SUMMARY
In James 2, Karl Ihfe challenges the church to examine how favoritism — showing preference based on wealth, status, or social standing — contradicts the very heart of God. Drawing on the story of Jesus and the sinful woman in Luke 7, Karl reminds us that Jesus calls us not merely to tolerate people, but to truly see them as God does. Because mercy has been shown to each of us, we are called to extend that same mercy to everyone around us — for as James declares, mercy triumphs over judgment.
TRANSCRIPTION:
If you have your Bible, I invite you to turn over to James chapter two. We'll be there today as you're doing. So I was thinking this week, there's something that we all do, and we actually can't really help it either. We all size people up, don't we? When you see somebody, you can't help but start to put some snap, some pictures, mental pictures, and start to connect some dots in your head.
Now you look at all kinds of things. In seconds, you're beginning to form an opinion. We notice what people are wearing. We notice if they're smiling or not. We notice how tall or short.
We make assumptions about how they're dressed and what that might pertain to their economic status or their income level. We make all kinds of snap judgments. We look at their age, we maybe assume things about education level, their political opinions. Maybe we come across an opinion on social media and we start to form all of these opinions. And without even really thinking about it, in fact, advertisers have captured this.
And so when they want to sell you a particular product, they find an image that they find or that they think is going to resonate with you, and that's what they pair with whatever it is that they're trying to sell. That's kind of the way of the world. We think about it a lot. We begin putting people into categories, don't we? I mean, we tend to gravitate toward and hang out with those who are like us.
They think like us, act like us, look like us, talk like us. We tend to kind of shy away from people who don't. What about when we encounter somebody who we consider maybe is important, has some level of status? We have some ideas about that. What's interesting to me is that most of the time we don't even recognize that we're doing this.
It's not always in our conscious awareness. We think we're just seeing people as they are. But as it turns out, how we see people has been greatly influenced through this lens of what the world around us has, as said, is a value. You know, James is going to have a few thoughts on that today. He's going to challenge us in a couple of ways to think about how do we view people, how do we interact with them, what assumptions do we make about them, and how does that impact the way that we treat them?
We're in the third week of this series building resilient faith, thinking something together about how do we live in such a way that our faith grows stronger, not just in hard Times definitely through. So. But we don't just survive that, but that we actually thrive and our faith could actually grow stronger and more faithful. In fact, we looked the first week about learning to trust God in really difficult circumstances. James begins his letter by saying, consider it pure joy when your faith is tested, because God's building perseverance in us.
Last week we talked some about building our faith through obedience, that it's not just enough to hear God's word, but to actually put it into practice. And how resilient faith in times, especially of uncertainty or really difficulties, but when certainty is off the table, faithfulness is still available to us. And so are we going to continue to be faithful to what God has called us to do and how in doing so, and being a community that commits to that, the way that God can work and challenge and grow us in that, today we're going to look at maybe one of the more challenging areas where we try to build a resilient faith, and that's in relationships. You know, James will understand that resilience, the resilience of our faith is revealed not just in how we endure suffering, but it's also expressed in how we treat other people. He's going to have a couple of contrasts here that we're going to hear this morning.
Zach read this passage just a moment ago because the world teaches us something about how we see people, that it teaches us that we need to rank people. The goal of these interactions as the world teaches us to rank people. My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring in fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old 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, you stand there or sit on the floor here by my feet. Have you not discriminated against yourselves among yourselves and become Judges with evil thoughts? I mean, James gets right to the point. That's one of the things I love about James. He's very direct.
He gets there immediately. You can't claim allegiance to Jesus and then continue treating his people according to the world's standards. And he describes a situation that apparently wasn't all too common in the early church. Two people walk in the door. One of them is wealthy and dressed really well.
Seems to be somebody of status, somebody important. Another person walks in and they're poorly dressed, their clothes are filthy, and they don't seem to have much Going on. In fact, most of society would not pay much attention to them. And immediately we're told the church begins treating them differently. The wealthy man gets the best seat and the poor man gets pushed to the side.
I think it's interesting. Notice James doesn't say, and they asked the poor man to leave. No, no, they welcomed him in. They just treated him as if he didn't matter a whole lot. I think that might be one of the important distinctions that James is trying to raise in our awareness today.
You know, sometimes we assume that as long as we're welcoming people in, well, then we've kind of done our part. We've been the hands and the feet of Jesus. And James says, not close. That's actually not the thing. There's a difference between allowing somebody to be present and making them feel welcomed.
