Scripture reading: Psalm 146.
Sermon text: James 2:1-17.
THE LANDLORD’S MISTAKE
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WHEN John Adams was president and Thomas Jefferson was vice president of the United States, there was not a railroad in all the world.
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People did not travel very much. There were no broad, smooth highways as there are now. The roads were crooked and muddy and rough.
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If a man was obliged to go from one city to another, he often rode on horseback. Instead of a trunk for his clothing, he carried a pair of saddlebags. Instead of sitting at his ease in a parlor car, he went jolting along through mud and mire, exposed to wind and weather.
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One day some men were sitting by the door of a hotel in Baltimore. As they looked down the street they saw a horseman coming. He was riding very slowly, and both he and his horse were bespattered with mud.
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“There comes old Farmer Mossback,” said one of the men, laughing. “He’s just in from the backwoods.”
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“He seems to have had a hard time of it,” said another; “I wonder where he’ll put up for the night.”
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“Oh, any kind of a place will suit him,” answered the landlord. “He’s one of those country fellows who can sleep in the haymow and eat with the horses.”
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The traveler was soon at the door. He was dressed plainly, and, with his reddish-brown hair and mud-bespattered face, looked like a hard-working countryman just in from the backwoods.
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“Have you a room here for me?” he asked the landlord.
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Now the landlord prided himself upon keeping a first-class hotel, and he feared that his guests would not like the rough-looking traveler. So he answered: “No, sir. Every room is full. The only place I could put you would be in the barn.”
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“Well, then,” answered the stranger, “I will see what they can do for me at the Planters’ Tavern, round the corner;” and he rode away.
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About an hour later, a well-dressed gentleman came into the hotel and said, “I wish to see Mr. Jefferson.”
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“Mr. Jefferson!” said the landlord.
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“Yes, sir. Thomas Jefferson, the vice president of the United States.”
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“He isn’t here.”
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“Oh, but he must be. I met him as he rode into town, and he said that he intended to stop at this hotel. He has been here about an hour.”
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“No, he hasn’t. The only man that has been here for lodging to-day was an old clodhopper who was so spattered with mud that you couldn’t see the color of his coat. I sent him round to the Planters’.”
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“Did he have reddish-brown hair, and did he ride a gray horse?”
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“Yes, and he was quite tall.”
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“That was Mr. Jefferson,” said the gentleman.
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“Mr. Jefferson!” cried the landlord. “Was that the vice president? Here, Dick! build a fire in the best room. Put everything in tiptop order, Sally. What a dunce I was to turn Mr. Jefferson away! He shall have all the rooms in the house, and the ladies’ parlor, too, I’ll go right round to the Planters’ and fetch him back.”
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So he went to the other hotel, where he found the vice president sitting with some friends in the parlor.
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“Mr. Jefferson,” he said, “I have come to ask your pardon. You were so bespattered with mud that I thought you were some old farmer. If you’ll come back to my house, you shall have the best room in it—yes, all the rooms if you wish. Won’t you come?”
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“No,” answered Mr. Jefferson. “A farmer is as good as any other man; and where there’s no room for a farmer, there can be no room for me.”
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— Source: “The Baldwin Project: Fifty Famous People by James Baldwin,” available online: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=baldwin&book=people&story=mistake, last accessed 7 September 2012
“You always have the poor with you.” — Jesus, Matthew 26:11
Every civilization in history has experienced economic inequalities. In every civilization, some people managed to excel and rise above the crowd, while others failed to meet the average. Even the rare society that tries to eliminate inequalities will find that some people will exploit any slight advantage, while other people will somehow squander any opportunity they receive.
The Roman Empire certainly witnessed massive inequalities. At times in its existence, as much as one-third of the entire population lived in slavery. Most of the rest of the Empire’s population lived in poverty, with most of the wealth concentrated in the hands of the patrician or equestrian classes.
