This sermon series is part of the special season at Redeemer that we are calling Rise. During this season, we are hoping to accelerate a movement of the gospel for the good of all of New York City. Our vision is to see the body of Christ in the city triple in the next decade. To that end, each sermon in this series will focus on one of Redeemer’s gospel-based core values. If you would like to go deeper with the passage this sermon was preached from, we have created daily Rise devotionals available at redeemer.com/rise Daily. A reading from the book of Isaiah 58:es 1-14. Shout to the Lord. Do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commandments of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager to come near me near them. Why have they fasted? Why have we fasted, they say, and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed? Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen? Only a day for people to humble themselves. It is only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying in sackcloth and ashes. Is this what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter? when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away your own flesh and blood. Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help and he will say, “Here I am.” If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sunscorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations. You will be called rebuilder of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings. If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day. If you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable. And if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride and triumph on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The word of the Lord. Each week now we’re taking a look at uh a part of Redeemer’s vision for ministry that we’ve that’s been our animating uh vision for years in the city and will be in the future as we’ve been talking about the future and that u the vision statement you can find on the website. This is it. As a church of Jesus Christ, Redeemer exists to help build a great city for all people through a movement of the gospel that brings personal conversion, community formation, social justice, and cultural renewal to New York City and through it the world. And tonight, what we’re going to take a look at is one part. Every week, we’re taking a piece of that to look at. And tonight we’re looking at that part that just said we just I’m just read social justice. Why are we doing it tonight? This this Sunday. A it’s Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem and he was declared the king. According to the Bible and actually according to common sense, the uh the main job of a king is to do justice, is to rule justly. And what we’re going to do here tonight is take a look at how Jesus did fulfill justice and how he does make us into people who do justice. A second reason to do it is that next week we have our Easter sacrificial offering which we do every year goes to hope for New York and it’s it’s an offering through which we do justice in the city amongst the poor and the needy. But also we’ve been talking about the rise campaign. We’ve been talking about our our future. Uh and that future includes starting far more new churches in the city than we’ve ever done before. And part of that plan is very it’s absolutely in the plan that we want those churches not just simply to be in other more churches but churches that do justice and mercy in the city. And so we actually have incorporated into the plan uh training and equipping of all those new churches to reach out to the poor and the marginalized in their neighborhoods. So if justice is that important, what what we what is it? What are we talking about here? And this great passage is one of a number in the Bible. It’s certainly not the only one. I’ll show you. But here in in Isaiah 58, we’re going to learn three things about justice. The startling importance of justice. Startling. I warned you. You might be startled. Secondly, the wholesome nature of justice, what it really is. And then lastly, how you become able to do justice. So the startling importance, the foolsome nature and how you get the ability to do justice. Uh first of all, let’s talk about the startling importance. Uh look at verse two and three, especially verse two. It’s describing somebody as a group of people. God is describing them and he’s he’s telling them this is this is who these people are. Day after day, they seek me out. Now to seek out God meant to worship him, to go to the temple. you know, he’s they’re fasting. It says in verse in verse three, we have fasted uh once a year at least. Uh faithful believers in in the God of Moses would fast at Yamapore. It was uh in Leviticus chapter 16, it’s required that on Yamakapore, you would fast and you would humble yourself and you would think about your sins before the day of atonement. Uh so these are people who seek God out. That is they are fastidious in religious observance. They observe the festivals. They observe the feasts. They do fasting. They they they do the sacrifices. They go to worship on the Sabbath. And it even says here, day after day, they do that. It’s not just a burst of enthusiasm for a while and they they give up. They’re faithfully religious. Not only that, they’re not just religious, they’re