to all of life and to all that we do as Christians. It will "set us free" from creating a "designer Jesus" who doesn't threaten our preconceived notions and biases. We may come to this truth step by step like the Samaritan woman or Nicodemus, or in a single revelation like the man born blind in the next chapter of this gospel. It will mean we have to let go of any preconceived notions of we want Jesus to be and learn from the scriptures and tradition who he really is: the one whom God has sent. AMEN