Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 Romans 7:15-25A
“When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” (1)
That’s how our Declaration of Independence, which spells out the arguments for and which declares our freedom as a new nation, begins. The cost to become a free nation was enormous. Of the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died - twelve had their homes ransacked and burned - two lost their sons in the army - another had two sons captured - nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war - Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. - at the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis, took over Thomas Nelson’s home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on his home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. - John Hart was driven from his dying wife’s bedside. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children nowhere to be found. He died a few weeks later from exhaustion. The signers of the Declaration of Independence came from a variety of backgrounds, ages, education and experience - some were already famous, like Adams and Franklin, - some were unheard of, recruited at the last minute as substitutes for some who refused to support the move toward independence -two of the signers were only twenty years of age; sixteen were in their thirties; twenty in their forties; eleven in their fifties; six in their sixties; and only one, Franklin, was over seventy - all but two were married - each had an average of six children - twenty-five were lawyers; twelve were merchants; four were doctors; one was a preacher; and one was, of course, a famous printer - half were college graduates; some were self-educated - few benefitted from their bravery but not one recanted his original declaration of independence. (2)
We recently celebrated the freedom we know as a nation. There’s no question it means a little more to us at this time of year. We are a little more sincere in our thanksgiving to our ancestors and to our God. We proclaim it a little more often - a little more enthusiastically - a little more proudly - a little more meaningfully - a little more reflectively - “We’re free! We’re free indeed!”
Yes, in America we’re free to say what we want, go where we want, think what we want and believe what we want. Oh, we may have to take a few more precautions as time has gone on since the initial declaration, but still we can with confidence and appreciation shout: “We’re free! We’re free indeed!”
What we proclaim to be our reality corporately, as a nation, is not necessarily what we sense the reality to be inside ourselves is it? St. Paul described our personal reality I think very well in the scripture passage according to Romans 7:15-25a. I invite you to read it according to Eugene Peterson’s paraphrased version The Message: “What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary. But I need something more! For if I know the law, but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?” (3)
Do you ever feel like Paul? Can you identify with the battle going on inside Paul? I sure can. Sometimes there just seems to be this gulf between what I want to do, what I know I should do, and what I actually do. Paul asked, “How come I am so powerless to do what’s right?” (4) and near the end questioned further, “And who can deliver me from this slavery?” (5) Or, as Peterson paraphrased it: “Is there no one who can do anything for me?” (6) And I want to shout out with Paul, “Yeah, how come?” and, “Who can?” Despite my knowing what is right - despite my wanting to do what is right - there are times when I am tempted to do what I know I shouldn’t and times when I do what is wrong. I feel powerless to overcome temptation, to do what is right, on my own.
At the end of today’s passage - in verse 25a - after lamenting his condition, after confessing his weakness, Paul makes a statement that suggests he discovered a way to deal with his frailness, his failures, his human condition of being weak of willpower. Paul’s answer to how he will be made and who will make him into the whole person, the servant of God, is, “Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7 ) You see, we can’t do it on our own - we need Jesus Christ in our hearts! We can’t be perfect - we can’t do good all the time - we can’t always do what is right - but, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord that our salvation does not depend on our doing good and doing what is right but on our relationship with Jesus and the grace with which God deals with us as a result of Jesus Christ. The crux of our problem, brothers and sisters in Christ, is that we try to do it on our own and what Paul learned and shares with us is that that is not possible - is that Jesus Christ is the source of the willpower and the source of grace for the lack of willpower in our lives.
The last few verses of the section of the gospel reading according to the author of Matthew proclaims the same thing but in a little different way, “Come to me, all you who are weary and who are carrying around heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (8)
At the very core of the Christian faith is this claim - a paradoxical claim to be sure - that only as we get in step with Jesus Christ, his will for our lives, will we find true freedom. Although it’s a tough concept sometimes for us to accept, in the final analysis our wills have to be aligned with Christ’s will, bent toward Christ, for us to overcome the turmoil that keeps us from doing what we know to be right.
One of the best known saints in the history of the church, St. Augustine, wasn’t always saintly. Actually, he was pretty wild - he even was responsible for a child being born out of wedlock. But when Jesus Christ got hold of him - when his life got tangled up with Christ - he noted that freedom meant to him being free not to do what he wanted to do but rather to being free to be whom God intended him to be. Before Christ calls the shots in our lives - before we put our hands in his hands, all sorts of temptations, distractions, outside forces, jerk us around and cause us to do other than what we really want to.
It’s been said a time or two that when people become Christians they can then do whatever they want to do. While it may be true, it’s not true because we become immune from sin when we become Christians. No, it’s true because once we become a follower of Jesus Christ’s our “want-to’s” change. True freedom is bearing the burdens of others rather than our own selfish desires thus allowing us to become free to be who God created us to be.
Byron Janis, at one time proclaimed as one of the world’s great pianists, has been fighting the effects of crippling arthritis for years. He can’t even make a fist. His use of his right wrist is limited to about 40% of the normal range of motion - his little finger on his left hand is numb, partially paralyzed and scarred from a childhood accident and the joints of his other nine fingers are fused.
In a 1985 article in Parade magazine he was quoted to have said: “Learning to live with pain or live with a limitation can give an intensity to life. I thought I had nothing. Now I know I have everything. I’m saying to others, ‘If I can do it, so can you!’”
