Sermon preached at The Bridge Church, North Vancouver- Jun 30, 2024
Intro
I don’t have to tell you that we are a celebrity-obsessed world. If someone’s an actor or a social media influencer, they get all kinds of special attention and treatment. Taylor Swift shows up at a football game and the cameras spend more time showing her than the game, a source of some frustration for football fans. I remember after the Raptors won the NBA championship in 2019, there were a bunch of restaurants in Toronto offering free food for life if Kawhi Leonard, their short-term star player, re-signed with the Raptors. I remember thinking, the guy’s going to make $50 million a year, I’m not sure free food at Rasta Pasta is going to move the needle. Of course, in the grocery store check-out, you’ll see a plethora of tabloids raving about this celebrity’s beach body or that celebrity’s affair. We’re obsessed with celebrity.
As often happens, that cultural dynamic finds its way into the church when people of high status, of renown, of economic success, are given disproportionate attention. A church I served at years ago as a youth pastor was a small church, but it was visited one Sunday by Cindy Klassen. She was a speedskater who was at that time Canada’s most decorated Olympic athlete in history. During the service, there was a sharing time, and somebody got up and was proclaimed, “hey everyone, Cindy Klassen is here, she’s a famous athlete, isn’t this great!” (Or something along those lines.) I don’t think she actually enjoyed that very much and no other guest got that kind of introduction. However, that’s small potatoes compared to what a well known megachurch in New York was doing a few years ago. They would literally have a VIP section for the famous and well-connected that would be set apart from all the “commoners.” People like Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, and Chris Pratt could come a few minutes before the service and have a seat reserved for them, while others would wait in line for an hour or two and get seats at the back. It was like a night club.
Maybe the surprising discovery is that this isn’t a recent phenomenon. In the 19th century, it was a common practice in some churches to “rent” pews. Essentially, if you were wealthy, you would pay a certain amount and have a prime seat reserved for every service you went to. The less wealthy would have to settle for the “free” pews on the edges of the sanctuary. One person coined this “pay per pew,” which is a great name for a horrible practice.
It’s crazy that we do this kind of thing when the Bible is pretty clear about how inconsistent it is with our faith in Jesus. It’s why we need to keep coming back to the Scriptures. It’s why we need to keep coming back to God’s character, because otherwise we find ourselves formed more by our culture than by our God. The passage in James 2 is one of the best places to do that for the issue I’ve introduced.
1. The issue (2:1-4)
My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. 2 Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. 3 If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4 have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
James 2:1-4
Let’s talk about this situation James gives us. You’ve got a worship gathering happening, a bit like the one we’re in now. Some well known, wealthy, well connected man comes in and the pastor rushes to greet him. He is shown around, encouraged to fill out a connect card, in the process filling the leaders with joy. “Look at our church! Look at how we’ve made it! We’ve got this guy coming to check us out! Can you imagine if he starts tithing? Can you imagine if he goes on Instagram and tells his millions of followers that he came to our church? What if he brings some of his other famous and wealthy friends? We could make it big!” Imagine the pastor introduces him to the ushers and tells them to make sure he gets the best seat possible, preferably somewhere somewhat visible so that everyone else is in awe that our church has this celebrity with us. We can even justify it. This guy’s influential. It’s strategic to invest a lot in him, to try to win him over and get him plugged in. Think about the impact it could have on a wider scale! It’s for the Kingdom! It would be irresponsible and dumb not to treat him specially.
But then James imagines another man entering the gathering with a very different backstory and appearance. He’s had a rough life. Nobody knows him. He smells bad. There are holes in his clothing. Maybe he seems a bit socially awkward. He’s not full of confidence like the rich celebrity. He shuffles around a bit, unsure of himself and this setting. The pastor looks at him and thinks, “ok, he’s here and that’s great, but he’s not adding much. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s going to be a drain on our resources. And he might make other people feel uncomfortable. Other visitors will look at him and think, ‘oh, if that’s the kind of person who goes to this church, I think I’ll go somewhere else. This is a church for smelly people, and I’m not smelly, so forget about it.'” So the pastor and the leaders kind of tolerate his presence. They conclude, “well, if he doesn’t have great things to say about our church, who’s he going to tell anyway? What are we losing in the end? Not much.” Maybe they suggest that the overflow seating in the side room would be a good place for this guy. You know, it’s his first time, he appears uncomfortable, maybe not being in the big group would be better for him. It’s for his sake, obviously! In the end, a couple of compassionate people might talk to him, but the majority shy away, hoping not to get involved. You can see it, right? This isn’t just a first century situation.