ethical, they’re moral. It says, “As if they were a nation that does what is right, has not forsaken the commands of its God. They seem eager to know my ways. So, they’re they’re moral. They’re ethical. In fact, they’re eager to know my ways, which shows there’s a there’s a passion. So, they’re passionate, they’re moral, they’re ethical. Uh they they pray, they fast, they read their Bible. Um they they’re always there every week in worship. And here’s what’s startling. God says to Isaiah, “Shout aloud, Isaiah. Declare to my people their rebellion.” and they’re startled down in verse three. Why have we fasted and you have not seen it? We’ve humbled ourselves. You have not noticed. Why are you angry with us? Why aren’t you answering our prayers? Look at we’re doing everything right. And Jesus and and pardon me. And and the Lord says, “No.” And he finally says in verse 6, “This is the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free, to share food with the hungry, to provide the poor wanderer with shelter.” All right. Now, what’s God saying? Here’s why they’re startled. They seem to be doing everything right. And God is saying to them, “If you think you have a relationship with me and you don’t have a relationship with the poor and the oppressed, you’re mistaken. If you don’t have a relationship with the poor and the oppressed, you don’t really have a relationship with me.” Why would they why would God say that? Now, this isn’t the only place God says this. You see how startled they are? Aren’t how startling it is. Zechariah chapter 7 is almost a perfect parallel passage to uh Isaiah 58. In Zechariah chapter 7, this is what God says to the people. When you fasted and mourned, was it really for me that you fasted? Administer true justice. Show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the orphan or the immigrant or the poor. And then in verse, excuse me, chapter one of Isaiah, the very same book, this is what God says. Stop bringing your meaningless offerings. When you spread your hands to pray, I’m going to hide my eyes. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. So over and over, God is saying, “If you think you have a relationship with me, and you’re not involved in the needs of the poor, if you think you’re seeking me, but you’re not seeking out the poor and the oppressed, you actually aren’t seeking me. You don’t have a relationship with me.” Now, why would God say that? Here’s why. Proverbs 14:31 says, “If you insult the poor, you insult the Lord.” Proverbs 19:17 says, “If you give to the poor, you’re giving to the Lord.” What’s going on here? God identifies with the people at the bottom of the ladder. You know, somebody asked me, uh, how should I introduce you? I say, just introduce me either as the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church andor husband and wife, husband of a wife and a father of a of of children. and so forth. So, say I’m a husband and I’m a father. I’m a pastor. Why do I say that’s how you should introduce me? Because that’s what I do mainly. That’s that’s the main thing I’m here to do, those things. Why is it that over and over again, God says, I am a fatherless to the fatherless. I’m I’m a father to the fatherless. I am a husband to the widow. He says that in Psalm 68, for example, I’m a father to the fatherless, to the orphan. I’m a husband to the widow. He identifies with the poor and the oppressed. Do you know how radical that was? Historians will tell you there was no other culture and there was no other religion like that in ancient times at all. Always in ancient cultures, the ancient religions, the gods identified not with the people at the bottom of the ladder. They always identify with the people at the top. In other words, uh the kings, the generals, and the priests that work for them, why were they at the top? They were at the top because the gods must have favored them. Be why? Because they have lived the right way. So if you live the right way, you get to the top. Why else would they be at the top? Religion was a religion of good works and moral effort. And they were the best people. And they the most respectful, respectable, and they were the most successful. And they were at the top. So who got to interpret God, the God’s will to the people? Well, the people at the top. And if you oppose the people at the top, if you oppose the leaders, you were opposing the gods. And that’s how it worked in every culture except for this one, except for Israel. That’s the reason why when non the Syrian general uh in 2 Kings chapter 5, when he has leprosy and he hears that there’s a prophet in Israel that might be able to heal him, he comes with a pile of money and letters of recommendation and he goes to the king of Israel and he says, “Now give me my healing.” Because he believed that Israel was like the God of Israel was like all the other gods in the world. that basically it was the king at the top who would channel the will and the power of the gods and he thought that non thought well if I give the king my the money he’ll just order his prophet whoever that is was Elisha to give me my healing and the king of Israel rips his clothes remember in grief and he says the biblical God doesn’t operate like that he is not in bed with power. He judges the people in power. He stands and he’s the only God in the world that stands with the people at the bottom. And I can’t