“God Loves Nobodies”

One of the weirdest things of our day and age is that we can pull out our devices and record for anyone and everyone what is on our mind. On Facebook it even invites you, “What’s on your mind?” Share your thoughts with anyone and everyone! What’s even greater is that if people agree with your thoughts, then even more people will follow you, or share your thoughts and like you and become your friend. From what I was told, and by the way most people who are my age and younger would never have fully experienced this, you used to be able to share what’s on your mind only with your friends… and they became your friends because they listened to your thoughts and agreed with most of them! And if there were less people in the place you grew up in, chances are you’d still live with those people even if you didn’t agree with most of them. At least with the pastor on Sunday his audience is limited to the members within the sanctuary… or it used to be that is until we decided to put a camera up there in the corner and share the thoughts and experiences of a wounded sinner as he attempts to speak the truth of God’s word to a potentially unlimited number of people. Where’s the danger in that?

Jesus has words that will wound us today as we wrestle with the danger of status. We always want to appear better than we are. Like Adam and Eve covering themselves with Fig leaves, we do not want anyone to see our deep-seated shame. From profile pictures to performance reviews and personality traits, we all want to be honored, to have friends and followers, to be “Somebody!” Lord-willing, we will come to find today that the solution to our “Somebody Problem” rests in the truth that “God Loves Nobodies!” He proved that through the life and humiliation of Jesus, who made you and me the Ultimate Somebody.

As Jesus made his way to Jerusalem he went on his way through many different towns and villages to teach, much to the rulers of the Synagogues and Pharisees frustration. In a plot to catch him saying the wrong thing and accuse him of blasphemy and rid the world of this man who was affecting the niceties in life they enjoyed so much, one of the more prominent Pharisees invited Jesus over for dinner. After all, what nomad would turn down a good meal?

This wasn’t just a good meal, it was a Sabbath meal prepared by professional Sabbath followers, so professional that they would charge you or accuse you if they spotted you not Sabbathing right. They were demonstrating to Jesus how closely they followed the regulations of the Sabbath, even preparing the meal the day before so as not to work putting the meal together. And they were watching him closely, observing how he would respond to their proper rule following.

Instead of commending them for their formality, or even paying attention to the special meal that they were making for him, he was noticing what butts were in what seats! You see, he saw right through their ‘fig leaves’ so to speak and knew the Somebody problem that they all shared. They wanted respect and honor for their deeds.

Unfortunately that problem isn’t unique to the legalistic Pharisees. Even the very people Jesus called fell into the same problem at a different meal, the passover meal. “A dispute arose among the disciples as to which of them was considered to be the greatest. Jesus said to them: ‘The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves.”

Maybe sometimes we fall into the same trap of the ants in that Pixar movie ‘A Bug’s Life.’ Where we think that the Lord is going to return demanding a debt to be paid, much like Hopper the grasshopper vows to the ants that if they don’t have the amount of food that Hopper demands, he will obliterate them all. We might think if our good deeds done out of faith do not amount to what we think they should, we will be dishonored or maybe even rebuked on the Last Day.

There is the temptation inside all of us to somehow improve our status before God, as if that were possible! But that is impossible. As Paul says in Romans 2 “God does not show favoritism!” And thus James urges us in James 2 “Do not show favoritism, but speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgement!”

Does mercy triumph over judgement on your social media feed? Or does it feel just a little too good to share those negative thoughts that are on your mind and watch as people validate them, and exalt you with praises. “Straight facts! Or 100 emoji 100 emoji! Or even ‘Preach!’” Does mercy triumph over judgement in your home? Or does self-sacrificing headship turn into self-fulfilling lordship because you are after all the Benefactor of the house, the king in the castle? After all they wouldn’t have their fancy phones or their steak dinners if it weren’t for you.

You see we all have a Somebody problem, but the truth is that we all are nobodies. We all need to be humbled. I can’t even consistently answer the most common questions I get asked! Who are you and what do you do? Is it Jon is it JonAlden is it pastor jon is it pastor pedersen? The truth is that I’m a nobody. And I have done nothing to earn God’s favor. In fact what I have done has earned me the opposite. What a relief it is, brothers and sisters, that God loves nobodies. What a relief it is, brothers and sisters, to hear that the Lord Almighty will come up to us at the wedding feast of the lamb and tell us exactly who we are and exactly what we are doing! “Friend, move up to a better place!” Or “Come further in and farther up!” As C.S Lewis said.

What gives us nobodies the right to even consider such good news to be ours? Is it what we say or what we do that makes us so great? It is nothing but the work of God alone. He came not to collect on our debt like Hopper the grasshopper, but to pay it in full on his own. The Lord Jesus, who instead of coming to earth to be served and to lord over us came to serve. . Or as Paul puts it in his letter to Philippi: “Being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death —even death on the cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father!”

What can be greater for us to do than to work to the glory of God the Father, Who has already given us all things? Gaining more friends and surrounding yourself with people who think and agree with everything you say and do? How about this: “When you have a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” There are many people out there who feel like nobodies, or act like they are somebody they are not. Let’s use our time and talents to share with them how God has made them the Ultimate Somebody: a friend of Jesus, a Child of God.

God grant that the answer to the question “What’s on your mind?” May always be oriented toward humble service toward God where grace and mercy triumph over judgement, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.