Radical Fairness: Embracing Justice Through Humility

Jesus is the firstborn but here we see someone who doesn't use that prerogative, his power and his privilege for his own self but he pours himself out and is constantly looking for those who are poor for those who are pressed for those who are disregarded for the prisoner to be able to love them and he takes on their burden and he humbles himself to become a servant like the least of all says you will find me in the least of all dies a humiliating death on the cross the firstborn the first has become last. [00:00:00]

The quality that we're thinking about today is fairness. You have been the victim or you have seen other people to be the victim of favoritism in families that can be so incredibly destructive in the workplace uh to be on a team in a classroom somebody who was teachers Pets the old language for it to feel like a person particularly somebody who has power or privilege abuses it in order to get what they want Injustice unfairness strikes so deeply at us. [00:03:26]

God is a God who does not show favoritism, and I want to take most of the rest of this time to walk through a primary theme of The Bible and then just get to what does that mean for you and me today, what does it mean for you to be a person who is deeply Fair, who treats the people in your life as meriting equal worth equal respect equal value no matter what they look like, how wealthy or successful or attractive they might appear to be. [00:03:54]

A theme in the Bible relates to a very important structure in the ancient world which was the right of the firstborn the old language for it is the law of primogenitor and the idea was in ancient agrarian economies in order to make sure that land would stay together that there would be some kind of stability to how life went its Financial systems when there was no support system no social security no structures like we know them today. [00:04:30]

The firstborn was understood to be favored in many cultures that meant they would get a double portion of an inheritance the land would basically go to them, and this is a backdrop for a really interesting theme that would scream to readers of the Old Testament we tend not to see it as much because we don't view it from the same eyes but they they lived in the ancient near East where the right of the firstborn to receive the inheritance was an unquestioned feature of society. [00:05:04]

God is subverting the right of the firstborn human power structures that we assume that we can manipulate to get what it is that we want God to say nope nope you're not going to be able to do that Joseph has two sons Ephraim a Manasseh he brings them before Jacob for Jacob to bless them so that Jacob will put his right hand on the older son but Jacob deliberately crosses his hand gives a cross-handed blessing to give his best blessing to the younger son. [00:08:38]

The idea is that whatever blessing God has given to you you see how can I use that not for my own sake but to bless other people fairness is not just treating people equally it is seeing the worst in people and asking how can I acknowledge that so how do you do that today who are you likely to overlook honestly has there been any favoritism in your family with siblings or with children if you have kids or with people at the workplace do you have any amends that you need to make. [00:10:53]

If there's healing that's needed if you need to go to somebody and say I haven't treated you right, do that today and then just ask who am I likely to overlook, do I tend to favor people who are richer or people who look more beautiful. I was getting coffee early early this morning and um the young woman who was behind the cat or was probably pretty early on the job was a little slow didn't quite know what she was doing and all of a sudden I had this thought if that was my daughter standing behind the counter I would want whoever is in line here to be really really nice to her. [00:11:42]

Be a person of Justice be somebody who recognizes the worth the value the image of God in each person that you see, um last thought this is especially for my friend Kevin in the book of Hebrews there's a wonderful line where it talks about the church as being the Gathering or the assembly or the Church of the firstborn, and the idea there is now we are all people who belong to Jesus he's the firstborn who gave himself out in Humble generosity with Justice and fairness to us all. [00:12:34]

The story is a lot about Joseph but if you read carefully, the blessing the patriarchy doesn't go to Joseph it actually flows through Judah, and Judah is actually the fourth born the youngest the lowest status son of the unloved wife Leia God is subverting the right of the firstborn human power structures that we assume that we can manipulate to get what it is that we want God to say nope nope you're not going to be able to do that. [00:08:31]

Jesus is the firstborn but here we see someone who doesn't use that prerogative, his power and his privilege for his own self but he pours himself out and is constantly looking for those who are poor for those who are pressed for those who are disregarded for the prisoner to be able to love them and he takes on their burden and he humbles himself to become a servant like the least of all says you will find me in the least of all dies a humiliating death on the cross the firstborn the first has become last. [00:00:00]

The quality that we're thinking about today is fairness. You have been the victim or you have seen other people to be the victim of favoritism in families that can be so incredibly destructive in the workplace uh to be on a team in a classroom somebody who was teachers Pets the old language for it to feel like a person particularly somebody who has power or privilege abuses it in order to get what they want Injustice unfairness strikes so deeply at us. [00:03:26]