order him to do anything. I’m a king. The prophet judges me. I don’t tell the prophet what to do. Think about this. In societies in which males dominated, God says, “I’m the God of the widow.” He stands with poor women where families matter. I stand with the orphan. He says, “I stand with the immigrant, the alien.” Remember Zechariah 7, he says, “This is the fast I choose. This is what it means to honor me. Administer justice to the widow, the orphan, the immigrant, the person of a different race that’s in your midst, and the poor.” There’s no other God that stands in a male-dominated society with the poor woman, stands in a family patriarchal society with the orphans, stands in a a society dominated by one race with the people of another race, stands with the poor against the [Music] successful. Let me just summarize it. Here’s point one. God says over and over again, especially through the Old Testament, but also in the New Testament, that if you think you have a good rel if you think you have a saving vital relationship with me, but you are not caring about the poor and involved in the needs of the poor, then you are mistaken. You can’t because that’s where I identify. That’s where I am. That’s what I’m doing. You say, “Well, that’s the Old Testament. What about the New Testament?” Yeah. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ looks at the Pharisees and he does exactly the same thing that you see in Isaiah 1, Isaiah 58, Zechariah 7. He looks at the Pharisees and say, “You tithement and coming.” In other words, you’re very, very, very careful about your religious observances. But he says, “You neglect justice and the love of God, and you devour widows houses. You exploit the poor to acrew wealth for yourself. And so as religious as you are, as morally ethical as you are, if you don’t care about social justice, you don’t have a relationship with God. That’s Jesus. Not only that, Jesus tells a story. And he says, on the last day, there’s going to be two groups of people. And he’s going to say to them, I was hungry, he says to one group, and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was without shelter and you took me in. I was in prison and you came to me. And then he’s going to say to another group, I was hungry and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty and you didn’t give me anything to drink. I was naked and you didn’t clothe me. I was uh in prison and you didn’t come to see me. And each group’s going to say, “When did we see you in those situations, Lord?” And he’s going to say, “When you did or didn’t do it to the least of these, my brethren. you did or didn’t do it to me. So Jesus identifies just as much with the people at the bottom. When if there’s anybody here who’s rejected Christianity, you kind of walked away from it, not interested. Did you know that this was at the heart of it when you did that? Well, it is. And by the way, those of you who are Christians, those of you who embrace Christianity, those of you who say, “I’m a Christian.” Did you know this is at the heart of it? The guy says, “If you don’t have a relationship with them, you don’t have a relationship with me.” You see the start? Aren’t you startled? I warned you. I even gave the the I even gave this particular point the name startle. Just so you warned. There’s the startling importance. Secondly, what then is justice? If it’s that important, what is it? And let’s talk about the fullesome character, the fullsome nature of justice. The reason I use the term fulsome is this. Uh Michael Sandell uh professor philosophy and pol political science I think at Harvard teaches an undergraduate course is very very uh uh well known and popular. It’s called just a course on justice. What is justice? And he’s written a book that basically puts the the course into a book form. It’s called justice. What’s the right thing to do? And what’s brilliant about the book is he points out the reason why our our society is so divided is because we actually don’t agree on what justice is. He says there are competing theories of what justice is. It’s the reason why the candidates can’t agree and the political parties can’t agree and the individuals can’t agree. This is this is unjust. Everybody says they’re on the side of justice, but nobody can agree on what justice is. What was intriguing to me as a teacher of the Bible as I was reading through the book was I realized that every one of the theories, you know, one theory uh stresses this and one theory stresses this. And I realized as a Bible teacher that basically when the Bible talks about justice, it actually deals with every one of those aspects. The Bible includes all those aspects in their understanding of justice. Uh the biblical authors the biblical author’s understanding of justice is much more wholesome. So, and you can even see it here. There’s three things at least that are part of biblical justice. When the Bible says you must, when God says, “I want you to do justice,” he means three things at least. There’s probably more. The first is equal treatment. The first is so racial and social equity. Equal treatment. Where do you get that? Well, it’s it’s all through the Bible, but it’s even here. For example, Leviticus 24:22. One of your favorite texts, I know, but it ought to be because this is what it says. You are to have the same law for foreigners as for nativeorn. Do you