We talked last week about how the people of God are “in the apple of God’s eye.” First, that’s fantastic news for the people of God. Second, it probably has implications for us as we seek to represent God to the world. We know God cares because He is so close (to use David’s analogy in Psalms) we can see our reflection in His eyes.
My final point last week was that followers of Jesus – the church, collectively – ought to be so close to everybody that there is no one who is not in the “apple” of the eye of a follower of Jesus. It’s not a perfect analogy – the Bible portrays God’s people as being in God’s eye – but it seems fair that God’s image bearers who are far from Him should be in the eyes of His image bearers who are near to Him and filled with His spirit and truth.
One of the most important ways we can do this is by being close to show who are experiencing the broken groaning of a creation wracked by sin. We weep with those who weep (Romans 12:15) – we represent a God who is “near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18) and binds up their wounds (Psalm 147:3). Because Jesus has “borne our grief and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4), we help with the burdens people carry, knowing that our presence brings the presence of Christ in us, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).
Between the racial tension and the ongoing pandemic, there seem to be a lot of weeping, brokenhearted, burdened people right now, on all sides and from all perspectives. We often talk about individuals being raised up “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). I wonder what it looks like to think of the church being raised up for such a time as this.
I am going to illustrate this by looking at how we can be faithfully present in a country torn right now by racial strife. I have been reading a lot of comments about how the Bible only talks about one race – the human – race, and therefore if we get sucked into talking about racism we are buying into worldly categories of thinking.
That’s true in the sense that, while the world of the Bible thought of people, tribes, tongues and nations, people didn’t seem to segregate the world through the lenses of skin tone like we do. When Paul says on Mars Hill, “God made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth,” none of the philosophers batted an eye (Acts 17:26). A classic Bible verse about how divisive distinctions are overcome in Christ mentions Jews/Gentiles, slave/free, and men/women (Galatians 3:28) – three things from which Jewish men at the time thanked God for sparing them. In Paul’s response to that prayer, we see religious division, class division and gender division. In Corinth, the church was divided by social status - the veiled and unveiled women (1 Corinthians 11). In James, the church is divided by wealth.
But the good news of the gospel is that it breaks down culturally constructed barriers that segregate and divide people. God didn’t draw those lines of segregation – people did. And God had something to say about it. It has something to say about racism too. The Bible uses its current events to shows us how the process works so that we can apply it to our current events. Racism needs to be broken at the foot of the cross. So while I’m going to talk about a concept that is broadly applicable, I am going to illustrate this morning with what I just said in mind.
I have three points: sit with people, share the gospel, invest in lives.
Sit with people.
“What I need to hear from you is that you recognize how painful it is. I need to hear from you that you are with me in my desperation. To comfort me, you have to come close. Come sit beside me on my mourning bench.” Lament for a Son, Nicholas Wolterstorff
Let’s not be hesitant to mourn what needs to be mourned. I think that means we will mourn with everyone at some point, since we all get nailed by sin, either because we do it or someone else has done it. That’s worth mourning. Rather than looking at what camp that places us in culturally or politically, let’s look at the person in mourning and let’s just be faithfully present with them. That’s one thing Job’s friends got right. For a few days, they just sat with him. Didn’t try to fix him. Just sat with him. Just entered into his world and his pain. Nobody gives them any crap about that, because it was the right call.
It’s okay to sit in a mourning moment and do a very particular kind of weeping for a particular person or a particular situation.
It’s why Jesus could weep over Jerusalem when the whole world deserved weeping. (Luke 19)
It’s why Jonah went to Ninevah when lots of cities needed a prophet.
It’s why Jesus wept for Lazarus when lots of people died that same day. (John 11)
It’s why Jesus focuses on the 1 lost sheep even though the other 99 still matter. (Matthew 18)
It’s why we can sit on the bench with someone who is black and mourning in this cultural moment and say, “I am so sorry. Your life matters.” There is no need to add qualifications right now. I have spoken about the importance of all lives in this pulpit for years – how many times have we talked about all people being image bearers, and all Christians being part of the temple? We already talk about this. Surely, if Jesus can focus on the 1 that is in desperate need of attention and intervention for a time without us assuming the other 99 didn’t matter, we can focus on the few for a time without assuming it means we don’t care about the many.
There is a time to focus our time and our tears, not because no one else deserves it, or because no one else matters, but because “the little man in my eye” is mourning about something very personal, and we will too. It’s in the time of mourning that people learn that we care. We don’t know what to say. We aren’t sure if we should give them space or move close. We might not fully understand why they are mourning the way they are. In this moment they need a fellow human being who is also a follower of Jesus to get them in the apple of their eye, and sit with them, and just be present. We sit with them because we care; since we are ambassadors for Jesus, they learn that Jesus cares.
If we are “in Christ” and in His will, and representing His heart, and we follow the sound of weeping and then look up, we will at be sitting not just with friends, family and church members, but – to go back to last week’s sermon - with Samaritans, centurions, tax collectors, and prostitutes. Creating “little people in our eyes” will takes us places that make us look like “friends of sinners.” Which, of course, we are. Jesus was. Those being transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18) will be too.
If you look up and you see that’s where you are, I wouldn’t move. It’s where Jesus was. It’s a good look for followers of Jesus when we follow Him to where he went.
Preach the good news of the Gospel. Being faithfully present is not less than sitting with people, but it’s certainly more than that. If I have the cure for someone who is sick, and all I do is sit with them, that’s no good.
Me: I don’t feel so good, doc.
