"RICH AND POOR"
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 8)
July 1, 2018
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9 (ESV)
It's been said that our society (and every society, for that matter) is made up of two distinct classes of people--two classes of people who, under normal circumstances, have nothing to do with each other, hold each other in contempt, and in many ways are enemies. At the same time, curiously enough, these two classes of people are dependent on one another. Who are they? They are the "haves" and the "have nots"--the rich and the poor. These two groups of people, we are told, rarely mingle. They look at each other with distain. Each blames the other for society's problems. And yet, in a strange sort of way, these two need each other. The rich need the poor because if there were no poor, the rich wouldn't be able to pursue the lifestyle of their choice. And the poor need the rich because no matter how bad the unemployment picture may look at any given time, there would be no employment at all were it not for the rich.
Where do you fit into this picture? Are you a "have" or a "have not"? Do you consider yourself to be rich or poor? I would guess that most of us think of ourselves as being neither, because we don't want to bear the stigma of either of these groups. But if we're put into a position where we have to identify ourselves as one or the other, I suspect that most of us would rather be thought of as being poor than rich. Somehow that seems to appear to be more noble.
In this morning's Epistle Saint Paul talks about riches and poverty, but what he's talking about is something altogether different than what we normally have in mind when we hear these words. Writing to Christians, the apostle tells them that they are all very rich and he also tells them why. Probably the best way for us to appreciate what he's telling us here is to look first at our Lord Jesus Christ and then at ourselves, looking for both poverty and wealth.
In terms of material things Jesus, by His own description, was among the poor. He was definitely a "have not": "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests," He said, "but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head" (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58). We are all familiar with the humble circumstances of Jesus' birth. We know of His constant travels and His dependence on friends and followers to provide Him with a place to stay and food to eat. We know that even at His death His broken body was laid to rest only through the generosity of a wealthy friend. In addition to His material poverty our Savior was also poor in status. No doubt during most of His childhood neighbors and relatives considered Him to be nothing more than an illegitimate Child of Mary and Joseph. When He appeared in His hometown synagogue to preach before His family and friends, "they took offense at Him" (Mark 6:3). When He was placed under arrest His most intimate friends ran away because they didn't want to be identified with Him. And when He was put through the mockery of a phony trial there was not a single word spoken in His defense.
The amazing thing from a human perspective is that all of this was deliberate. Jesus wasn't poor because He was the Victim of circumstances or injustice; He was poor because He chose to be poor. Now why would any sane person make such a choice? Paul tells us that Jesus chose to be poor for our sake. It was for sinners like you and me that Jesus, "who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:6-8). Some of us might care enough about those less fortunate than ourselves to lend a hand on occasion or to part with a few dollars, but I seriously doubt that any of us are willing to make ourselves poor in order to make someone else rich. But that is exactly what Jesus did for us. He sacrificed His divine glory and gave us His perfect righteousness. The end result is that He who is perfect ends up suffering and dying under the curse of sin, while we who are sinful stand before God as obedient children, clothed with the perfect righteousness of Christ.
It is this righteousness of Christ that we have received as a free gift that makes us truly rich because it is this that gives us salvation. What makes us even more rich is that this grace of Christ is the only wealth a person can have that is not perishable. People can try in desperation to accumulate material wealth and social prestige (and obviously many do just that), but what does any of it matter to them when death pays them a visit? You know, thousands of people throughout the world died and were laid to rest this past week. Some were placed in ornate caskets and entombed with elaborate public ceremonies. Others were buried in a very simple grave or cremated with very little ceremony at all. Still others were thrown on a garbage heap without a word. But all of these dead people are equally dead. Their wealth or poverty and their status in life cannot do a thing to change that. None of it means anything anymore. But the wealth that Jesus gives is different. It can make a difference even in the face of death. The person who knows and possesses the riches of God's redeeming grace in Christ can die with a smile on his or her face regardless of material or social status, confident that he or she will immediately be in the joyful glory of the Savior, and that his or her dead body, no matter how it is disposed of, will be raised again in glory on the day of the Lord's coming.
Let's go back to that question that I asked you at the beginning: Do you consider yourself to be a "have" or a "have not"? Are you rich or poor? God says that you are infinitely rich (no matter what your estate is worth), since in Christ you possess His grace--His righteousness--His favor. You have a wealth that exceeds anything that the world could possibly give you, because what you have can never be taken away from you--not even by death. We've all heard stories about people who lived their entire lives in poverty and then after their death it was discovered that they had a fortune that they didn't even know existed. That's sad. But what's even sadder is that every sinner possesses a fortune of spiritual wealth--forgiveness, peace with God, hope, everlasting life--but most of them are so wrapped up in the wealth of the world that they don't even know it or care to hear about it. They live their lives in spiritual poverty, separated from God, and they die without hope. May we never fail to share with them our comfort in the wealth that is ours and theirs through the poverty of our Lord Jesus Christ. That real wealth in Christ is our strength and consolation as we live in a world that constantly tempts us with far less, and it will also be our justification when we stand before God the perfect Judge, not in the "polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6) of our own works, but in the perfect robe of Jesus' righteousness.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.