Janis shared in the article about the various methods of help he sought. They ranged from medical doctors to acupuncturists. He added, “What helped me the most, I can’t explain. I developed a very personal relationship with God. I think prayer is important. I think the belief in God is healing.”
“No one knows what it’s like for other people, but I know that, unless I had found a belief in God, I would never have been able to say what I have to say. God and we (humans) work together. Not one alone.” (9)
And then here’s the comment that connects Byron Janis’ story to our thinking today: “I still have arthritis. But it doesn’t have me!” (10) Living with ALS allows me to make a similar observation, although I certainly have my share of moments where I lament how much of me it has.
Byron Janis knows freedom - he’s free - he’s free indeed - not of the disease, but of the control it has over him. That’s what freedom in Jesus Christ enables to happen in our lives. Temptation still is a part of our lives - we still sin even though we have turned our lives over to Christ. The difference is that it doesn’t control us - it doesn’t keep us from trying to live the lives God intends for us to - it doesn’t cause us to give up hope in our salvation which is dependent upon God’s grace and forgiveness and not our good works.
An Armenian nurse and her brother had been held captive by some Turks in a war a few years ago. The nurse’s brother was killed by one of the Turkish soldiers right before her eyes. Somehow she escaped and later became a nurse in a military hospital. One day she was stunned to learn that the soldier who had killed her brother had been captured and wounded and was being cared for at the same hospital in which she worked. Something inside her cried out for revenge but an even stronger voice called within her to respond in love. Despite the conflict that raged within her she nursed the man back to health.
There finally came a day when the recuperating soldier asked her, “I know you know who I am. Why didn’t you let me die?” Her answer was this simple testimony: “I am a follower of Him who said, ‘love your enemies, do good to them which hate you.’” The soldier became a believer in Jesus Christ not because the young woman was freed from her hatred of him as much as because she was freed to love in spite of her hatred. (11) The presence of Jesus Christ in one’s life makes one free to act in such a way.
Another young man became an attorney. He was invited to interview with a prestigious law firm. It was a first class visit that included a stay at a fancy hotel and several elegant dinners with various members of the firm. He really enjoyed the discussions about the work he would be doing should he be asked to join the firm and he really liked all the lawyers he met. Everything seemed great until near the end of the visit when one of the lawyers happened to mention that one of their clients was a company that basically ran all the video poker and gambling operations in the state.
The young lawyer was shocked and disappointed. He said, “There are a number of questions which are up for grabs, but that’s not one of them. I believe such things are the result of bad government and are wrong.”
The firm’s lawyers started in on him, “But it’s all legal.” The young lawyer shot back: “It may be legal but it’s not ethical. I could never represent a company that makes money from human frailty and ignorance.”
His chances with that firm ended. A ministerial friend talked with him about his feelings of losing a job he wanted and deserved. The young lawyer said: “Actually, I feel great. I’m grateful that they gave me the opportunity to clarify who I am and what I want from the practice of law. I’m O.K. I now have a much better idea of the kind of law I want to practice. I just feel sorry for them because I know that many of them feel the same way I feel, but they are trapped in the system and can’t get out.” (12)
Some of us understand what it feels like to be trapped in the system, don’t we? The people who are really free in this world are those who are able to be who they are no matter what others or the world says about them. Freedom is being able to take a stand without caring about what difference it is going to make to your future.
The minister friend asked the young lawyer, “What makes you so confident, so bold to live your life in this way?” And the young man said, “I’m a Christian. I’m not just living my life on the basis of what I want, or just by what seems right to me. I’m trying to live my life as Jesus might want. I just try to ask myself the simple little question, ‘What would Jesus do?’” (13)
And so, as Americans we've been shouting it out: “We’re free!” “We’re free to do what we want - to say what we want - to think what we want - to believe what we want.” And it’s wonderful to be free in this way - to have the freedoms we have in this nation.
But, it’s an even more sensational thing to be able to proclaim “We’re free” as Christians. Because when we say we’re free in Jesus Christ we’re not saying that we can do anything we want to but that we can do anything God wants us to - that we can live lives that will glorify God - without fear of what it might mean for our future. Sure there may be burdens that come with the letting Jesus Christ call the shots in our lives but they’re light burdens because by our wearing the yoke Jesus Christ gives to us he shares the load and enables us to overcome what challenges come our way. It’s a wonderful freedom this freedom known when one puts their hands in the hands of Jesus Christ. If you’ve never done it, I invite you to consider doing it. I promise you, it will make a tremendous amount of difference. Let’s pray.
CLOSING PRAYER: We’re free - oh, Lord - we’re free indeed - help us this day to grasp all that that means for us. How can we ever thank you, Lord, not only for the brave people who drafted the documents and gave their lives for the freedoms we know as a nation, but for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, and the freedom he offers us when we turn our lives over to him. In his name we pray. Amen.
1 Leaves of Gold
2 Unknown
3 Eugene Peterson, The Message (Colorado Springs, Colorado: NavPress Publishing Group, 1993), p. 317.
4 Romans 7:15.
5 Romans 7:24b.
6 Romans 7:24b, The Message.
7 Romans 7:25, NIV.
8 Matthew 11:28-30, NIV.
9 Byron Janis, Parade, 1985.
10 Parade, 1985.
11 Unknown.
12 Unknown.
13 Unknown.
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