know how radical that was? Go to the code of Hammurabi. Go to all the other legal documents of the time. God says, “You are to have the same law for the foreigner.” A foreigner was somebody of a from another culture, another race, maybe even another religion, but you are to have the same law for the foreigner as the native born. You treat them the same. You don’t have one law for them and one law for this group over here. You treat them equally. Uh if you read the the Bible, you’ll see the Bible is absolutely down on bribes. God is always cursing people who offer bribes and people who who receive them. I do know that our New York culture is to a great degree based on bribes of various sorts. But God was against it. Why? Well, because the poor don’t have the money for bribes. It’s unjust. But actually right here, take a look at verse 7. There’s an interesting place in verse 7 where God is talking about justice. What is justice? He says, among other things, is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter, clothing, and not turn away from your own flesh and blood? That’s one sentence there. And here’s what you need to to know. Commentators find this fascinating because the word poor wanderer doesn’t really get across. When you see the word wanderer, you just think of traveler. It’s actually the word for an alien. That is to say, an immigrant or a refugee. And when a destitute refugee comes, you are supposed to what? Give them hung give them shelter and clothe them and not turn away from your own flesh and blood. In a tribal society where blood was everything, my you’re my family. You’re my clan. You’re my tribe and you’re not you’re not my family. You’re not my clan. God has the audacity to say that every other human being is your flesh and blood. Now, that doesn’t make you know this whole idea of equal treatment of the law and all human beings are, you know, we’re all one one flesh and blood. You say, “Well, of course that’s obvious.” It wasn’t obvious then. And where do you think you got the idea? It wasn’t obvious then. And it’s actually still not obvious to most people. And yet God says, “We’re all you’re all made in God’s image.” Go back to Genesis 9 and you’ll see in Genesis 9, God says, “If anyone sheds the blood of any other human being, I’ll require that blood of your hand.” Why? Because every human being’s made in the image of God. So first of all, justice means equal treatment. Very important. Justice first of all means treating people equally. Secondly, however, justice means something more. And as I said, Michael Zandell points out there’s certain people that say, “Okay, that’s what justice is. Equal treatment. Period.” Well, there’s more to the biblical idea of justice. And what is that? The biblical idea of justice is yes, we have to treat everybody equally. And yet the vulnerable populations, the widows, the orphans, the oppressed, they are objects of special concern. In Proverbs 31:8, it says, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.” That’s a command, everybody. If you’re a believer, speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves. That’s not equal treatment. Um, speak up for the widow. Why? You don’t have to. It doesn’t say in the Bible, speak up for the men. It says, “Speak up for the poor women.” That’s what widows were. Poor women. Doesn’t say speak up for the families. It says, “Speak up for the fatherless, the orphans.” doesn’t say speak up for the successful. It says speak up for the poor. And what that means is don’t anybody hit me here. This is actually saying that to do justice according to the Bible means not just to treat everybody equally, but for the vulnerable populations. You’re supposed to go beyond equal treatment and do some things for them that you don’t do for other people because they don’t need it. To say speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves. That’s not charity. That’s advocacy. That’s not charity. That’s advocacy. That’s saying I got we got to do something. These folks don’t have power. These folks do not have uh an advocate and you have to be an advocate. It’s not just help them a little bit. You know, do token charity. Speak up for them. See, so justice is number one, equal treatment, but number two special concern for the vulnerable populations. And number three, it’s generosity. Again, this is not a terribly popular thing, especially for most Americans to hear. But when notice this happens over and over again. I’ll just show you where it says what here. Verse six says, “Loose the chains of injustice. Do justice.” And then verse 7 says, “And what is doing justice? Is it not to share your food with the hungry, to provide the poor wanderer with shelter.” Then down to verse 10, it means to spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed. Now, what does it mean to do justice? Share your assets. Not only share them, spend yourself. When you get down to verse 10, it doesn’t just say spend your money. It does mean that. Spend yourself means not a token charity, but kind of radical giving and not only detached arms length, but really getting involved in your whole life. And not to do that is injustice. Now, the reason Americans don’t like that is Americans like to say, “Well, you know, I yes, I think it would be good for me to help the poor. But if I help the poor, that’s my choice. I’m not under obligation to help the poor.” But