James gives us this image, and the indication from the following verses is that something like this was actually happening to the church of his day. There was favoritism occurring in the community James was writing to. Just like in our day, cultural influence was a factor. In the Roman legal system, for example, lower class people weren’t permitted to bring accusations against higher-class people. Penalties were harsher for the poor than for the rich. In theory, Jewish courts tried to avoid this, but just like today, the rich could still argue their cases more articulately or get others to do it for them. In other words, cultural institutions were set up in favor of the rich, which is a very common human thing to do. This had worked its way into the church, just like it does today.
However, James is clear immediately, in verse 1: believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. The Greek word he uses for that would be translated literally but awkwardly as “receiving the face.” That gets at the idea. Favoritism is treating people based on their external appearances. James is adamant that this should not happen among the people of Jesus. He says in verse 4 that when they do this, they have discriminated among themselves. The word there is the same as the one James uses in 1:6 when he talks about doubt. What we said a few weeks ago was that doubt is double-mindedness. It’s a determination to ride the fence and not commit to anything. It’s to content yourself with wavering back and forth depending on how you feel any given day. James is saying that their tendency to waver in their relationship with God is now being reflected in their treatment of one another in the church. They’re divided in their relationship with God, and now they’ve introduced division in the people of God between the rich and poor. The result is that they have made themselves like evil judges. He calls it evil. It’s not a mild flaw or fun little idiosyncrasy. It’s moral evil to show favoritism like this in the church.
That’s the issue, along with James’ clear rejection of favoritism. For the rest of the morning, let’s look at the three main reasons James gives for rejecting this kind of favoritism.
2. Inconsistent with God’s character (2:5-6a)
5 Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor.
James 2:5-6a
The first reason is that showing favoritism to the rich and well-connected is contrary to God’s own character. James says that God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom that he promised for those who love him.
Let’s make something clear: it’s not that God has only chosen the poor. A list of those who were wealthy and yet in right relationship with God would include Abraham and Job, both of whom James actually mentions favorably in this letter. It would also include people like King David, Joseph of Arimathea, Lydia in Philippi, and the Roman proconsul Sergius Paulus. But it is true that the early church was made up primarily of the socially disadvantaged. This is what Paul himself says in 1 Corinthians 1:
“Think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things and the despised things- and the things that are not- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.”
1 Corinthians 1:26-29
It’s a theme we see throughout the Scriptures. Christ’s coming signaled a great reversal. The first are revealed to be last, the last are revealed to be first. The powerful are brought low and humbled, but blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
There’s this great story in Mark that our men’s group looked at on Thursday morning that illustrates this. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem with the disciples and they’ve got a clear agenda about where they’re going. They leave the city of Jericho and a large crowd is gathered outside the city. One guy, named Bartimaeus, is blind. He panhandles for a living. He hears the ruckus, inquires who’s coming, and finds out it’s Jesus of Nazareth. Bartimaeus has heard about Jesus and believes Jesus is the Messiah. He shouts out, “Jesus Son of David”- a reference to King David and the Jewish belief that the Messiah would be a descendant of David- “have mercy on me!” The crowds around him tell him to shush up. They rebuke him. Obviously Jesus is important and has important things to do and important people to see, and obviously some blind beggar isn’t any of those things. He’s a nobody, and right now he’s an interruption. But the guy doesn’t care! You see, what he cares about much more than social approval is that he gets to Jesus. And here’s the great thing: Jesus hears his voice, stops everything, and calls him. Essentially, he chooses him, a blind beggar on the side of the road. Jesus asks Bartimaeus what he wants Jesus to do for him. Bartimaeus responds that he desires to see. Jesus informs him that his faith has healed him, or saved him- that’s another translation of that word. Bartimaeus receives his sight, leaves everything he has, and follows Jesus on the road.
What was it that set Bartimaeus apart? Just his poverty? I’m sure there were other people of low status there but who didn’t have this kind of audience with Jesus. What set Bartimaeus apart was his desperation for Jesus. That’s what one commentator on that story says: the kingdom of God is for the desperate. It was all about his determination to get to Jesus and his willingness to discard whatever shred of social status he might have had to get there. That’s why it’s more likely that the poor and marginalized will understand the Kingdom, because they have less to lose in the world. They’re not holding their wealth and status with the iron grip that many of the rich do. That’s why I don’t think we are to engage in a reverse favoritism either. In the end, it’s not about worldly wealth or poverty: it’s about desperation for Jesus. Hunger for his Kingdom is what counts.