The first years of the Church demonstrated the results of this inequality. The first Christians came primarily from the lower classes of the Empire from Judea, one of its poorest provinces. Poor Jews flocked to Jesus everywhere He went, and they responded in great numbers to the gospel. St. Paul constantly found himself requesting offerings from the Greek churches to send to Christians in Jerusalem and Judea (1 Corinthians 16:1-3; 2 Corinthians 9; Galatians 2:10). Throughout the history of the Church, it seems the poor accept the gospel first in every new area penetrated by missionaries and evangelists.
Yet, it seems that every generation and every society has confronted the danger of favoritism. One of my professors at Beeson Divinity School once said, “Every church looks for 3 qualities in deacons: Affluent, administrative, and articulate.” Most churches seem to desire new members with those qualities as well.
St. James, the brother of Jesus, faced the situation head-on in the sermon text today. The admonitions of St. James still apply to the Church, even here in the richest nation in the world.
St. James began the passage by warning, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” St. James then quickly specified the type of favoritism he intended to address. “For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ while you say to the poor man, ‘You stand over there,’ or, ‘Sit down at my feet,’ have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?”
We don’t face this too much here in America, where it seems even the wealthy frequently “dress down” most of the time. I work on one college campus here in Tuscaloosa and teach on the other campus. I’ve noticed you can rarely tell students’ economic class by their clothing because they usually dress alike. In first-century Judea, the rich dressed as their status required, so distinguishing a person’s economic class rarely took very much effort. In St. James’ example, a wealthy person who walked into a congregation instantly received the best treatment by everyone, even at the expense of a poorly dressed person who walked in with him.
St. James condemned those who acted this way. “Listen, my beloved brothers, 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?” Again, as in first-century Judea, the poor and oppressed usually receive the gospel before the powerful and influential. By discriminating against the poor, St. James said, “You have dishonored the poor man.”
It’s hard for us to understand St. James’ point unless we remember something: Everyone stands on equal footing before God. Every person needs salvation. All those who have not confessed Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection, stand in judgment before God. All those who confess Jesus as Lord and believe in His resurrection stand justified before God. God literally makes no distinction based on race, economic status, or any other artificial difference recognized by humans. When we “dishonor the poor,” we fail to recognize their standing before God.
Usually, the rich and powerful “blaspheme the honorable name” of Jesus because the name of Jesus reminds them of their need for salvation. The powerful face the worst temptations that power can bring. The rich face the temptations of pride, lust, and greed far more than do the poor, and they usually dislike any reminder that their sins bring judgment. The gospel reminds the rich and powerful of their need for humility, because only the humble will admit they need the gospel.
Rather than show favoritism in any way, we must seek to “fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” Christians must always remember that Jesus stated this law as the second of His commandments that would fulfill the entire Law. We demonstrate our relationship with Christ when we love others as He has commanded us. When we “show partiality,” St. James said, we “are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” Those who discriminate against others fail to show mercy to others, even though “mercy triumphs over judgment.”
A living faith shows itself in loving others, but it also shows itself in the actions it compels us to take. St. James also wrote that a living faith requires us to go beyond platitudes and take action. “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”
A living faith will show in a person’s life; a living faith will result in action. “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” How have we shown the love of God for a person if we fail to take care of them? “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”
Our faith requires more than simply treating others equally before God. Our works do not save us, but the works we do must reveal the faith we confess and possess.
“So,” you ask, “what must I do to demonstrate my faith?” I believe St. James would remind us of the greatest commandments: Love God, and love others as we love ourselves. We must reach out to others as Christ reached out to us. We must seek to serve others as Christ served us with His death and resurrection. Lest we think that Christ will never call us to go outside our comfort zones, we must remember that He has constantly called the Church to reach beyond the powerful to love and serve the despised and oppressed.
There’s more to our faith than simple assent. A living faith will demonstrate itself in our treatment of others. The world will constantly oppress the poor and exalt the powerful. As we go into the world this week, remember that the man who may look like a mud-spattered farmer still stands in infinite worth before Christ, who died and rose again for his salvation.
