Easter Sunday 4/16/17

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Sunday April 16th
James 5
I read a story that Joel Osteen told about a Hindu priest, a Jewish rabbi, and a televangelist who were taking a trip together when their car broke down. They decided to walk to a nearby farmhouse and ask the farmer if they could spend the night there. The farmer told them that he only had room for two of them in the house, so one person would have to sleep in the barn behind the house. 

The Hindu priest volunteered to sleep in the barn, and they all went to bed. Five minutes later there was a knock on the back door. It was the Hindu priest. He explained that he hadn't known that there was a cow in the barn, and that as a Hindu he couldn't sleep in a barn with a cow because cows were sacred in his religion. 

The rabbi said that a cow wouldn't bother him, and he volunteered to take his place in the barn. Everybody went to bed, but five minutes later there was a knock on the back door. It was the rabbi. He explained that he hadn't known that there was a pig in the barn, and there was no way he could sleep with a pig because it was unclean. 

Then the televangelist told everyone that neither a cow nor a pig would bother him, and he volunteered to take the rabbi's place. Everybody went back to bed and five minutes later there was a knock at the back door.
It was the cow and the pig.
I suppose we like to joke about televangelists because many of them live lives filled with extravagant wealth, private jets, and fancy cars, which doesn’t always seem to fit very well with Jesus’ warning in Matthew 19:24 that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 
The book of James chapter 5 starts out with a similar warning for those who have accumulated earthly riches:
Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. 2 Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure!
Notice that James’ specific concern isn’t that people might be rich – it’s that they are “storing up” their treasures! Such riches end up rusting or eaten by moths.
This is very reminiscent of Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:19-20
“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal
The additional thing that James is concerned about is that some of these people have become rich by withholding the wages of those who worked for them:
4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.
Again, this is reflection of what Jesus said in Luke 10:7
“...the laborer is worthy of his wages.”
The temptation to hoard riches, and to always want more, and to be willing to cheat others in order to get more, has existed since the invention of money itself.
In Ecclesiastes 5:10-13, Solomon wrote:
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity. 11 When good things increase, those who consume them increase. So what is the advantage to their owners except to look on? 12 The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep. 13 There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.
And these verses that we are looking at today aren’t the first time that James has dealt with the issue of riches. In James 1:10-11 he had stated:
“…the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; and its flower falls off and the beauty of its appearance is destroyed; so too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away.
Then in James 2:2-6 he had added this:
2 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, 3 and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” 4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? 5 Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court?
So let me ask you this interesting question? Is there anything in these verses that relates to the message of the resurrection?
Since we’re here on Easter Sunday, can we get any insight into what James is saying when we view these verses in the context of the empty tomb?
I believe we can. I believe that the very fact that there is such a thing as life after death should help us to gain a more balanced perspective on how much earthly wealth is truly necessary, and how to keep our view of money in balance.
For instance, consider the parable that Jesus tells in Luke 16:19-31
“Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. 20 And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, 21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
Without the perspective of the resurrection, all we have here is two men, one rich and one poor. If this earthly life is all that there is, one is very lucky the other not so much. We might wish we were the rich man and be glad that we aren’t the poor man.
But watch how Jesus turns everything around by focusing on what happens AFTER their earthly lives are over:
22 Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’ 25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
That’s quite a reversal of fortunes, isn’t it? Notice that it doesn’t say that the rich man was in Hades BECAUSE he was rich, but at bare minimum we could say that all of his riches couldn’t save him from Hades. Poor Lazarus on the other hand had experienced a terrible earthly life, but he was now comforted by angels in a place known as Abraham’s bosom, where righteous Jews waited for the Messiah to come and open the gates of heaven for them.
Suddenly these two men were in very different places than when they had been alive. And the rich man, who wouldn’t even give Lazarus the crumbs from his table, now wishes that Abraham would send Lazarus to bring just a drop of water to quench his thirsty agony.
But Abraham says that isn’t possible. He tells the man:
26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’
Simply put, there is no elevator from Abraham’s bosom to Hades. So the rich man asks for a different favor instead:
27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— 28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
Think about this for a minute – what does the rich man want Lazarus to warn his five brothers about? Could it be that he now realizes that chasing after money, hoarding money, and showing no compassion on the poor is what landed him in Hades? And possibly his younger brothers are following the same greedy path that he laid out before them. If so, they’re going to end up in Hades with him.
Still, Abraham isn’t making any deals:
29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
“Let’s face it”, Abraham says “God’s rules for handling money and caring for the poor have been around for a very long time. Your brothers are Jewish, just like you. They should know verses like these:”
Leviticus 19:15
‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
Deuteronomy 15:7
“If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother;
Psalm 140:12
I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor.
Proverbs 19:17
One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, And He will repay him for his good deed.
And pay very close attention to the words of Isaiah 58:6-7
6 “Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?


7 “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
 
Abraham is making a very good point here. Neither this rich man nor his brothers have any excuse for hoarding up riches and ignoring the poor. God has spoken very clearly about these things.
But still, the rich man makes one final plea:
30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’
Do you see it there? “If someone goes to them from the dead.” The rich man believes that by sending Lazarus back from the dead, it will be a real wake-up call to his brothers. Surely that will make them reconsider their greedy ways!
But what does Abraham say?
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”
If people don’t want to hear the truth when God is stating it so plainly in His word, it won’t make any difference to them even if someone rose from the dead!
Is Abraham right about that?
Think about it. Jesus definitively rose from the dead. He walked the earth after His resurrection and showed himself openly to many people before his ascension back into heaven. But there are many, many people who still continue to chase after riches, to hoard riches, to cheat other people out of what is rightfully theirs, and to ignore the poor.
Abraham was right. For some people, even the reality that there is eternal life beyond this earthly life does not affect their desire for more and more material goods – no matter what they have to do to get them.
But Galatians 6:7 surely reminds us of this truth:
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Do you remember when I said to pay close attention to Isaiah 58:7?
What did Isaiah says about what God is looking for from His people?
7 “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
 
Does that sounds familiar to you? If so, that probably because you are familiar with the words of Jesus from
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ 41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Does the resurrection affect how we view earthly riches? It should. One day we will all stand before the resurrected king, Jesus, the one who conquered death. And he will examine us regarding how we treated the least fortunate ones that we had the opportunity to help. His sheep will be shown to be His followers because they had His heart, a heart of compassion for the weak, the poor, and the hurting. The goats will have shown themselves to be nothing like his sheep. Their main concern in this life was for themselves only. And because of that they never really surrendered their lives as true followers of Jesus. Like the rich man’s brothers in the parable of Lazarus, even Jesus rising from the dead didn’t change their hearts.
Let me ask you an important question today: Does your attitude towards earthly wealth represent a heart of compassion or a heart of possession? Only one of those attitudes reflects a true belief in the resurrection.