Doc: I can see that. I’m really sorry for you. You have epifungal gingivatonicitis.
Me: That’s not good. I didn't even know epifungal gingivatonicitis existed.
Doc: No, you didn’t.
Me:
Doc:
Me: So…. now what….
Jesus came for sick people in a sin-sick world. He is the Great Physician who gives the right diagnosis – sin is killing us – and the right cure – the blood of Jesus. Our faithful witness includes faithfully witnessing to the saving grace of the Gospel. [i]
If all we do is sit, that is comforting and important in and of itself, but it’s not what theologians call salvific: it offers a temporary good, but it’s not salvation.
Doctors give morphine to someone who is dying in tremendous pain. It won’t save them, but it’s better than letting them die in pain. If that’s all they can do, they will at least do that, and that’s a good thing. But what if they could have healed them, and all they offered was pain relief instead of telling them the good news? That’s an entirely different scenario.
We can do practical things that protect earthly life and bring earthly hope, and that’s not a bad thing. But we have life in Christ to offer; we have hope that the power of sin and death will not have the last word. Giving a cup of water to the thirsty is good news to those with parched throats; presenting the living water is euangelion – gospel – to those with parched souls.
So while we embrace the opportunity to offer temporary goods and advocate for earthly justice we must remember the Great Commission: we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel, the good news that, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we know that sin and death do not have the final word, and that broken people in a groaning world can find salvation and hope in Jesus.
You know who needs that kind of message delivered by Christians who are sitting so close to them they see their reflection in our eyes?
· the George Floyds of the world
· the policeman who killed him
· Ahmaud Arberry
· the guys who shot him
· heart-broken Black Lives Matter protestors
· Marxist revolutionaries fueling protests
· slandered law enforcement
· Antifa radicals
· Proud Boys and Boogaloo extremists[2]
· The rioter who burned a business to the ground
· The shop owner whose business burned to the ground
· Politicians who don’t want to waste a good crisis
It turns out, God so loved the world….that whosoever believes in him can be saved (John 3:16-17) in this midst of their scandalous sinfulness and brought to redemption, healing, and hope because the penalty and weight of the sins of the world were placed on his shoulders.
This means sinners can experience redemption.
This means terrible sinners can experience redemption.
It’s the scandalous nature of the Gospel.
We rightly love that Elizabeth Elliot forgave the murderers of her husband. We rightly love that Amish communities forgive shooters of their children. We rightly tear up when we see a youtube video of a courtroom scene where criminals who have done monstrous things are forgiven by the families devastated by their crimes.
We love watching people embrace the implications of that scandalous, grace-filled cross, because we know that’s how the gospel is supposed to play out.
Can we do it? Can we practice it? Can we look at everyone in our community and on our TV screen and genuinely pray for the salvation, forgiveness, and restoration that Jesus offers to them? Can we take that message to them?
Invest in our neighbors. By this I mean I think it’s important that we embed ourselves in our community. Here was God’s direction to the Jews in Babylonian exile:
“Build houses—make homes for your families because you are not coming back to Judah anytime soon. Plant gardens, and eat the food you grow there. Marry and have children; find wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, so that they can have children. During these years of captivity, let your families grow and not die out. Pursue the peace and welfare of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to Me, the Eternal, for Babylon because if it has peace, you will live in peace.” (Jeremiah 29:5-11)
There is something to be said for posturing ourselves such that we are “for” people around us in ways that align with the biblical model of care. The church in Acts shared their possessions to such an extent that all the needs were met in their church community. The church throughout history has taken care of more than their own, much to the dismay of the stingy governments that got shown up.[3]
We are not just the mouth and eyes of Jesus; we are the hands and feet of Jesus. Feet go places; hands do things for the sake of all the image bearers in our eyes, and we do it in the name of and for the glory of Jesus.
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[1] If someone had come to my father’s funeral and I said, “My dad’s life mattered,” and they said, “So does every other dad’s life,” that would have been true but it would not have been helpful. That funeral was about my dad. And I know there were people who sat with me and wept with me who had issues with my dad and rightly so - and they did not bring them up in my time of mourning. I learned them later, but not that day.
[2] Boogaloo - https://www.reviewjournal.com/investigations/boogaloo-arrests-reveal-new-extremist-agenda-to-hijack-protests-2047161/
Proud Boys - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/19/proud-boys-fbi-classification-extremist-group-white-nationalism-report
[3] Evangelicalism in the US was known for its practical (though imperfect) investment in the health of communities from the beginning
[i] Scripture verses that summarize the Gospel are sprinkled throughout the Bible. Here are some cited by JI Packer in the book, Grounded in the Gospel (I got this from https://jamesmirror.com/2011/12/12/bible-verses-that-summarize-the-gospel/):
§ He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:5)
§ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)
§ God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)
§ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name (Acts 10:43)
§ Through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the Law of Moses (Acts 13:38-39)
§ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (Rom. 4:25)
§ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)
§ Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures … he was buried. . . . The third day he rose again from the dead, according to the Scriptures . . . and he appeared (1 Cor. 15:3-6). Paul writes that this is the Gospel “I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved” (1 Cor. 15:1-2). In outlining it here, Paul asserts that “what I received I passed on to you is of first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3)
§ God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting men’s trespasses against them (2 Cor. 5:19)
§ God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor. 5:21)
§ Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David: this is my Gospel (2 Tim. 2:8)
§ He gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good (Titus 2:14)
§ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)
§ Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him (Heb. 9:28)
§ He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed (Peter 2:24)
§ Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God (1 Peter 3:18)
§ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10)