Let’s add one more aspect to this first point James makes about favoritism toward the rich being inconsistent with God’s character. In verse 1, you get one of only two direct references to Jesus in this whole letter. What does it say? “Believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism.” Our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. The one who is glory. That’s what John says in the intro to his Gospel: “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son” (1:14). How did Jesus reveal his divine glory to us? By taking on flesh. But he didn’t take on flesh by being born in a palace to famous and rich parents, and he didn’t become Lord by raising up an army to go to battle with Rome. He was born of a virgin teenage girl, raised in a nothing town in the backwoods of Galilee and became Lord by dying the death of a criminal before being raised to life on the third day. Some of James’ readers had forgotten this. We do too. We slip into being impressed with worldly glory, the glory of nice clothes and fancy cars and impressive job titles, which are all fading away. This, while we’ve been saved by the Glorious One who rescued us by humbly taking on flesh and dying on the cross. Anything connected with Jesus is real glory. Worldly glory is a passing facade.
Again, it’s not that God is against the wealthy or high status people. It’s not that He’s unwilling to save them. It’s that He is for the hungry and thirsty. He is for those who come to Him in humble dependence because their hope isn’t in the things of this world. When Christians in James’ day or in ours discriminate against those who are poor in the eyes of the world, we are dishonoring the very people who Jesus, the glorious Son of God, had such a heart for. We are being inconsistent with His own character.
3. Nonsensical (2:5b-6)
That’s the first reason James speaks so forcibly against favoritism towards the rich. We could say that the second reason is that this favoritism is nonsensical.
Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? 7 Are they not the ones who are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong?
James 2:5b-6
James reminds them that at the same time they’re showing favoritism to the elites, it is these high-status people who are exploiting them, dragging them into court, and blaspheming the name of Jesus in the process. What James teaches here is a glimpse into the socio-economic reality of the first century world, even in Judea. It seems that at that time, there was a relatively small group of wealthy landowners and merchants who were becoming increasingly more powerful. This is nothing new. Already hundreds of years earlier, back in Isaiah 5:8, God proclaimed, “woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.” That was in the 6th century BC. In the first century AD you had people who were accumulating more and more, and in the process booting people out of their homes and off their fields. There might be a parallel there to some contemporary practices where wealthy people use loopholes to evict tenants so that they can charge higher rents- some of you know about that firsthand. We might also think about money lenders who charge exorbitant interest rates to people who are already in a financial hole, sending them even further in an economic pit as they pile up debt payments.
James writes that not only are believers in Jesus being exploited and dragged into court, but their wealthy exploiters are blaspheming the noble name of him to whom they belong- in other words, Jesus. These social elites disdain the name of Jesus. I was talking to one man at our church who has recently put his trust in Jesus. A few of his co-workers were in a conversation and one guy began ranting about how much he hates Scottie Scheffler, the world’s best golfer. My friend asked why. His co-worker launched into a profanity laced rant about how Scottie Scheffler is always talking about Jesus and how stupid this is. How could anyone be such an idiot to be thanking God for the good things in their life? My friend reported that this was his Christian coming out party. His co-worker is asking how anyone could be so stupid as to believe in Jesus, and my friend says, “I do.” And his co-worker replies, “yeah, but it’s not like you really believe in him, it’s not like you pray to him.” And my friend tells him, “yeah, actually I do.” “Well, it’s not like you’d go to church or something like that.” And my friend insists, “I was there yesterday, I go all the time.” Apparently the co-worker finally shut up at this point. Some of you would have similar stories of hearing the name of Jesus dragged through the mud by others.
James reminds his readers, that’s what happening, and you’re worried about their opinion? They have zero regard for you. They don’t care if they destroy your life and you’re tickled pink when some dude in nice clothes shows up? James isn’t saying, “get back at them for what they’ve done.” He’s not saying, “show them no love.” Actually, Jesus instructs us in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to pray for those who persecute us and to love our enemies. What James is getting at here is the attitude of desperation for the approval of those who are wealthy in the eyes of the world. We’re desperate because of what it might mean for our own status, even if those same people think you’re a gullible idiot for believing in Jesus. I notice that with Christians today who so badly want to be culturally respectable that they’ll compromise their beliefs to better fit in, to be more palatable to political authorities and social elites. Maybe they’re surprised when doing that doesn’t result in full-out revival among the unconverted. I think James would say, “what are you thinking? Why are you obsessed with getting approval from people who hate you and hate your Lord?” It doesn’t make sense.
4. Love your neighbour (2:8-13)
The third reason James says favoritism towards the worldly wealthy is so mistaken is because it is a breaking of God’s commands. He focuses on that from verses 8-13.
