Twenty-five years after Christopher Columbus discovered America, a Roman Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther nailed 95 theses for debate on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The subject that he wanted to debate was the sale of indulgences. Indulgences, as you may know, were documents purchased from the Church that supposedly would take away the punishments for sin that people thought they had to suffer after death in a place called Purgatory before they went to Heaven. Luther saw these indulgences for what they really were – a moneymaking scheme for a Pope in Rome who had gone bankrupt trying to finish the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica. He criticized the sale of indulgences because they clearly were not Biblical, but at that time he had no intentions whatsoever of splitting the Church. His goal was simply to reform the Church, to correct abuses, to fix teachings and traditions that were leading people away from the true teachings of Scripture. At least, that’s how it began.
But in the years that followed, Luther realized that the problems with the Church ran far deeper than just the sale of indulgences. The precious Gospel of forgiveness, the very heart of the Christian faith, was being obscured. Rather than base their teachings on the clear words of Scripture – words like today’s readings from the Book of Revelation, the Epistle to the Romans and the Gospel of St. John – the Church declared that its man-made traditions and practices were every bit as authoritative as Scripture. The Church in Luther’s time taught that Christ’s Gospel was only part of the equation. In our Gospel lesson we heard Jesus say, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” But those simple words of Gospel were corrupted by man-made rules of law – in other words, you were free only if you did what the Church and the Pope and the Councils decided that you had to do. Sure, Jesus started you on the path to Heaven – but if you really wanted to get there, you had to do most of the work.
In our Gospel lesson today, Jesus says that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. His words include all of us. No one is left out here. You’ve sinned? Then you’re a slave to sin. Sin is your master, and on your own you can’t do anything about it. You can’t do something to make up for the sins you’ve committed. You can’t buy your way out of them.
That’s why Jesus invites us to confess our slavery to sin, so that He and He alone can give us freedom. Freedom from sin, freedom from fear, freedom from death. That’s what the church had lost sight of back in Luther’s time! The Word was written in the Scriptures, not to give us a list of do’s and don’ts. The Scriptures are given to unfold to us the precious gifts that God gives in Jesus, the Son of God in human flesh, crucified and raised from the dead for us.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed,” Jesus says in verse 36 of today’s Gospel. Free from the death sentence of sin. And free from the rules of men who tells us that we have to do something to earn our salvation – rules that flatly contradict what Jesus Himself plainly tells us.
Four hundred ninety-two years ago, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of that Castle Church – and from that day on everything changed. Luther and his followers never wanted to break away and start a Protestant Church – he never, ever wanted to start something known as the Lutheran Church – but that’s what happened. People began calling themselves Protestants, and some began calling themselves Lutherans. Today almost 2.5 million of us call ourselves Missouri Synod Lutherans. This morning we gather together to remember the courage and the conviction of Martin Luther. We boldly sing our favorite Reformation hymns and we thank and praise God for the faithfulness of Martin Luther and so many who have led us in the past and today lead us still to the absolutely solid truth that we are justified always and only by the grace of our Savior Jesus Christ.
But before we start feeling all warm and fuzzy about ourselves, we need to remember that as long as sinful human beings inhabit our earth, false doctrines will continue to be taught. People – well-meaning people who call themselves Christians will continue to change, to pervert, even to ignore the clear words of Gospel and instead teach their own lies. Our sinful flesh is simply not content with Christ’s forgiveness. It longs to add something to the equation. That “something else” may be good works. It may be self-chosen decisions to follow Jesus. It may be efforts at self-sanctification. It may be things that look and sound good, that have the appearance of piety but are really done because we want to believe that somehow we can please God by what we do, by how we act, by how we live. In fact, you don’t hear much about it nowadays, but almost 500 years after Luther posted his 95 Theses the Roman Catholic Church still sells indulgences.
That’s why the Church – the Christian Church – must constantly be on guard. The Church must be perpetually reforming herself. In our reforms we do not seek to bring forth new and different things. Instead, we must simply return to the Gospel.
When we have the Gospel in its fullness, we have everything that Luther was looking for. We have everything that Christians have ever needed. We have forgiveness, we have life, we have salvation in Christ Jesus. We have freedom. As Jesus Himself so lovingly tells us: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
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