when you say, “I’m not under obligation to help the poor,” you’re actually not doing justice to the biblical language. You’re just not. Uh in the book of Job, Job chapter 29 and Job chapter 31, Job says, “If I treated my gold and my money and my bread as my own and didn’t share it with other people, that would be a sin to be judged.” Go look it up. The Bible says, “If you’ve got and you’re not sharing it, it’s a sin. It’s not.” Yeah. You say, “Well, it’s voluntary.” Well, see, when Americans say, “If I want to help people, I can help them, but I’m under no obligation.” You’re assuming here. Here’s the American approach. The American approach is if I’ve got money, if I’ve got status, yeah, I got a little bit of help, but basically I earned it. Here’s what God says. If you have status, if you have wealth, yeah, you you you did a few things, but basically I gave it to you. You say, “What do you mean you gave it to me?” Well, for example, I was the one who decided what century for you to be born in. I was the one who put you where you are. 90% of what makes you you are, you know, all the and all all the breaks you got. I’m behind all that. See, the only way God could say it’s unjust if you do not share what you have with the poor. It’s unjust. Not just stingy, but unjust. The only way he could say that is if he assumed that ultimately what you have is his gift. That he gave it to you. He enabled you to get it. He gave you the talent. He gave you the desire. He gave you the influences. He opened the doors. And therefore, if you don’t share with people who don’t have as much in this broken world, you’re being unjust. One example in this city and many many cities in the city in in the country, there are some kids growing up with a combination of three things. They’re growing up with um very unstable families. Um they’re growing up with uh underresourced educational institutions. and they’re growing up with very very nice way to put it is uh not the most helpful peer social environments. And put that together and sometimes by the time they’re 14 15 years old they’re functionally illiterate. They may never be able to find a place in our job market or our economy. Now the liberals say that’s because of economic inequality. And the conservatives say that’s because of the family breakdown. But nobody nobody nobody nobody says it’s the kids’ fault. You know, seven year olds shouldn’t be saying, you know, I need to move to another school district. And three-year-olds should not be saying, I got to get a pair of parents that will read to me. So, it’s not their fault. And if it’s not their fault and they’re just one, that’s a one example of how in this world the assets and opportunities and the goods of this world are not equitably distributed. And if you’ve been appointed to get more, then it’s unjust for you not to share with people who’ve been given less. It’s in the Bible. So there’s the nature of uh justice. That’s what you should do and this is why it’s so important. Now are you feeling guilty yet? And the reason I asked that question is I want you to know that’s not good enough. It’s all not not all that helpful because that comes to our last point. The last point is how are we going to become people who actually can do justice like this? And the and Americans almost always say well the main thing is we need a plan. We need machinery. We need the right social policy, you know. We need the right tax law. We need we need we need the right educational system. Uh we need uh we we need technology. We need a plan and then it’ll work. That has never been the main problem in the history of the world when it comes to injustice and poverty. It’s never been that people didn’t know what to do. It’s that people don’t want to do it. Beatatrice Webb who was one of the architects of the British welfare state. She like a lot of the European intellectuals who lived in the late 1800s early 1900s. Uh they they put together um and they did a good job of putting together a more more just European societies in which there weren’t as many inequities and so on. They worked on what we would call today the welfare state. But they almost all believed in the goodness of humanity that if they just put the machinery in place, things would be great. But there’s an interesting place in Beatatric Webb’s diary in 1925. And she looks back to when she was a young woman in 1890, 35 years before, and this is what she says. She says, “In my diary in 1890, I wrote, I have staked all on the essential goodness of human nature. Now 35 years later, I realize how permanent are the evil impulses and instincts in man and how little you can count on changing them by any change in the social machinery. And listen, no amount of knowledge or science will be of any avail unless we can curb the bad impulse. No amount of knowledge or science when it comes to dealing with poverty and justice will be of any avail heart. Here’s somebody who’ given her life to trying to deal with injustice. She said, “There’s something in in the heart. I didn’t realize that. I just thought education, machinery, it’s something in the heart. What’s what are we going to do about that?” Well, this text tells us what doesn’t work and what does. What doesn’t work? Well, here’s what doesn’t work. What doesn’t work is these religious people. It’s interesting, by the way, when when uh it says