James 2:5

Remember Rosa Parks?  She is the African-American woman known for staying in her seat in a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955 when the bus driver moved the “Colored Section” sign to accommodate white passengers.  African-Americans had long been relegated to a sort of second-class status.  Our culture and our laws were set up to remind them of their status, and where they could sit was a big part of it.  Where you sat said something about your status back then.  Sitting up front meant you had higher status.  Sitting in the back meant you had lower status.

The same was true in the ancient world.  “My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism,” James writes.  “Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in.  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, ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4 NIV).  In Jesus’ day, social status was an even bigger deal than it is today.  If you were poor, then you had to sit further away from the action, and you had to sit lower down, by a person’s feet.  If you were wealthy, then you would sit closer to the action and higher up.  It all sent the message that people with more status were more important.  People with more money, more power, better looks, and better connections were more important than people with little money, no power, bad looks, and no connections.  Unfortunately, some Christians carried those attitudes with them when they came through the doors into worship.  They invited people with high status to take the best seats, and they directed people with lower status to worse seats.  In other words, they let the world’s assessment decide where people would sit.  James warns them against such favoritism, because it makes people into “judges with evil thoughts” (James 2:4 NIV).

What would cause the Christians in the ancient world to show favoritism?  The same attitude that tempts us to show favoritism in our day:  thinking too highly of yourself.  You can have high status only if someone else has low status.  If everyone has the same status, then no one is more or less important than anyone else.  If everyone has the same status, then no one gets special treatment.  So people with high status forget that their money, power, and status are gifts from God, and they think too highly of themselves.  People whose status is lower want to move up in the world, and so they curry favor with people of high status.  “Here, sir, sit here, please, and by the way, may name is Tim Jones, and I really like what your business is doing.”  In other words, “Notice me!  Notice me and help me move up in the world!”  Everyone wants to sit at the head table, and so everyone begins to discriminate and judge, and God condemns it.

God’s kingdom comes through faith, not through earthly status.  “So the last will be first, and the first will be last,” Jesus said (Matthew 20:16 NIV).  It is not your money and your power and your social standing that decide where you sit in the kingdom of God.  It is God’s own gracious mercy and love, poured out on us through his Son, our Savior Jesus, who gave his life as the lowest of the low in order give us seats in the kingdom of heaven.  Your status in the kingdom of heaven is measured by faith, my dear friends, and faith cannot be measured at all.  Where you sit in this world means nothing for the kingdom of God.  Where you sit in the kingdom of God is all a gift from God.

In fact, where you sit is not even the most important question.  Christ came to give you a seat in the kingdom of God, but when he came, he came to kneel in service to you and to me and to every person on the face of this planet.  So the question is, where do you kneel?  Are you too good to serve those who have less money than you?  Are you too good to serve those who have less power than you?  Are you too good to serve those who have less status than you?  If so, then you are too good for the kingdom of God.

Anyone can serve a rich man, because there’s money in it.  Anyone can serve a powerful woman, because there’s power in it.  Anyone can serve a family of high social standing, because they can help you move up in the world.  But that’s not service—not if it’s the kind of work that turns your nose brown.  That is kneeling at the feet of the rich and powerful in hopes of sitting at the head table one day.  But a seat at the head table won’t do you any good when you are thrown out of the kingdom of God.

Our Savior Jesus came as a poor man, as a man without power, as a man of low social status.  He was born in a stable among the farm animals—no silver spoon in his mouth.  He came as the child of a working man and a country girl—no influential family to give him the fast track to the top.  He died on a cross, the fate of notorious criminals—no social standing for him.  Indeed, as Paul writes, though “being in very nature God, [he] did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness” (Philippians 2:6-7 NIV).  In other words, Jesus was God who came as a man.  He was the prince of heaven, but he came into a humble family in a humble town.  He could not rely on his family to make him wealthy, and he could not rely on his connections to save his life, and he could not rely on his status to rescue him.  He was totally dependent on our heavenly Father.  He trusted our Father so fully that he was fully free to serve you and me.  He said, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28 NIV).  God himself knelt down in the person of Jesus to serve us sinful creatures, just as he knelt down and served the disciples when he washed their feet on the night when he was betrayed.

God’s kingdom comes not through your wealth or your power or your status.  It comes solely through faith in this Jesus Christ, who knelt down to serve you and me.  “Listen, my dear brothers: 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 to those who love him?” (James 2:5 NIV).  Yes, he has.  Our Savior Jesus was poor in the eyes of this world, yet in his humanity he was rich in faith, entrusting himself to our heavenly Father in life and in death.  You and I have nothing that would cause God to give us a place in his kingdom, but through this Jesus Christ he shows us how poor we are.  Indeed, when we see a poor widow who never worries about money because she trusts God to provide for her, when we see an impoverished family who rejoices to worship together in church because they know that they will inherit the kingdom of God, then we are reminded how poor we all are before God.  We stop scratching and clawing other people in order to make another dime; we stop stepping on other people in order to gain power in this world; we stop discriminating between rich and poor in order to move up in society.  Instead, we entrust our lives to the God who knelt down to serve us in the person of Jesus Christ.  We kneel down in prayer beside our brothers and sisters in Christ, be they wealthy or poor, powerful or weak, influential or lowly.

And when we kneel down with them, we stand with Christ, who is risen from the dead and now stands with all of God’s children.  “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?” (James 2:15-16 NIV).  First of all, you have simply wished your brother or sister well without helping them get well—your brother or sister, for whom Christ gave up his life and with whom Christ is now standing.  Failing to help your brother or sister, you have taken a stand against Christ!  Second of all, you have displayed a faith in some god besides the God who knelt down to give you His all although you were beneath him.  You have displayed faith in the good of money or power or social status.  Will this always mean giving your brother or sister money?  No, because sometimes they need other help.  But help them you will, because you are standing with Christ, and so you are standing with all of God’s children, whether they are wealthy or poor, powerful or weak, influential or lowly.  In the words of Psalm 35:18 (NIV), “I will give you thanks in the great assembly; among throngs of people I will praise you.”  Christ is risen from the dead for you, and so you stand with all his saints.

The story is told of a well-to-do church with a well-to-do pastor in a well-to-do suburb.  Each Sunday they gathered for worship, and each Sunday they gave thanks to the Lord with their offerings, some of which were used to support a food bank down in the city.  By and large, however, they were never confronted with anyone of lower social status.  One day, however, a young man wandered into the church during the sermon.  His green, spiked hair drew the attention of most worshipers immediately, and they then noticed the nose ring and the various piercings.  His t-shirt was dirty and tattered, and his shoes were visibly worn.  The young man slowly made his way toward the front of the church, oblivious to the staring people.  When he reached the front, eyes focused on the preaching pastor, he sat down on the floor.  The people then noticed the old man, and elder and an usher, limping toward the front of the church, hand heavy on his expensive, ornate cane.  “It’s too bad,” they thought, “but it’s got to be done.”  The preacher continued preaching, although only the young man with green hair was listening.  The old man continued toward the front.  The people continued wondering how the young man with green hair would respond when the old man did what he had to do.  The old man reached the front, and he bent down toward the young man, and then he sat down there on the floor next to the young man, and he turned his eyes to the pulpit.  And there they sat, the young man with green hair, and the distinguished old man with an ornate cane, and they listened to the word of God together.

David Loy is the Pastor at Zion Lutheran Church in Bolivar, Missouri.