There's a difference between being friendly to someone and working to become a friend. There's a difference between everyone matters to God and treating everyone as if they matter to us. You see, the problem that James identifies is that the church had begun importing the values of the outside world around them into their community. You see, in the Roman world, status was really important. It mattered enormously if somebody was wealthy, if they came from the right family, if they had influence.
Public honor was incredibly important in the Roman world. It shaped how people were to be treated. But the church, James says, is supposed to be different. The church is supposed to be the place where everybody matters. Instead of challenging those values, the church had actually adopted them and decided who deserved attention, who.
Who deserved a place to sit and who didn't. And so James asked this really hard question. He says, do you realize what's going on? That you're allowing the values of the world around you to determine how you treat people rather than Jesus Christ? Now, I think it's still a temptation for us today.
We may not assign seats to somebody based on their income status. Hi, I'm Carl. You look rich. Why don't you come sit in the front row? We don't typically do that, but we have our own way of showing favoritism, don't we?
When we see people, we gravitate toward those that look like us. Same kind of opinions, they seem to match. Similar levels of success and influence. And we are drawn toward them. But we've also learned to keep our distance from others, haven't we?
Folks who are just. They're just complicated. You know, their life is just. It's a bit much. So I'm going to kind of keep you at arm's length, I'm going to not treat you the same way.
Maybe we have different expectations in life. Maybe they require more patience or more understanding or more grace. And I think one of the challenging questions that James is going to confront the church and us with today is, who do I instinctively move toward and who do I instinctively move away from? James is going to say, your instincts stink. Loose translation.
But our instincts actually betray us. They don't actually help us. He says, listen, my dear brothers and sisters, has not God chosen the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor. James is not trying to make this blanket statement of, if you're poor, well, then you're more faithful.
If you're rich, you're less faithful. Instead, he's reminding them, God, God's kingdom, the way that it values people is opposite of the way that the world does. I mean, the world overlooks the people. Excuse me, the world overlooks are often the very ones that God is doing incredible work in and through. And so he says, is it not the rich who are exploiting you?
Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Aren't they the ones blaspheming the noble name of him to whom you belong? James points out the irony of the people that they're honoring are the ones that are exploiting them, the ones who are suing them and dragging them into court. They're the ones that are blaspheming the name of Jesus. In other words, he says, they become so impressed by importance that they're willing to overlook character.
They're so influenced by success that they're overlooking the people that God values, God's children. Now, again, I know this would never happen in our church. This would never happen in our day, in our world. But that temptation exists that we might see people, their success, their influence, and then say, well, we're going to still honor them, even though they don't really have the character that God would call us to. The world teaches us to rank people, but Jesus, James will show us.
Jesus teaches us to see people. James isn't simply giving us a new set of rules now on how to treat people, but he's inviting us to an entirely different way of how we see and how we interact with those that we come up with. And to do that, we have to return back to where I think James learned this lesson, and it was from his brother, Jesus. Maybe you remember the story in Luke chapter 7, where Jesus is invited to a Pharisee's house. His name is Simon, he invites him over for dinner.
And while he's there we're told that a woman in the city, that everybody knew who she was, they knew her bad reputation, she heard that Jesus was going to be there for dinner. So she shows up and she gets into the house and she's actually standing behind Jesus. And Luke tells us she's weeping. In fact, she's weeping so much that it's washing over Jesus feet. And so she has her hair, and she's wiping his feet with her hair and she's kissing them and she's pouring perfume all over them.
And it's becoming a scene at this incredibly intimate and vulnerable and lavish expression of love, right? And Simon is horrified. I mean, he can hardly stand it. He can't believe what's going on. I mean, he knows this woman, he knows her reputation.
And he thinks if Jesus knew anything, if he really was who he says he is, he. He would know who she is too and he wouldn't have anything to do with her, right? He says if this man were a prophet, he'd know who this is, who's touching him and what kind of woman she is, that she is a sinner and notice what's happening. Simon's looking right at her, but all he can see is reputation. All he can see is her sin.
He's blind to the tears. He's blind to the vulnerability and to the pouring on of the perfume. He's blind to this expression of love. It actually just makes him uncomfortable. Now, before we try to start to treat Simon the way that Simon's treating this woman, isn't it true that we often behave this way ourselves?
I mean, we recognize we can take one thing about a person that we know and we can make a whole list of assumptions, can't we? I know you heard your kind before. You know those people. I just know one thing about you. But I can put it all together.
A decision you made. Maybe it's an opinion you shared sometime or maybe it's one of your mistakes and I know it. And that's now the lens through which I view you. And so I'm able to reduce you down to this little category of those people. And in doing so that makes it a lot easier for me to dismiss you.