they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways. Um they they they they they do not believe they’ve forsaken the commands of God. And then it says on the day of your fasting, this is verse three, you do as you please and you exploit all your workers. Now that’s fascinating. Uh they certainly were religiously observant, which means they would have um kept the Sabbath and on the Sabbath you don’t work. and they would have kept yam kapor and on yam kapore they would have fasted and they didn’t work but according to the law of Moses when you don’t work on the Sabbath you also should not have your workers working even your animals are supposed to work you’re supposed to limit your profit takingaking and and be good to your workers and be good to your animals see so when you’re resting they’re resting but they didn’t do that what they did was okay well we’ll do the Sabbath of course we’ll be very religious observ observant but we’re going to lose a lot of money if our workers don’t work on the Sabbath. So, they made them work. Here’s what we have. These are people who thought they were being incredibly religious and and they were obeying everything in the Bible. And by the way, the Bible does actually have things in there where it says to give to the poor and don’t exploit your workers. But they did the minimal. They cut corners. And this is the here’s the first here’s what will not work. This is what will not bring justice. Any religion or I’m saying this carefully. I thought this out. So listen, any religion or secular morality that tries to motivate people to do justice through duty and self-interest will fail. Not only religion, but even secular morality that tries to motivate people to do justice through duty and self-interest, which is, by the way, how everybody tries to do it today. I mean, when I was growing up, uh, Jerry Lewis every year did the musculardrophe teleathon, and he was trying to raise money, trying to get people to give money to the to the people with this disease. And he used to always say, you can give that money, and as soon as you phone in your pledge, you can look in a mirror and you can tell yourself, I am a good and loving person. Okay, what is that? Self-interest. duty. You need to be charitable. Why? Because then you can feel good about yourself. Now, today we do it a little different. We have Twitter and we shame people. We say if you’re not doing justice, we’re going to shame you. We’re going to shame you until you get it right. And this text is trying to say when either you’re religious or you have secular morality and you’re trying to motivate people to do justice because it’s in your best interest. It’s a matter of duty and it’s in your best interest. If you do it, you’ll feel better about yourself. If you do it, we’ll stop shaming you. If you do it, then somehow world will work better. Never works. They do justice for a while, then they cut corners. H they don’t go all the way. It’s superficial. It doesn’t last. Well, what other way is there? How else do you motivate people to do justice? Not through duty, but through beauty. Not through duty, but through beauty. What? Yeah. Look at look at the contrast at the end. Look at the look at verse 13 and 14. If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day. Now probably almost immediately all the the people that God is denouncing would say, “Of course we keep the Sabbath. Of course we don’t do work on the Sabbath.” And then he says, “If you call the Sabbath a delight, if you do it out of joy, if you do it not because you have to, but because you want to. If you give your if you give your workers time off and you lose all that money, not because you have to, but because you want to, not because you have to. Otherwise, God won’t answer my prayers because you want to. Then you will find your joy in the Lord. God will not be just a means to an end. I’m going to obey God so he gives me things. I just want to please him. I just instead of duty there’s beauty. Now the person who talked about the relationship of beauty to justice is a Harvard professor another Harvard professor named Elaine Scary who some years ago wrote a book kind of not very noticed but a great a fascinating book called on beauty and being just. on beauty and being just and using the aesthetic theory of Plato and Augustine and a bunch of other people. Uh she made this case and she said basically duty and beauty are two different things. Duty is self-absorbed. Beauty gets you out of yourself. The illustration I got from her, but I’ll adapt it to myself. When I was a college student, I had to take a course on music appreciation to get my degree. So I had to study Bach and Mozart and people like this. So I had to be able to identify it on a test. So I listened to Mozart in order to get a good grade, in order to get a degree, in order to get a good job so I could make money. In other words, I listened to Mozart in order to make money. But today I would be willing to spend quite a bit of money just to listen to Mozart. Because originally Mozart was a duty, but now it’s a beauty. And frankly, when it was a duty, I only did what I had to do. But now that it’s a beauty, I do it all I can. Why? Because it’s a it’s a satisfying thing in itself. Mozart’s not a means to an end. It’s not something I listen to in order to get something else. It’s it’s it’s satisfying in itself. And Ela Scary said only