8 If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing right. 9 But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. 11 For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker. 12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
James 2:8-13
James says that to show favoritism is to break what he calls the “royal law”- the law of the Kingdom, the law of King Jesus. In the Gospel of Matthew, some Pharisees bring what they think is a real stumper of a question to Jesus: of all the commandments in the Bible, what is the most important one? What’s the greatest one? Jesus didn’t reply, “give me a second, I’ve got to google that.” He had an immediate answer: love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your and soul and with all your mind, and the second is love your neighbour as yourself. He said that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (22:40). My guess is James doesn’t mention the first commandment because he already implies it in verse 5 when he talks about God’s character towards the poor. If we love God, we’ll seek to be like Him. Here, the focus is more directly on our relationship with others, which is why he cites the second commandment about loving neighbours as yourself. Other New Testament writers sum up the Law this way too. The point is, dishonoring the poor because they don’t “do anything for you” and might even give you lower status if you hang out with them is clearly not loving your neighbour.
Then James says that if you break one law, you break the whole thing. That’s because these aren’t a series of individual, isolated commands. The same authority, the same God who tells us not to murder also tells us not to commit adultery. One commentary puts it this way: breaking God’s commands is not like taking individual rocks off a pile of rocks. When you do that, there are a few less rocks, but the pile is still intact. Law-breaking is more like taking one of those rocks and throwing it through a window pane. Maybe the rock only made contact in one spot, but the whole pane of glass is shattered. The point is that sin is not a small deal that we can quickly dismiss. You don’t get to say, “well, I don’t kill people, I don’t have affairs, I don’t steal from my neighbour, I don’t beat my children, therefore I’m honoring God in the majority of ways. He should be happy with that! So what if there’s this one area, where I dishonor people of low social status and show favoritism to the rich so that I can get ahead in life?” You might become a bit puffed up and think highly of yourself because you’re avoiding most of the big bad sins, unlike some of those messed up broken people out there. No, James writes, you’re a lawbreaker. When you break it one place, you’ve rebelled against the God who gave the whole of it.
And this is why, aside from the favoritism issue, we need mercy. Every single one of us needs mercy, because we are all lawbreakers. James ends by teaching that judgment will be shown without mercy to those who have not been merciful, and that mercy triumphs over judgment. We need mercy. If we understand that and receive it, then we’ll show mercy to others, including those the rest of the world looks down on.
Jesus told a parable that some of you are familiar with. There was a man who owed a huge debt to the king, a debt so massive he would never, ever have been able to pay it back. He was going to lose everything, so he begged the king to have mercy on him and give him more time to pay back the debt. The king had such compassion that he didn’t extend the repayment timeline. He forgave the entire debt. Now, that same man was owed some money by another fellow servant, an amount that was a tiny fraction of what he himself had owed the king. On his way out of the king’s presence, freshly forgiven, he came across this fellow servant. He grabbed him by the neck, pushed him against a wall, and demanded that he get his money back. This fellow servant begged him for mercy, pleaded with him for more time. But the man refused and had his fellow servant tossed into prison. When the king heard what had happened, he was outraged. He hauled the man in and rebuked him, “shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” The man was then handed him over to the jailers to be beaten. If you have received mercy, shouldn’t you give it to others?
See, this is what it comes down to. If you have put your faith in Jesus and call yourself a Christian, do you understand how much mercy you’ve received? Do you understand that you are a lawbreaker and that you fall desperately short of the glory of God? No matter what your earthly status is, no matter how much wealth or fame you’ve accumulated, in God’s sight there’s not really any difference between you and the poorest, saddest, most broken beggar on the streets. You need mercy as much as he does. And God has given it through Jesus Christ. His mercy is greater than the judgment you and I deserve. The mercy that comes through the cross is greater than the judgment our sins should have received. How absurd is it, then, for followers of Jesus to turn around and judge others by the standards of the world? How bizarre is it to judge others according to their appearance, according to their status, according to their wealth? If you truly understand the mercy you have received as one who has rebelled against the glorious one, you yourself will display mercy in your interactions with others. That includes and perhaps is especially the case towards those the rest of the world disregards.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that we, the church, the people of Jesus, are to be different. In a world that is so stratified and focused on power and wealth and fame, we’ve been saved to be a different kind of people. We’ve been saved to be a people who reflect God’s character, a God who does not look at people the way we so often do but sees the heart. We are called to display mercy to the down and out, because it’s what He’s done for us. There should be no favoritism among us, because we are followers of the Glorious One who humbled himself and went to the cross for us.