ALL ON LEVEL GROUND
Text: James 2:1-10
"A deplorable incident happened in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. He said that in his autobiography that during his student days he was interested in the Bible. Deeply touched by the reading of the Gospels, he seriously considered becoming a convert. Christianity seemed to offer a real solution to the caste system that was dividing the people of India. One Sunday he went to church to see the minister and ask for instruction on the way of salvation and other Christian doctrines. But, when he entered the sanctuary, the ushers refused him a seat and suggested that he go back and worship with hi own people. He left and never went back. "If Christians have caste difference also," he said to himself, "I might as well remain a Hindu." (Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 150). Those ushers who refused Gandhi a seat had made an error when they refused one whom Jesus Christ would have welcomed. James 2:1-10 is one of the Biblical passages that addresses the kind of error that people like these ushers sometimes make. The ground is level at the cross and we are all on level ground in Jesus Christ!
CHRISTIAN EQUALITY
Christian equality means that Jesus Christ did not discriminate as to who He came to save. Jesus Christ did not and does not show favoritism! Jesus paid the price for all our sins (First Corinthians 6:20) in full (John 19:30), on the cross. All who are Christian have been baptized into Jesus Christ whereby we have been buried with Jesus in our baptism and raised with Him in His resurrection so that we walk in the newness (Romans 6:3-5) of the abundant life (John 10:10) that Jesus has given us. It is in this newness of life that we are freed from how we were once slaves to sin (Romans 6:6,7), because in Jesus Christ, we are new creatures (Second Corinthians 5:17). Jesus came and broke down all the barriers that divided us so that the ground is level at the cross! Consider Galatians 3:28:-29: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise (RSV)". From all of these things we clearly know that Jesus does not discriminate.
Our actions for better or worse, give a witness as to what we believe about how we are all one in Jesus Christ. Why is it that if Jesus Christ has broken down the dividing barriers, that sometimes we as Christians act in ways as if we are putting the barriers back up? It seems that in every country and culture there is a type of caste system that exists between the "haves" and the "have nots".
It has been said that, "Because we wish others to think well of us, we are prone to substitute image for action. … The ultimate aim of the Christian life is not to look good but to do good. God calls us to serve not just to shine". (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988, p. 123). Jesus Christ mentioned that the way we shine and the way that we serve are related when He said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16 RSV).
Our faith in shining and our good works in our Christian service go hand in hand because "faith without works is dead" (James 2:17). Christianity is about both our humility and service to each other because we are the keepers of both our brothers and sisters (Genesis 4:9).
There is not supposed to be any division within the body of Christ and we are supposed to have equal concern for one another (First Corinthians 12:25). It is when our concern for each other is genuine that we hurt when our Christian brothers and sisters hurt and rejoice when they rejoice (First Corinthians 12:26). We are members of one another (Romans 12:5). Where is there Christian equality when we give great honor to someone wealthy who is oppressive to the poor and less fortunate at the expense of someone poor and less fortunate (James 2:1-3)? Behavior like that breaks the royal law of loving our neighbors as we love ourselves.
PRACTICING THE ROYAL LAW
When we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, we are practicing the "royal law" (James 2:8). I do not know who the author of this poem is but it is a poem that explains what it means to love our neighbor.
"Love is an attitude---love is a prayer,
For a soul in sorrow, a heart in despair.
Love is good wishes for the gain of another,
Love suffers long with the fault of a brother.
Love gives water to a cup that’s run dry,
Love reaches low as it can reach high.
Seeks not her own at the expense of another,
Love reaches God when it reaches our brother".
(Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 235). How well do we practice this "royal law" to love our neighbors as we love ourselves?
How well do we practice this "royal law" without discrimination? When Jesus Christ came to us, He came to us in the flesh as one of us---as He humbly took the nature of a servant in human likeness (Philippians 2:7,8). He came to us as the child of poor peasant parents. We need to remember that Jesus is royalty. When Jesus was born, the world broke its own rules about how to treat the "haves" and the "have nots". Jesus is a king who was treated as a "have not" which is not the way that the world normally treats royalty. The way that we sometimes show favoritism to those that we consider to be the "haves" at the expense of those that we consider to be "have nots" is sinfully wrong according to the Bible.
Jesus Christ expounded upon what it means to love our neighbors in His parable about the Separation of the sheep from the goats (Matthew 25:31-46). In Matthew 25:40,44 Jesus makes it clear that the way that we treat others is representative of how would treat Him: "... whatever you did ["not do" in verse 44] for the least of these my brothers of mine, you did for me" (NIV). At one time, there was a country music song (in the mid 1990’s) that was recorded by Colin Ray that was popular. That song asked this question, "What if Jesus comes back lack that"? In that song, Colin Ray was talking about when Jesus comes again, what if He comes in a guise we do not recognize? In Matthew 25, Jesus is talking about how He comes symbolically in the guise of others who are needy. Jesus is making the point that the way we receive or reject others is a symbolic representation of how we are treating Him. "... whatever you did ["not do" in verse 44] for the least of these my brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40 NIV). "Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he has promised to those who love him?" (James 2:5 RSV). Isn’t that why Jesus says "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?" (Matthew 5:3 NIV). The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) is also an example of what it means to love our neighbor.
One of the chief causes of the French Revolution was the way the "haves" slighted the "have nots". According to legend, when the common and less fortunate French people were starving, French Queen Marie Antoinette was put on record as saying insensitively, "Let them eat cake" during those hard times. She was later beheaded. It is also worth noting that someone has speculated that John Wesley was given credit for preventing what could have become an English Revolution. Someone (Elie Halvey) contends in a “controversial thesis” that Wesley’s genius in evangelism prevented a “French style English Revolution”: “Asserting that the Wesleyan revival sublimated, or redirected, the social energies of a disaffected citizenry away from poverty and unemployment toward spiritual goals …” (Leon O. Hynson. To Reform The Nation. Grand Rapids: Francis Asbury Press, 1984, p. 142). We can only wonder how the world we live in today might be different if those ushers had not turned Gandhi away when he was considering becoming a Christian. When it comes to Jesus Christ, the ground is level at the cross and we are all on level ground in Jesus Christ!
