The Freedom of the Cross

Reformation Sunday
Texts: Jer 31.7-9; Heb 7.23-28; Mk 10.46-52

This story is proof that St. John the Evangelist has a sense of humor. To say, “We Jews have never been slaves to anyone” is nonsense. Jewish history is defined by captivity: slavery in Egypt, exile in Babylon, and—except for about 50 years as an independent state under the Maccabees—a parade of foreign rulers.

I think St. John throws this joke in here to make us laugh at ourselves. It is plainly ridiculous for Jews to say “we have never been slaves to anybody;” and John’s point is that it is equally ridiculous for us to say it. We are just as convinced of that truth as were the folks who were talking to Jesus, but we are also just as wrong. It doesn’t just have to do with sin, as Jesus says, but with lots of things.