John 8:36: “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

 

I picked up Liesl in my bus for her monthly grocery shopping. Liesl is in her nineties yet still retains her beauty, elegance and her touch of aristocracy that she had known in her youth.  She was raised in Czechoslovakia during the time of World War II.  She comes from a family of nobility which was completely lost during the war.  Her husband was a wealthy landowner until the Nazi’s confiscated all his land.  Liesl was a young ballerina and accomplished pianist. The Nazi’s had taken her to Berlin where she performed before the elite of Nazi Germany and even a performance where Hitler himself was in the audience.  On a visit to her home between performances the Nazi’s ordered her husband into the military. To avoid the military and imprisonment for working with the underground she and her husband escaped through the mountains, almost like in the story of the Sound of Music. They came to the United States and settled in Cicero where her husband took a job in one of the factories and it was there he worked for the rest of his life.  Liesl lives in an old apartment house owned by a relative where she cares for her disabled daughter.

 

I remember the first time I picked her up in my bus. I pulled up in front of this old apartment house which was in much need of repair.  From the side entrance of the building through an old rotted door leading onto a broken cemented walkway ending at a rusty chain linked fenced gate there emerged a woman who was totally out of place in these dilapidated surroundings.  Although she was a near century in age, she still walked with the grace of the nobility from when she descended.  She still had the trim body of the ballerina that performed before the nobility of Europe.  As she approached my bus she allowed me to take her hand to assist her up the step and spoke a gracious thank you in a very seductive Czech accent.  I was totally smitten.

 

She would freely talk of her life in America which  was strictly lower to middle class.  She tried to start a dancing school but it just did not take.  The war pretty well ended any hope of ever recapturing any of the life she had known as a young woman. She came to American with her husband with nothing, not even their titles were of any value.  The only thing of value she has in the world today is a grand piano which barely fits in her living room and is completely out of place in her simple surroundings.  She offered to even let me play the piano but I just could not disgrace such a noble instrument with my stride, chop sticks playing style. Such a piano was meant only to reproduce the sounds of the masters which Liesl, despite her years, still plays beautifully.

 

Her husband passed away  three years ago and the only family she has is a sister in California and her disabled daughter that lives with her. She manages on a very meager income and talks of her financial struggles. Yet, given the choice of her life now or the one she experienced under Nazi rule, she would not hesitate to choose her life of living in freedom in the United States.  She and her husband could have cooperated with the Nazis and would have had the best that Europe at that time could offer, yet they were still enslaved, forced to speak the party line, forced to do what the government ordered them to do.  They may have had all the luxuries available to them in that era, but they willingly traded it all for a life of financial struggle and meager living just to be free.

 

Liesl could tell us a few things about freedom, she could tell me much about freedom. The freedom that we all take for granted, Liesl, even after seventy years of freedom, never tires of. I could not help but think of John 8:36 when I listen to Liesl’s story.

 

If the Son shall make you free you shall be free indeed. I love that rendering from the KJV.  The Greek says ontos eleutheroi esesthe you will be free indeed.  The word in Greek ontos means indeed.  It emphasizes the idea that we are truly absolutely set free by the Jesus Christ.  The word free in Greek is eleutheroi which means to be free from obligation.  In other words free from the obligations of Mosaic Law. Jesus spoke these words in Aramaic and the Aramaic Bible, the Peshitta, uses the word chor for freedom but it is rooted in the word for  free born nobility.   This word is found throughout the various Semitic languages. The Canaanite and Phoenician have the word har and hur which is also a reference to free born nobility.

 

Servants in the Near East during the time of Jesus were not always hired permanently.  Some of them changed their positions often.  A servant is always aware of the fact that he is a hired person that his employment could be terminated at any time.  A son of the household is an heir and can stay at his father’s house forever.  A servant did not have the freedoms of the household as the son.  They could not help themselves to the luxuries and food of their masters.  They always lived under the fear that if they broke one rule of the master they would be cast out of the house on their kester.  Yet, the son could break all sorts of household rules but he would still be the master’s son.

 

This is why I like the Aramaic word har that is used here.  For this is speaking of more than just freedom, it is being born into nobility it is a freedom that is obtained by birth and once you have that you can never lose it.  That is why salvation is more than just a deliverance from sin, it is a born again experience, we are born into the very family of God and have become heirs of His kingdom.

 

We are no longer just a servant that if we break one of God’s laws we are booted out of the kingdom, we become a very son or child of God such that no matter what, we will always belong to Him.

 

Looking at Liesl’s surroundings to day you cannot imagine that it is of noble rank. Yet to look at her, her very walk, manner and talk speaks of aristocracy. Maybe our surroundings and life does not reflect that of being a child of God, but when Jesus lives within us, our very manner and life itself will reflect that we are his child.

 

When Liesl had all the trappings of nobility, all the wealth and influence and honor associated with her noble rank, she did not have freedom.  Freedom was more important than all the wealth that goes with nobility.  Her circumstances many change but her birth cannot be changed.  Nobility is not found in one’s wealth or influence, it is found in one’s birth.  But just being of noble rank does not make you free.

 

That is why when Jesus said that if the Son will make you free har, you will be of noble rank but you will also be har shariraith, free indeed.  The Aramaic word shariraith comes from Semitic root shr and has the idea of a genuineness.  In other words you will not only be of noble rank but one day you will leave this earthly body you will be genuinely free indeed, you will not only be of noble birth but you will have all the perks and trappings that comes with it.

 

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