And I don't have to feel bad about it because, well, you know who you are, you know what you did. But Jesus sees something that Simon doesn't. And so as he often does he says, simon, I have something to tell you. What is it, Rabbi? I'll tell you a story.
There's two guys. They owe money to the same lender. In fact, one of them owes a bunch of money and one of them not near as much. But as it turns out, neither of them could afford to pay the lender back. And you know what he does?
He cancels the debt of both. And he turns to Simon and he asks him a question. He says, which of those two will love that lender more, will be more thankful for that lender? And Simon replies, I suppose the one who had the bigger debt. Forgiveness.
Thanks, Captain Obvious. You have judged correctly, Jesus says. Then he turned toward the woman and he says to Simon, do you see this woman? That's an incredible question, isn't it? I mean, of course he sees the woman.
He's been preoccupied with her ever since she came in the room. He can't stop looking at her. In fact, all he sees is the disruption that she's causing. And he's so preoccupied as well that he's questioning whether Jesus sees. I think he might say, I see her.
Do you. Do you see her? Now, what's interesting is Jesus isn't just asking, obviously, do you physically see this woman here. He's asking whether do you see her? Is she a person to you?
Does she have thoughts and dreams and ideas and beliefs and hopes and fears? Is she more than just an object, that she's a child of God? I mean, can he see beyond the reputation? Can he see beyond the past, beyond the label that he's placed on her? Simon, do you see this woman?
See, Simon sees a sinner, and that's all he can see. And Jesus sees a woman whose extraordinary love and gratitude reveals who she really is. Therefore, I tell you, he tells Simon her many sins have been forgiven, as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little. I think it's fascinating.
Simon's main problem is not that he can't see this woman. Simon's main problem is he can't see himself. He can see all of her sin and he can't see his own. He recognizes it in her, but he doesn't see it in himself. He sees himself as someone who belongs at the table with Jesus and not her.
I mean, not those people. See, Jesus story reminds us that both debtors forgiveness, that it doesn't matter how much they owed, neither could repay. We were telling a story last night with some friends over dinner. Gabe was in the nicu his first 11 days and we got the bill in the mail, and it was $55,000. And as Kaylee and I were looking at one another going, it might as well be 555,000 or 5.5 million.
It doesn't matter. We don't have the. We cannot pay this. Jesus says both of these debtors needed forgiveness. Whether it was a lot or little, either they both needed it.
I wonder if that's sometimes why we struggle to see people, to love people. We've forgotten that the mercy that we're called to extend to them. We've forgotten that that mercy has been shown to us first, how desperately we need the very thing that Jesus says, can you not show this to her? And it turns out this wasn't an isolated moment in Jesus ministry. You may be thinking of other stories that come to mind, but Matthew tells us, as Jesus went throughout the town and the countrysides, all around Galilee, that he would see people and he had compassion on them.
Why? Because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Not as problems to be solved, not as annoyances to be avoided. You see, the mission of Jesus was rooted in the compassion of Jesus. And I think that's something that James is challenging this young church, but also maybe us today, too.
Because sometimes, even in church, we become so concerned with somebody's behavior, with their beliefs, with their political stances or their circumstances that we forget to care about the person. They just become those people. We forget that we're looking into the eyes of someone that was created by God, who Jesus was willing to die for. Now, it doesn't mean truth doesn't matter. Instead, what it means is truth must be always accompanied by love, by care.
The world teaches us to rank people according to their status, to their power, to their influence, to their usefulness to us. But Jesus says, no, no, no. We're to see all people through his eyes, through the eyes of mercy. Because when we begin to see people differently, it actually affects how we can love them. Which brings us back to James, who will show us that seeing actually allows us to love people.
If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, he says, love your neighbor as yourself. You're doing it right. James calls it the royal law. This is the kingdom law. It's the way of Jesus.
Love your neighbor as yourself. Now, of course, that's a simple thing. It's not complicated. But as we've all learned, if you follow Jesus, simple doesn't mean easy. It's not easy, but it is worth it.
Loving people the way that Jesus loves them. It requires us to move beyond our natural instincts. It requires us to see the dignity in people, even, maybe especially those with whom we disagree, that the world might say, you don't need to think about them, you don't need to worry about them. Just, just don't even pay attention to them. Right.
We're hearing loads of this kind of influence coming in, especially the next couple of weeks. We got an election coming. I don't know if any of you have been paying attention, but there's an election coming and you hear this vehemently from both sides. Don't worry about if you don't want. You don't want those people to be in charge because of we've just reduced people down to their lowest common denominator.
And James goes church, it should not be that way. He says if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law's lawbreakers. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. James doesn't say favoritism is an unfortunate personality trait. He says it is sin.
