By the Way: The only to path to freedom
By Shane Hein on November 4, 2023.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. [John 8:36] Just last Sunday the Lutheran world (much of the Christian world really) celebrated the Reformation. For those who do not know, the Reformation marks a period of late-Medieval European history when the Western church endured a massive upheaval. It was a time of the printing press, which eventually helped to lead the West into the Enlightenment era. It was also a dark time when European Christians engaged in a long, bloody, and destructive war over Christian doctrine, and over who had the right to dictate said doctrine to the laity. This Reformation struggle was, at bottom, a struggle for freedom; for freedom of religion specifically, which meant that it was a struggle for personal freedom in general. For the first time in European history the Holy Scriptures were being translated into the languages of the people. Prior to that only the highly educated scholars and clergy had access to the Scriptures and were generally the only ones who could read the Latin texts in any case. The issue with that, of course, is that mankind is corruptible. The laity had no choice but to accept the interpretation of the Holy Texts as handed down to them by the experts of the day. And because the experts held sole possession of God’s Word it was not that difficult to mislead the masses if it suited the purposes of the powerful. The temptation to do so was often too great to resist. Martin Luther, along with the rest of the Reformers, in their quest for freedom for the human soul, as well as for the human body, rediscovered the truth of the Gospel message and rescued it from the grip of the powerful. They rediscovered the truth brought to the world by the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Truth that can grant real freedom to those who seek it out. Blessings, Rev. Shane Hein is the pastor at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church 9-8
