URC Daily Devotion Wednesday 11 June 2025

Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples;  and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’  They answered him, ‘We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, “You will be made free”?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.  The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there for ever.  So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word.  I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.’

Reflection

Referring back to Jenny Mills’ reference two days ago of the options of splashing like a child in John’s Gospel or swimming in it like an elephant, two streams of thoughts come to me when I read this text this time. 

Firstly, in reference to Jesus’ challengers insisting on their descent from Abraham, and being free-born (even if living under Roman occupation), my child-splashing instinct is to see them as simply struggling with feeling that Jesus’ teaching is too much at odds with their understanding. He is too radical, too revolutionary, too strange. 
How many church folk feel similarly uncomfortable when a new church leader does things differently and not the way we are used to worshipping? 

Conversely, having recently read Trevor Dennis’ ‘The Christmas Stories’ (a deep-dive, elephant-swimming extravaganza) where he suggests John has a theme running throughout his (Nativity-lacking) narrative of awareness that Jesus’ birth was known to be illegitimate … and that is why the crowd are insisting on their true legitimacy (and therefore rejecting anything Jesus might say)? How many of us might similarly reject something said by someone because we are aware of their (possibly dodgy) roots?

Secondly, my focus switches to the line about knowing the truth and the truth making us free. The simple (possibly simplistic?) interpretation is to child-slashingly accept that all that is recorded as said by Jesus equals truth and we should accept it and blindly follow it. Ah, but the elephant-swimming approach is to acknowledge that we have been given brains by God and are intended to think, reflect and consider … and to acknowledge the deep and meaningful truths that lie within the truths that Jesus preaches. 

That thinking, reflecting, considering and studying, I would suggest, might take a lifetime? 

I don’t know about you, but my instinct is to give it a go!

Prayer

Lord, we are frequently tempted 
to jump to our conclusions too quickly, 
based upon our inherent, deep-held beliefs. 
Our prejudices even? 
Guide us to look deeper, 
to listen properly, 
to explore thoroughly 
and finally to embrace the truth … 
your Truth. 
The Truth that can and will set us free. Amen