From: John 8:31-42
Jesus Warns the Unbelieving Jews (Continuation)
[34] Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin
is a slave of sin. [35] The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son
continues forever. [36] So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. [37]
I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill Me, because
My word finds no place in you. [38] I speak of what I have seen with My Father,
and you do what you have heard from your father.”
[39] They answered Him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you
were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did, [40] but now you seek
to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not
what Abraham did. [41] You do what your father did.” They said to Him, “We were
not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.” [42] Jesus said them, “If
God were your Father, you would love Me, for I proceeded and came forth from
God; I came not on My own account, but He sent Me.”
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Commentary:
30-32. Of those Jews who do believe in Him Jesus asks much more than a shal-
low faith resulting from superficial enthusiasm: they should be true disciples;
Jesus’ words should imbue their whole life. That kind of faith will bring them to
know the truth and to become really free persons.
The knowledge of the truth which Christ is speaking about is not just intellectual
knowledge; it is rather the maturing in the soul of the seed of divine Revelation.
That Revelation’s climax is to be found in Christ’s teaching and it constitutes a
genuine communication of supernatural life (cf. John 5:24): He who believes in
Jesus, and through Him in the Father, receives the wonderful gift of eternal life.
Knowing the truth is, in the last analysis, knowing Christ Himself, God become
man to save us; it means realizing that the inaccessible God has become man,
our Friend, our Life.
This is the only kind of knowledge which really sets us free, because it removes
us from a position of alienation from God—the state of sin and therefore of slavery
to the devil and to all attachments of our fallen nature—and puts us on the path
of friendship with God, the path of grace, of the Kingdom of God. Therefore, the
liberation we obtain is not just light which shows us the way; it is grace, which
empowers us to keep to that way despite our limitations. “Jesus Christ meets
the man of every age, including our own, with the same words: ‘You will know
the truth, and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32). These words contain both
a fundamental requirement and a warning: the requirement of an honest relation-
ship with regard to truth as a condition for authentic freedom, and the warning to
avoid every kind of illusory freedom, every superficial unilateral freedom, every
freedom that fails to enter into the whole truth about man and the world. Today
also, even after two thousand years, we see Christ as the One who brings man
freedom based on truth, frees man from what curtails, diminishes and as it were
breaks off this freedom at its root, in man’s soul, his heart and his conscience.
What a stupendous confirmation of this has been given and is still being given
by those who, thanks to Christ and in Christ, have reached true freedom and
have manifested it even in situations of external constraint!” (John Paul II, “Re-
demptor Hominis”, 12).
“Christ Himself links liberation particularly with knowledge of the truth; ‘You will
know the truth and the truth will make you free’ (John 8:32). This sentence testi-
fies above all to the intimate significance of the freedom for which Christ liberates
us. Liberation means man’s inner transformation, which is a consequence of the
knowledge of truth. The transformation is, therefore, a spiritual process, in which
man matures ‘in true righteousness and holiness’ (Ephesians 4:24). [...] Truth is
important not only for the growth of human knowledge, deepening man’s interior
life in this way; truth has also a prophetic significance and power. It constitutes
the content of testimony and it calls for testimony. We find this prophetic power
of truth in the teaching of Christ. As a prophet, as a witness to truth, Christ re-
peatedly opposes non-truth; He does so with great forcefulness and decision
and often He does not hesitate to condemn falsehood” (John Paul II, “General
Audience”, 21 February 1979).
St. Thomas Aquinas explains the meaning of these words of our Lord in this way:
“In this passage, being made free does not refer to being freed of every type of
wrong [...]; it means being freed in the proper sense of the word, in three ways:
first, the truth of His teaching will free us from the error of untruth [...]; second,
the truth of grace will liberate us from the slavery of sin: ‘the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death’ (Romans 8:2);
third, the truth of eternity in Christ Jesus will free us from decay (cf. Romans
8:21)” (”Commentary on St. John, in loc.”).
