Jesus is My Truth

John 8:31-47

 

1. Now, we are beginning the last month of this year 2007. A new year for us was the gift of God, and now we are going to finalize and return it to God with our successes and failures. Life is clear and honest. But we humans are easily blinded and deceived in true perception of our life. Just as a drug addict sees a beautiful fantasy under the influence of drug, we tend to beautify our life. However, just as a poor maid who was disillusioned after a magical vision as a pretty princess, we will be disappointed if we overestimate ourselves. However we are, we need truth, because it is the reality from which true hope starts.

2. Christmas is the most precious blessing to our life, because Jesus moved us from the deceptive world of illusions to the world of truth. Thus, He let us see our true reality and invited us to the truth. Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”(31-32) Truth has the liberating power from the false self-image. However, there is no abstract or material truth. Freedom is always personal, and there is no freedom without personhood. If we take only some impersonal things like propositional identification or scientific principle as truth, it is still I to free myself by the use of those impersonal truths. It is a self-contradiction, because I am not the being to free but to be freed. Jesus, the Son of God, from Heaven said that “I am the Way, Truth, and Life.” Yes, Jesus is the only Absolute Other who can free me. Therefore, Jesus is my Truth and my Liberator from my misery in falsehood and deception.

3. When we become His disciples, Jesus will liberate us from slavery. From what kind of slavery and falsehood? First, Jesus frees me from slavery of sin and selfish desires. What makes us blind and see false image? It is sin and selfish desires. If you have pride, you cannot see the real persons through such wrong glasses of pride. If you have superiority or inferiority complex, you cannot see the real persons including yourself. You cannot see the real persons or reality through the upside down lens of fleshly desires like possession, pleasure, or vanity. If even Christians “are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.”(2 Tim 3:6-7) Jesus is the Truth and He let me see my truth that I am a wretched sinner and miserable slave of sinful desires. When I accept Jesus My Truth, I also see my truth that I am loved by God and I am His beloved child. It is the eternal truth about myself. After Christmas really came to my life, I see the truth in and through my Truth Jesus Christ. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”(34-36) Truth has a sanctifying power: “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.”(John 17:17)

4. Second, Jesus frees me from slavery of identity and knowledge. Jews had a pride that they are descendents of Abraham, but Jesus pointed out their serious self-deception: “If you were Abraham's children, then you would do the things Abraham did. As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.”(39-40) Doing is your truth rather than being or knowing. What is your identity, from which you misunderstand your truth? Are you Korean, or American? Are you first generation, or second generation? Are you young or old, male or female? Are you student or professor, medical doctor or engineer, housewife or career woman, businessman or factory worker, or whatever your profession is? Is it your truth, your true reality? Even in the church, are you elder or pastor, kwonsa or deacon, or president or Sunday school teacher, small group leader or a new believer? If you identify yourself with such social identity, you do not see the truth. Jesus your Truth is not there. Also, Jews emphasized knowing the truth without doing. They believed themselves as the people of God but they did the contrary, that is, against the will of God, because they are fully filled with such pride and identity: “I know you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.”(37) No space for Jesus! It is because they are filled and overfilled by false images. You have to empty yourself, your identity and your knowledge to welcome Jesus and His Word in your soul. Or, you are seriously deceived. Even how many years you have been Christian or how much devotion time you have had, such things are false deceptions if Jesus your Truth is not fully filled. Throw away such identities and pride of knowledge like Paul in order to glorify Jesus only in your heart. Curiosity Seeking strange knowledge and mystical stories is a sign to be away from the truth: “They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”(2 Tim 4:4) Doing truth is true than knowing truth, because only knowing truth means not really knowing it. John made it clear: “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”(1 John 1:6); “The man who says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”(2:4) He meant loving poor neighbors. We are talking and praying about loving poor neighbors too much, but we do not really love them as everyday truth. We comfort ourselves that we did it with such talks and regard ourselves as ones who care them. We are seriously self-deceived. How much we know about God and His Word, if we don’t do it, we are nothing, and even hypocrites, worse than those who don’t know Jesus. Jesus loved us not because of our social identity or our knowledge. He frees us from such deceptions and makes us see ourselves by what we did in obedience and humility.

5. Third, Jesus frees me from slavery of wrong belongings. Even though Jews understood themselves as descendents of Abraham, Jesus regarded them as children of the devil: “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. 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.”(44) Our belonging is crucially important in understanding ourselves in either way. When you have been in Korea and had a strong sense of belong to Korea, you had some serious prejudices. When you came to America, your viewpoint is quite changed. But still because you are in America, there are many things that you cannot see. Our age and era, our nationality and ethnic identity, our race and body type, our school and hometown, our family and social group, rich or poor, more educated or less, or whatever else, they put serious prejudices to block our vision. Satan uses such collective egoism and social groupings to block the ministry of reconciliation. God-haters claim that they are objective and truthful. But they don’t know that they are deceived by Satan, the father of lies. They worship human being and human science, but truth cannot be made but only discovered. Human science is like small children’s playing and finding a beautiful shell on a small beach beside an endless ocean. If we exclude God from our life and this universe, we lose every meaningful thing and our life will be full of deceptions. Jesus pointed out that our belonging is the reason why we accept the truth or not: “If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”(46-47)

6. Jesus is My Truth. Without Jesus, I would be like a child who merrily follows a bad people because he made him happy with false praise and desired things. When we did not believe Jesus, we might be happy with our false images. But when we believe Jesus, we throw away our selfish pride to see our true reality. Paul showed a good example: “I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself.”(1 Cor 4:3) Do not depend on your self-understanding or other people’s opinion, but depend on Jesus and His Word. Crucify your own self image and throw away your wrong glasses! God “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.”(1 Tim 2:4) May God bless all of you and free you by fully welcoming Jesus Christ as your Truth, your only Truth! Amen.