The Truth Will Set You Free

Jesus was rejected at Nazareth when he proclaimed that he was the fulfilment of the prophecy: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has chosen me to bring the good news to the poor.' They dragged him out of his home town and took him to the top of the hill on which it was built, to throw him over the cliff (cf. Luke 4:16-30). On another occasion people who had professed belief in him took up stones to throw at him when he described those who did not obey truth as slaves of sin: 'If you obey my teaching, you are really my disciples; you will know the truth and the truth will set you free' (cf. John 8:31-59). These words of Jesus were unacceptable to many. He was sold for thirty pieces of silver, arrested, tortured and sentenced to death on false evidence by a fearful judge who was worried about his position. He was crucified and enclosed in a cell of stone. After three days he was raised by the Spirit of Truth to be the living witness of his own words: 'The truth will set you free.' In our own time the Birmingham Six, the Guildford Four and the Maguire Seven were delivered up by police in Judas fashion, condemned unjustly and locked away in tombs. For years only a few small voices cried out in the great wasteland of modern 'civilization'. One half of the media was intimidated and the other half bought. Was it Patrick Pear se used that phrase? The rich and powerful in Church and State were silenced by fear. But truth is never killed. It walks through the middle of the crowd and escapes. It hides itself and leaves the Temple. It springs up and flowers like a seed in a tiny crack of concrete. It shines through a chink in the wall of the cell tomb. Man is a spirit. His word passes from spirit to spirit until it shatters the tombs of stone. The spirit of the Father passed to his dead son Jesus and set him free. Jesus had seen his own life ruined. He