Favoritism is sin. And why? Because favoritism contradicts the very heart of God and his command to love one another and to love our neighbor as ourself. He says we cannot be the ones who try to determine who deserves more of our care, who deserves mercy, who deserves grace. James reminds us we don't get to pick and choose the laws that we get to follow of God's.
Says, if you follow everything but you stumble here, you're a lawbreaker just the same as somebody who doesn't follow the law. You're a law breaker a lot, A little. You've broken it. You can't make it right. We can't claim to honor God and disregard our neighbor and disregard his command to love him.
So then James puts it together and I think one of the more powerful statements in this little section of Scripture, the first half of chapter two, he says, speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
Mercy triumphs over judgment. That's the way of Jesus. And James says, if we're going to be Jesus people, it's the way that's got to become ours as well. You see, the mercy that we received from Jesus was intended to change how we treat people, how we interact with them, how we talk with them, how we treat them. He says it begins with Remembering how Jesus sees us.
See, the truth is, none of us comes perfect to Jesus. None of us comes with it all figured out with doing everything right and never making a mistake. As some have said, the ground is level at the foot of the cross. But one of the most remarkable things about Jesus is he doesn't turn us away. He comes to us with grace and truth.
He speaks truth into our lives. As so many other stories in Scripture where someone is stuck in sin. I was thinking this week of the story in John 8 of the woman caught in adultery. He's used very similarly, like the story in Luke, chapter seven. And Jesus says, go and sin no more.
You don't want this life. Live this life. But it comes on the heels of saying, did anyone condemn you? No. Well, then I'm not either.
Leave this life. You don't want this life. Right. Grace and truth. Just the beauty of how Jesus doesn't turn us away.
If we come to him with honest and open hearts, he still moves toward us. So when we truly understand that, it begins to change how we interact with the people around us and those that we come into contact with. We recognize that we're not standing above anybody, we're standing beside them. All both in need of the grace of God that can transform and change a life. Which leaves no room, James says, for favoritism, no room for superiority, no room for deciding that some people matter and some people don't.
The same mercy that welcomed us into God's family is that same mercy that we're called to extend to other people. So here's the question I'll leave you with today to be thinking about this week. Am I learning to see and treat people the way that Jesus does? Not just the people who look like me or think like me or act like me or dress like me or spend their money the way that I do? But maybe especially those who challenge me, those who frustrate me, those whom I might otherwise overlook, that my instincts will tell me, back off.
You remember the question that Simon was asked by Jesus? Simon, do you see this woman? I wonder who Jesus might be inviting you to see this week. Who have you reduced to a label, to a reputation, to a mistake?
Who have you decided isn't worth your time, not worth your attention? They're not worth your compassion. They don't deserve any of it.
Who have you favored simply because they're successful, they're wealthy, so much so that you'd even ignore their care? I don't know. They don't treat people. But you know what would happen. What might happen if before we passed judgment, we remembered mercy.
Mercy. I think it would change our relationships, don't you? I think it would change our church. I think it would change our city. I think it would change our world.
And it would give them a glimpse of a different kind of kingdom, a kind where resilient faith isn't simply built by strong trials. And it certainly is. It's not built just by obedience, and it is, but it's. It's the kind of faith that chooses to see people through the eyes of Jesus because, as James reminds us, mercy triumphs over judgment. God, may that be true of us this week.
As we go about in this world, especially these next couple of weeks, we're going to hear lots of things. We've already heard lots of things. We're going to be tempted to minimize and categorize and simplify, take really complex and hard issues and try to make them really simple. And too often we try to do that with people. God, would you help us to stop and think?
Mercy. Mercy. God, may we become the kind of people who regularly give the benefit of the doubt even, and especially to those that we don't agree with. May we be the kind of people, Lord, who see the goodness, others who can get past maybe even some of the most difficult conversations and at least remember that there's someone that you love, that's your son or daughter, that Jesus, you died for them, you were willing to give your life that they might be reconciled not only back to you, but to one another, to us. So, God, as we go about our life this week, as we encounter difficult people, and we will, God, would you help us to practice what you've taught us, not just hear it, but to actually do it?
God, would you build our faith as we learn to have meaningful, true relationships with one another? And God, it's going to be complicated and it's going to be really hard. And so God, would you give us your strength and your courage? And above all, God, would you give us grace that as we make mistakes that we would remember we are forgiven in Jesus name because of the work that you have done on the cross. And so God help us to live in light of that beautiful declaration that the tomb is empty and we now have life with you forever into eternity?
So, Father, would you help us to take our next step in building a resilient faith? This week we pray in Jesus name. Amen.