when justice is a beautiful thing. He says when duty is self-absorbed. Duty is okay. What do I have to do in order to get the things I want? Duty is how do I get the Twitter people off my back? Duty is how do I feel good about myself so I can look myself in the mirror. Duty is how do I do the right thing so God will answer my prayers. And duty is self-absorbed and it will never do just you’ll never do justice that way because you’re trying to remember what Beatrice Webb said. We’re trying to this bad impulse is selfishness, right? That’s the bad impulse. That’s why justice isn’t working. So you’re going to try to deal with the bad impulse by enhancing it. Doesn’t work. But Elaine Scary says an experience of beauty desenters the self. gets you out of yourself, makes you want not just have to do justice, but want justice. She believed that the experience of beauty naturally got you out of yourself and made it easier for you to do justice. Now, a lot of people have criticized her saying, “What? You mean you mean the Nazis didn’t listen to Mozart?” And a lot of people have criticized her, maybe rightly for saying it’s not just any experience of beauty that’ll make you just. But I can tell you one experience of beauty that will. In the Old Testament, the Bible says that God identifies with the poor. But in the New Testament, we know he literally identified with the poor. How? When Jesus Christ came to earth, God became poor. He was born in a feed trough. When he was dedicated at the temple, his parents gave two pigeons, which was the offering given by the poorest of the poor. He he wandered virtually homeless. He said, “Foxes have holes, birds have nests. The son of man has nowhere to lay his head.” And when he got to the end of his life, he had to he had to ride into Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey and he had to eat in a borrowed room. And he finally was stripped of his last possession which was his robe. They cast lots for it and he was buried in a borrowed grave. He became poor. But not only that, he became oppressed. He didn’t just identify with the poor. He identified with the oppressed. Why? Because it was his trial was a miscarriage of justice. And in that he identified with the millions of people who have been tortured, who have been imprisoned, who have been put to death unjustly. some years ago, an African-American woman who has pretty much almost lost her faith because she of the injustice she experienced uh she writes about this in a book that I read and she was this was also in a Time magazine article some years ago. She was in a class in a a graduate school in class and they were actually having to look at the tinctions of Christianity and so she was having to listen to somebody lecture on the meaning of the crucifixion and suddenly it hit her. She says, ‘I suddenly realized Jesus Christ didn’t just suffer for us. He suffered with us. He didn’t just die for us. He died with us. And he said, “Jesus Christ went under the lash.” Jesus Christ knew what it was like to be whipped. And suddenly she saw something beautiful. John Sto says, “In a world of injustice, how could you believe in a God that was immune to it? and therefore I can’t believe in God if it wasn’t for the cross. There’s no other religion in the world that says that God experienced injustice. But Jesus Christ says this to everybody in this room. I who deserved vindication and justice went to the cross and got condemnation so that you who deserve condemnation when you believe in me can have vindication and pardon. Jesus Christ fulfilled the justice we deserved. And what does that do? That’s beauty. That’s a beautiful thing. That’s what will get you out of yourself. She was right about that. How so? I have trouble being doing justice when I feel superior to certain kinds of people. But the gospel puts me into the ground and says, “You’re no better than anybody else. You’re a sinner saved by grace.” And I have trouble doing justice when I feel empty. When I feel like, well, I’ve got to get my status and I’ve got to get some money and I’ve got to feel better about myself. But the gospel gets rid of that. It lifts you up and it gives you that all it gives you such affirmation that I don’t have to be jockeying for it. I don’t have to be stepping on other people to get up any kind of ladder. And what this miss mean what this means is because Jesus Christ fulfilled justice for you that grace the way he did it. Jesus Christ became oppressed and poor so that you could be rich toward God. and the beauty of that will get you out of yourself and make you someone who can do justice. Let’s pray. Our father, we ask that you would help us see what it will take to curb the bad impulse in our heart. It won’t be through self-interested duty. It’ll be through seeing the greatest beauty, something we want, something we want, something that attracts us. Father, we pray that you would show us how Jesus Christ became poor and oppressed for us to make us rich toward you. And let that be the thing that gets us out of ourselves so that we become finally the people in this world who can do justice and therefore show the people who you are. Show the world who you are. And now make us people like that. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening to this week’s sermon. Please join us in praying for gospel renewal both where you live and in New York City.