The 5th Sunday in Lent (Judica) – April 6th, 2025
Trinity Ev. Lutheran Church, Block, Kansas
Rev. Joshua Woelmer
Text: John 8:42–59
“Whoever Is of God Hears the Words of God”
Theme: Truth and life are united in Jesus, for He is the Word of God, made flesh.
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Many of you may be familiar with the phrase, don’t be so open-minded that your brains fall out. It’s a funny response to those who think they are superior because they have opened their minds to new truths that go against how they were raised. However, a writer named G. K. Chesterton had this to say: “Merely having an open mind is nothing. The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” It’s actually fine to open your mind, as long as you don’t go around looking silly with your mouth open all the time. The point is to close your mind upon the truth, which is solid. Chesterton therefore demonstrates for us two errors, one is the person who has their mouth open all the time, and the other is the one who will never open their mouth at all to consider new ideas—even if they are true! Those persons can look like a child who will under no circumstance try new food. So if the point of a mouth is to eat good food, the mind is made to taste and chew good food as well. Solid food for the mind is the truth.
I want to continue with this imagery for a little bit. Just as food gives life to your body, true words give life to your spirit. We know this just on a human level. There are many examples of this. An easy example is a mentor like a coach trying to help a youth figure something out. It could be sports or anything extra-curricular related. You might have a hard time figuring out how to learn a new skill, and the words of the mentor explain what you need to do such that it opens up your mind, and you know they’re right.
True words of apology and forgiveness can give life to your spirit, as you break down relationship barriers that you had built up against another person. Talking truthfully is part of living in a community. We ought to be talking and listening to one another, sharing experiences and lessons that we’ve learned. We learn by experience and hearing from other people’s experiences. We learn about the world and how it acts. We also learn about mankind and how we all act in different ways.
God’s Word is also a key part of this whole process. In fact, it’s more important than human experience. God will explain in His Word how we think and behave better than human experience will ever tell you. He will also tell you how He acts—and that is far more valuable. Listen to how David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, describes this process. Psalm 119:103 describes the words of God this way metaphorically: “How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” Or this from Psalm 19:7, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Open your mind to God’s Word, and let the mouth of your soul close over the solid words of God’s Word, and they will revive you from the inside out. True words of God will calm your troubled soul, and they will enliven you to give the same peace to others as you talk and interact with them. The truth gives life.
The opposite is also true: lies kill. It may be counterintuitive that lies kill. After all, we tend to separate lying and killing into different categories. Lying has to do with words. Killing has to do with the body. We may say to someone who insults us or lies about us: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” But they do. False words do hurt us, sometimes harder than sticks and stones. Lies may not murder the body, but they do harm one’s spirit. God’s Word then reminds us that body and spirit are connected, that our body is affected by words, especially when we are lied to. We feel a pit in our stomach when we’ve realized that someone has lied to us. Lies go deeper than affecting our spirit and body. They separate us from God, especially when we live by them.
Lies come ultimately from the devil, whom Jesus describes as a murderer and a liar. Jesus had just said these words before our Gospel text: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (8:31–32). Everything that follows in his interaction with the Jews revolves around who he is. Jesus is asserting the truth: that God is his Father. The Jews are coming up with anything they can think of to refute that. Their lies suggest that he was born of sexual immorality, that he was actually a Samaritan and had a demon (48). All of it is preposterous.
Jesus diagnoses their problem immediately: “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word” (43). They could not bear to hear that Jesus was God, so they accepted the devil’s lies about Jesus. They opened their mind, and bit into that rotten fruit. If they had cared about the truth, they would have asked Mary about Jesus’s parentage and seen whether she was trustworthy or not. Then again, maybe they had, and they didn’t want to believe it. Jesus rightly connects their unbelief to accepting the devil’s lies. By lying and continuing to lie, they have made their father the devil himself: “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (44). Jesus is spitting fire here, but he is telling the truth. The devil was a liar to Eve, and he did murder her and Adam both by bringing them into sin which leads to death and by killing their original righteousness they had before God.
Jesus finally gives this answer to all their wrangling about Abraham being their father. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (58). Jesus is invoking the divine name Yahweh, which can be interpreted as “I am” or “the existing one.” He is telling them that he has seen Abraham, and preexisted him and all creation. Jesus is preparing them and us for his crucifixion and resurrection. He who died on the cross was not any normal man, but was God himself.
This truth is essential for us as Christians. We ought to cling to the Truth as found in Jesus above all else. We need this for faith and for life. Around this time every year there are TV shows and stuff on social media that call into question Jesus’s divinity or the authenticity of the Bible. There are certainly counter-arguments that we can have to all of those arguments. But at the end of the day, the lies will not stop coming as long as we live in a sinful world with the devil tempting and lying. We believe in Jesus because truth is found in him.
We read the Bible because it tells us about Jesus and is full of him. We should not doubt the Bible. It has been handed down to us by trustworthy sources, and the Holy Spirit has inspired every word. We should not separate Jesus from His Word, as if we can believe in Jesus but call into question the words of Scripture. After all, Jesus himself says, “Whoever is of God hears the words of God” (47).
Second, we need the truth of God for our life. God’s Word describes the good life for Christians. It describes how God created us as male and female. It describes how marriage and having children ought to go. It describes how God loves life and wants it protected from womb to tomb. The devil will rail against all these teachings of the church. Why? Because he hates God, because he is a murderer and a liar from the beginning. He thought he had killed Adam and Eve. He thought he had killed Jesus. But God works life in the midst of death, raising Jesus that we too would rise again one day, despite what the devil desires.
So do not fall to the devil’s murderous lies. He would fill your mind with lies that seem good to the world and our society, lies that might make you feel good for a time. But like any sweet, poisonous fruit, they will lead to suffering and death. God’s food of his Word is what you should open your mind to and bite down upon. It may not be popular. It may not be sweet right away. But it will sustain you in soul and body, for eternal life. It forgives you when you have failed, and is what will nourish you. Live not by lies, but by the truth of God’s holy Word.
Now may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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