“The truth will set you free. How great a truth is this, which opens the way to
freedom and gives it meaning throughout our lives. I will sum it up for you, with
the joy and certainty which flow from knowing there is a close relationship be-
tween God and His creatures. It is the knowledge that we have come from the
hands of God, that the Blessed Trinity looks upon us with predilection, that we
are children of so wonderful a Father. I ask my Lord to help us decide to take
this truth to heart, to dwell upon it day by day; only then will we be acting as
free men. Do not forget: anyone who does not realize that he is a child of God
is unaware of the deepest truth about himself. When he acts he lacks the do-
minion and self-mastery we find in those who love our Lord above all else” (St.
J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 26).
33-34. For centuries the people of Israel were ruled by other nations (Egypt, Ba-
bylon, Persia...), and now they were under the dominion of Rome. Therefore, the
Jews thought that He was referring to political bondage or dominion—which in
fact they had experienced but never accepted. In addition, since they belong to
the people chosen by God, they regarded themselves as free of the moral errors
and aberrations of Gentile nations.
They thought that true freedom was a matter of belonging to the chosen people.
Our Lord replies that it is not enough to belong to the line of Abraham: true free-
dom consists in not being slaves of sin. Both Jews and Gentiles were subject to
the slavery of original sin and personal sin (cf. Romans 5:12; 6:20 and 8:2). Only
Christ, the Son of God, can liberate man from that sorry state (cf. Galatians 4:
21-51); but these Jews do not understand the redemptive work which Christ is
doing and which will reach its climax in His death and resurrection
“The Savior”, St. Augustine comments, “is here explaining that we will not be
freed from overlords, but from the devil; not from captivity of the body but from
malice of soul” (”Sermon”, 48).
35-36. The words slave and son are reminiscent of the two sons of Abraham:
Ishmael, born of the slave woman Hagar, who would be given no part in the inhe-
ritance; and Isaac, son of the free woman Sarah, who would be the heir to God’s
promises (cf. Genesis 21:10-12; Galatians 4:28-31). Physical descent from Abra-
ham is not enough for inheriting God’s promises and attaining salvation: by faith
and charity one must identify oneself with Jesus Christ, the true and only Son of
the Father, the only one who can make us sons of God and thereby bring us true
freedom (cf. Romans 8:21; Galatians 4:31). Christ gives “power to become chil-
dren of God [to those] who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). Thus, a person who identifies him-
self with Christ becomes a son of God and obtains the freedom proper to sons.
“Freedom finds its true meaning when it is put to the service of the truth which
redeems, when it is spent seeking God’s infinite Love which liberates us from all
forms of slavery. Each passing day increases my yearning to proclaim to the four
winds this inexhaustible treasure that belongs to Christianity: ‘the glorious free-
dom of the children of God!’ (Romans 8:21). [...] Where does our freedom come
from? It comes from Christ our Lord. This is the freedom with which He has ran-
somed us (cf. Galatians 4:31). That is why He teaches, ‘if the Son makes you
free, you will be free indeed’ (John 8:36). We Christians do not have to ask any-
one to tell us the true meaning of this gift, because the only freedom that can
save man is Christian freedom” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 27 and 35).
37-41. Our Lord replies to the Jew’s objection: yes indeed, they are Abraham’s
children, but only in a natural sense, according to the flesh; this is something
which does not count any more; what matters now is acceptance of Jesus as
the One sent by the Father. Jesus’ questioners are spiritually very far away from
being true children of Abraham: Abraham rejoiced to see the Messiah (cf. John
8:56); through his faith he was reckoned righteous (cf. Romans 4:1ff), and his
faith led him to act consequentially (cf. James 2:21-24); this was how he at-
tained the joy of eternal blessedness (cf. Matthew 8:11; Luke 16:24). Although
those Jews “derived from him the generation of the flesh, they had become de-
generate, by not imitating the faith of him whose sons they were” (St. Augus-
tine, “In Ioann. Evang.”, 42, 1). Those who live by faith, St. Paul says, are the
true sons of Abraham and like him they will be blessed by God (cf. Galatians 3:
7-9). In point of fact, the people who are arguing with our Lord have not only re-
jected His teaching: their own deeds indicate that they have a radically different
affiliation: “You do what your father did” is a veiled accusation that they are chil-
dren of the devil (cf. verse 44).
The false security Jews felt on the grounds of being descended from Abraham
has its parallel in a Christian who is content with being baptized and with a few
religious observances, but does not live up to the requirements of faith in Christ.
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
Pray for Pope Francis