Video of the Divine Service is here. The sermon begins around the 25:00 mark.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Maybe you’ve heard people talking about their dream homes. Or maybe it was a realtor saying that now is the time to buy your dream home. Maybe you’re in your dream home, and you wouldn’t change a thing. Or maybe you would choose a different place, or a different kind of construction. But you’ve probably thought, at one time or another, about your dream home, about the place you would choose to live if you could live anywhere.

Jesus says that the slave does not remain in the house forever, but the Son remains forever. The Son remains in the house forever, and that is the place you want to be. The Son remains forever, and those who remain in Jesus’ word, know that truth and join the Son in the house that remains forever. Those who had been listening to Jesus and believed Him thought they were already in their dream home, in the house of Abraham. “We are children of Abraham and we have never been slaves of anyone!” The children of Abraham live in the house of Abraham. That’s where they want to be. Why would they need to be set free to be somewhere else? At other times in the Gospels, people essentially claim to live in the house that Moses built. But whether it’s Abraham or Moses or David, or whomever, if it is not the house where the Son is, it’s not the house of God, and it cannot remain forever. Only the house that God builds, on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole house holds together, will last forever.

Jesus says, if anyone hears My words and does them, he is like a man who builds his house on the rock. The storms may come, the waves might crash against the house, but it will stand because it has been built on the rock. But if anyone hears My words and does not do them, he is like a man who builds his house on sand. Then the storms come, and the waves crash against the house, and it will fall. The house of Abraham and the house of Moses is the house of God, but unless Jesus is the cornerstone, the heart, the center, of the house, then it’s just another house built on a human being. Take Jesus out, and the house will fall down. David wanted to build a house, a temple, for God, but God said, no, I’m going to build you a house, a line, a family. And that house is the one built in the flesh and blood of Jesus.

To those who believed, Jesus said that what it means to believe in Jesus is to remain in His word, to live there, to dwell there. And then you will know the truth—because Jesus’ words all point to Himself, who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life—and that truth will set you free. And if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. But they said, we live in the house of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to anyone. Why do we need to be set free? When we’re building our own houses, that’s what we say: I am not a slave to anyone! I am free! I can do whatever I want. I have thrown off the restrictions of society; I have thrown off the restrictions of my parents; I have thrown off the restrictions of the Church! I am free.

And we’re freely building our own houses, brick by brick, moment by moment, action by action, day by day, year by year. Some of us in our freedom are building very large houses, our dream homes. We’re following our dreams, following our hearts, chasing our happiness. If only we could just add a room here, we’d be happy. If only we could add a wing there, we’d be happy. We decorate it exactly how we want. We’re authentic! We are expressing our innermost selves! And we keep building, keep filling it with all the things we think will make us happy.

Others are building tiny houses. But these tiny houses are made of bitterness, or anger, or grief. They’re built of all the grudges we’re keeping. And they keep getting smaller and smaller, year by year. We keep getting more and more cramped, isolated.

But it doesn’t matter if it’s the big house of our highest desires and dreams, or if it’s the tiny house of our bitterness and anger and grief. These are all houses of slavery. And that’s the ironic thing: the more free we are, the more enslaved we become. The one who sins is a slave to sin; and there is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who seeks God, no one who does good. We were all born enslaved, and the more we think we’ve shaken off the chains of our imprisonment, the tighter they get. And sometimes we almost see it. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of what’s going on. When we’re tired, worn-down, we might just see it: we get tired of chasing our own selves around in circles, tired of thinking about ourselves, and what might make us happy. Tired of chasing our own desires. And we almost realize that our freedom from everything else is just slavery to ourselves. We’ve simply become our own masters, and not in the way we think. We keep driving ourselves toward the next thing, the next moment, the next reinvention. Well, are you happy now? We get the things we think we’re after, and then there’s always something missing, something lacking.

Jesus says that He has come to set us free from all of that. But that’s not how our sinful flesh takes it. Paul says that you have been set free from slavery to sin, in order to be slaves of righteousness, slaves of Christ, which is what Paul calls himself. And we think we would rather be slaves to ourselves than slaves of Christ. That’s the irony: we call our slavery freedom, and the freedom of Christ we call slavery. But Paul says that the slavery to sin ends in death, while the slavery to righteousness ends in life. The houses we build on the sand will all fall, but the house that the Spirit builds on the rock will never fall.

You can try all you want to be free, and the chains only get tighter. But if the Son, who remains in the house forever, sets you free, then you will be free truly, completely, finally. And that’s what the Son has done. He takes on the form of a slave, taking the chains, the burden, the weight of our slavery to sin, and He humbles Himself under it all to the point of death on the cross. He says, In My Father’s house are many dwelling places, and I go to prepare a place for you. He dies as a slave and criminal, but rises as the King and God of all. He prepares a place for you, clears out space in the midst of slavery, sin, and death, and opens up a slavery of righteousness that leads to life. He has already accomplished your freedom, when He buried you in His own death by baptism, and raised you with Himself in His resurrection.

This is what we mean when we say, I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and true man, born of the virgin Mary, is My Lord, who has purchased and won me from all sin, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with silver and gold, but with His own precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, so that I might be His own and live under Him in His Kingdom in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true (Small Catechism, Second Article of the Creed).

You are no longer slaves of sin leading to death, but slaves of righteousness leading to life. No doubt, we all drift back to our old houses, our old slaveries, our old sins. And He keeps setting you free and bringing you home. That’s what it means when He says, “I forgive you all your sins.” Another way to translate “forgive” is “lift up.” He lifts up the burden of trying constantly reinvent yourself; He lifts the burden of always chasing your desires and never being fully satisfied or happy; He lifts up the burden of your bitterness, anger, grief. He lifts it off of you: I forgive you all your sins. I set you free. And if the Son sets you free, then you are free! And the goodness and mercy of God in Jesus Christ will never leave you alone; they will pursue you throughout your life, and you will live in the house of Yahweh forever (Psalm 23). One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life (Psalm 27). To live in His words is to live in the house of God, where the only true Son has made you sons of God, born from above by water and the Spirit. He has done this, and He will finish what He started. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 10/27/23