Today is Independence Day in our country. It’s the day on which we Americans celebrate the independence and freedom we now enjoy as a sovereign nation no longer under British control. As Americans (or can we say as individuals) we love our freedom. But freedom is never freedom to do whatever you want to do. Freedom is not unbridled freedom, the freedom to live completely for yourself or by yourself. With freedom comes responsibility. We are not free to hurt or harm our neighbors. We are not free to disobey the laws of the land. We are not free to force people to think or to believe as we do. We are free to be good citizens, free to live under the authorities God has instituted in this world, free to make a living in an honest and legal way, free to take care of the children we bring into this world.
And this is the kind of freedom God gave us in the beginning when He created us. Adam and Eve were free to love God, live under His authority, and serve one another in love. They were free to work - not only in taking care of the garden but also in raising a family. They were free to obey the laws that their Creator gave them: Be fruitful and multiply; tend the garden; eat from any tree in the garden but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Some might say that to be under such laws and responsibilities meant that Adam and Eve were not truly free. They weren’t free to be themselves, to do what they wanted to do, to live the way they wanted to live. And yet, it’s when they exerted their autonomy over God that they became truly enslaved. Before that, Adam and Eve were free to be who God had made them to be: people created in His image, people who perfectly feared, loved, and trusted in God above all things, people who perfectly loved one another as they loved themselves (perhaps even more than they loved themselves). But in listening to the devil, who deceived them into thinking that they would be truly free only once they had shaken off the shackles with which God had bound them, Adam and Eve became enslaved. Not only did they become slaves under the devil, their new lord whom they now had no choice but to serve, but they also became slaves to sin and death - all of these tyrants from which they could never free themselves.
And this is the reason why God came into this world in our flesh as a Man, so that He might restore to us the freedom we once had in the garden, the freedom to be the creatures He created us to be. But in order to do this, He Himself had to become enslaved, not by disobeying God as we had done, but by taking our disobedience as His own, by becoming the sinner in our place, by placing Himself under the tyranny of death and the devil for us.
Now, we would still be enslaved, had Jesus not overcome these enemies for us. If He had remained enslaved under sin, death, and the power of the devil, He would be a poor Savior, in need of someone to save Him, let alone us. But with His resurrection from the dead He demonstrated His power and authority over these slave drivers, thereby showing that with His sacrifice on the cross He had completely atoned for our sins once for all, taking away the right of the devil to condemn us before God or to threaten us with death, since death itself had now been overcome by Jesus. Those who trust in Him and are clothed with Him in Baptism have the sure and certain promise that they now live as His free people, having been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of grace and mercy, where they now serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, having the hope of their own resurrection from the dead and the life of the world to come to look forward to.
This freedom Jesus has obtained for the whole world. The whole world has been ransomed from the devil and reconciled to God objectively through Christ’s finished work on the cross. But no one would know about this freedom which Jesus has achieved for us, unless it were published and proclaimed. This is why Jesus tells His disciples that the harvest is plentiful. The world is ripe for gathering in the Lord’s wheat - those who will repent of their sins and believe the Gospel. But there are two apparent problems - not that they actually are obstacles for the Lord, but that they appear to be, namely, that there aren’t enough laborers to bring in the harvest and that the laborers must enter into the Lord’s harvest as sheep among wolves. Concerning the first of these obstacles Jesus tells His disciples to pray earnestly that He, the Lord of the harvest, send out more laborers into His harvest. Concerning the second, Jesus gives His disciples the authority to heal the sick, cast out demons, and proclaim that the kingdom of God has come near, regardless of how they might be received. But neither the lack of laborers, nor the attacks of the wolves will keep the Lord’s message of freedom from being proclaimed in the world. Neither will keep Jesus from bringing in the full measure of His harvest. But in teaching His disciples that they should pray that He send more laborers into His harvest, Jesus shows that the way He chooses to gather people into His kingdom is by using human agents to do the work. He could use angels. He could do it Himself. But instead, He puts His Word into the mouths of those whom He sends, in order to make His salvation known to the world, that the harvest might continue to increase.
Who are those whom He sends? In this case, they were the 72 disciples that were following Him at the time. They were sent on ahead of Him, two by two, to the towns where He was about to go. Theirs was a specific mission for a specific period of time. But the fact that Jesus tells them to pray earnestly to send more laborers into His harvest tells us that the harvest is much larger than just these 72 could handle. That harvest continues today as every member of Christ’s Church is sent into the Lord’s harvest every day, as they work in their little corner of the Lord’s field in whatever vocation or calling they may find themselves. At the end of his Gospel account Luke writes that Jesus told His disciples, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem...” And so, the original Apostles were sent to gather in the Lord’s harvest. But not them alone. The work of gathering in the harvest didn’t end with their death. Instead, it continues today, where the laborers are not only pastors, but you too. Wherever the Lord has placed you in His field, there you are a laborer in His harvest, armed with His Word to proclaim freedom in Jesus.
It’s the freedom you now enjoy in Jesus, the freedom from sin, death, and the power of the devil, the freedom to fear, love, and trust in God above all things, the freedom to love your neighbor as yourself, the freedom to live as the child of God that you are now by way of your Baptism into Christ. You may not have the same authority to heal people of their diseases or cast out demons, as these 72 had been given, but you do have the same Word, which frees people from their slavery under the devil and promises them eternal life, the resurrection of their bodies, and the life of the world to come. To you too even the demons are subject in Christ’s Name, as you wield His Word against them. As verse 3 of the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is our God” goes: “Though devils all the world should fill, all eager to devour us, we tremble not, we fear no ill; they shall not overpower us. This world’s prince may still scowl fierce as he will; he can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; one little word can fell him.” That little word is the Word of the Gospel. With that Word Satan is cast out of heaven, no longer able to have an audience with God to stand before Him and accuse you of sin.
For this reason, Jesus points out that the greater thing to rejoice in is not that the spirits are subject to you, but that your names are written in heaven. In the book of Revelation the Apostle John writes about the Book of Life in which the names of all those who have been redeemed by Christ have been written. To have your name written in heaven is to have it written in this Book of Life. For your name to be written in this Book means you have eternal life. How do you know your name is written in this Book? John writes, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” And you know you have Jesus, because He has given Himself to you in His Word, in your Baptism, and in His Holy Supper. You who once were one of the wolves yourself and an enemy of God have now been reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus, your Good Shepherd, and are now one of His sheep. You who once were chaff in danger of being gathered up and thrown into the fire of God’s wrath are now the Lord’s wheat which He will gather up into the barn of His heavenly kingdom on the day He returns. In the meantime, though the devil, the demons, and the wolves of this world try to harm you, they’ll lose in the end. The victory has already been won by Christ. They are defeated foes, who cannot separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You are God’s free people in Jesus. You are free to love Him and your neighbor as Jesus has loved you. You are free to pray that the Lord send more laborers into His harvest and free to be one of those laborers yourself in whatever vocation you find yourself, so that through your witness others may also enjoy the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ. And though you may be rejected as you proclaim these freeing words to people, those who hear you when you speak His Word hear Jesus Himself. If they reject you they reject Him.
On this day, then, when we rejoice in the freedoms that we enjoy here on earth as citizens of the U.S., let us also rejoice in the freedoms that we enjoy now as citizens of the kingdom of God for Christ’s sake, who with His holy precious blood and His innocent suffering and death has delivered us from sin, death, and the power of the devil, that we might be His own, live under Him in His kingdom, and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead and lives and reigns for all eternity. This is most certainly true! Amen.