Ancient Promises: No Favorites
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
May 8, 2011
Romans 2:1-11
Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things. You say, ‘We know that God’s judgement on those who do such things is in accordance with truth.’ Do you imagine, whoever you are, that when you judge those who do such things and yet do them yourself, you will escape the judgement of God?Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgement will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honour and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality.
Every morning at a few minutes before 7:00 am the buses would arrive and unload their precious cargo of children at the elementary schools in Southside ISD. And there to greet them were their principals…or at least that is what the superintendent wanted. When he discovered that some of the principals were not getting there until after the children he instituted a new system of electronic check-in. Each of the principals had to arrive at the building and trigger the system that proved that they were there on time. If they were not they would hear about it at the principals’ meeting that week…except for one principal who was always late. And the reason she was late was that she was always trying to take care of her two dogs. Each day she had to drop them at doggy day care and if that took longer than expected then she would be late…which again she always was. What fascinated the other principals was that not only did she never get in trouble, like the rest of them, she was actually the superintendents favorite. After a while they knew what to call her, “teacher’s pet.”
How many of you have ever known a teacher’s pet? Whether it was in school, in the work place or on the sport’s field? Isn’t it amazing how this teacher’s pet thing works? Everyone else can be pushed to the limit, be forced to follow the rules, get chewed out but never the teacher’s pet. They can get away with anything. They can say anything. They can do anything and there are never any consequences. Now I suppose if one is the teacher’s pet there are perks…but for the rest of us on the outside looking in we are not amused. You may be asking at this point what does being a teacher’s pet have to do with Paul and his letter to the Romans? The answer is that as Paul saw it there were two very important groups of people who thought they were the teacher’s pet when it came to their relationship with God…and in this part of the letter he talks to them.
The first group of people who thought that they were the teacher’s pet was the children of Israel, the people referred to as the Jews. They thought that they were the teacher’s pet because they were the chosen people. Out of all of the nations on the face of the earth God has chosen them to be God’s own people. God had freed them from captivity. God had made them promises. God had watched over them. God had promised never to leave them. Therefore they assumed that they could get away with anything. They believed that they did not actually have to follow the rules that God had laid down. So they did not care for children without parents. They did not care for women whose husbands had died. They did mean things to strangers and people who were not physically perfect. And because they thought they were the teacher’s pet that they could then judge others. They could look down on others as if the others didn’t matter. They were the teacher’s pet so they could judge everyone else.
The second group of people who thought that they were the teacher’s pet was the Christians. That’s right, the second group were those people who followed Jesus. They thought that they were the teacher’s pet because God had sent Jesus to save them. God had loved them enough to send Jesus who would dies for their sins, give them eternal life and set them free to live. In Jesus they had everything that they needed. They had been baptized. They got to eat the Lord ’s Supper. Jesus had promised never to leave them. So because they were the teacher’s pet then they believed that they did not actually have to follow God’s rules. They could be mean to one another. They could ignore children without parents and women whose husbands had died. They could be mean to strangers. And above all they thought being the teacher’s pet meant that they could judge other people. Because they belonged to Jesus they could look down on everyone who did not. They were now the teacher’s pet so they could judge everyone.
It is in this moment then that Paul passes on one of the great and ancient promises of God. That promise is that God does not play favorites, meaning God has no teacher’s pets. Listen again to verse 11. “For God shows no partiality.” God is not in the business of selecting people to be God’s teacher’s pets. God is in the business of changing people and nations and this entire creation into the kind of people who love God, love neighbor and work for the good of creation. If God is going to do that, help everyone work for the good, then God cannot play favorites. God cannot have teacher’s pets who judge others, ignore the rules and believe that they can get away with anything. And this is an ancient promise, that God does not have teacher’s pets. From the very beginning of God’s relationship with both the Jews and the Gentiles God made it clear that God had expectations for all of God’s people…and that all of the people were to try and live up to those expectations.
The expectations were that God’s people would strive to do the good. They would strive to do those things that led to life, honor and immortality. Listen again to Paul. “For God will repay according to each person’s deeds…meaning the things that they do. To those who by patiently doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality God will give eternal life, while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness there will be wrath and fury…both for the Jew and the Greek.” I realize that these words make many of us a bit uncomfortable. As less than perfect people we worry that we may end up on the wrong side of this equation. But notice carefully what Paul says. He says for those who seek to do good. He does not say those who are perfect and never make a mistake, they will be rewarded. Instead he says those who seek to do good will obtain the good that God offers.
Here is the bottom line then. First, you and I as followers of Jesus the Christ can never assume that we are the teacher’s pet. As Paul says we are not to presume upon God’s love and grace. Second because we are not God’s teacher’s pet we cannot presume to judge other people. Finally each of us is called to seek the good. We are called by God to be those persons who strive with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength to love God, serve neighbor and work for the reconciliation of the world.
My challenge to you is to ask yourselves this question, “How am I seeking to do the good? What good and kind things am I doing that would please God and make God smile?”
