Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God.” One cannot but wonder what kind of belief the gospel of John was talking about when the believers themselves wanted to kill Him. Obviously, not a true one. So, Jesus needed to add, “If you remain in my word, you will TRULY be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
The Jews misunderstood freedom just like our culture misunderstand freedom today. For the Jews, it was a matter of political liberation and lineage (freedom inherited from Abraham). For us today, freedom is liberty to do whatever we like, as long as we don’t interfere in other people’s freedom.
Our idea of freedom necessarily makes of the “other” the threat to our own freedom, and therefore our enemy. The importance of privacy today as compared with few years ago, is a symptom that we perceive the neighbour, not as the one that must be loved, but as a threat. This makes us enemies of each other. Believing without TRUE freedom, is just planting the seeds of a criminal culture: “but now you are trying to kill me.” Perhaps, we are not as far as we think from those believers in Jesus who tried to kill him.
