The Great Equalizer
October 5, 2008
One of my favorite television shows growing up was called “The Equalizer.” Most people don’t remember it and I don’t think it ran for too many years. The hero of this show was an older, stately English gentleman who carried an air of quiet confidence. The theme of each episode centered on a situation in which a person or group of people were being victimized, oppressed, harassed by someone(s) who had some control over them. Into this situation the Equalizer came on the side of the underdog to equalize the situation and to defend the powerless. Because he was the hero of the television show, he always won the day.
When you think about it, how many stories be they television dramas, movies, or books have this basic them of good fighting evil in whatever form that evil finds itself. Way back in my day we had the likes of Superman, Mighty Mouse, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry. Then we moved to the likes of “The A-Team” and of “I Spy” and “Man from UNCLE”-- powerful evil oppressing the weak and the innocent who had no power. Like Don Quixote the hero swoops in to “fight for the right whatever the cost and to march into hell for a heavenly cause.”
These kinds of stories appeal to me because I have within me a strong sense of fairness, justice, and fair play. Where do you suppose this whole theme of the battle between good and evil, the powerful versus the powerless comes from? Can you say “the Bible?” This is the main theme of God’s Word. The Bible tells us that we are being oppressed by the strong arm of one Satan, the evil one, the Prince of this world who runs rough-shod over us. We are powerless and under this Oppressors thumb until one day the God of this universe dispatched His One and only Son, born of a woman, born as a Jew to redeem those under Satan’s power and curse. Jesus has come to be our Equalizer. He came to even things out, to break Satan’s hold over us, to negate his right over our lives, to set us free from the fear that binds us, and the sin that destroys us. Jesus is our great Equalizer against Satan.
But Jesus is more than a Superman or Don Quixote. He is the very Son of God who does not come into our lives for a brief time and then is gone. By the Holy Spirit when we invite Him, Jesus abides and sets up shop. His continued presence abides, guides, and provides. He comforts and gives us strength and wisdom. He gives us victory after victory over Satan, sin, and this world. He walks with us and talks with us throughout all of life and in all of life.
In Galatians 3 the Apostle Paul says that through our faith in Jesus Christ we are all sons of God, children of God. In vs 28 he makes a very important statement, “There’s neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is our Equalizer not only in the battle between righteousness and evil, but also in the differences that separate us as God’s special creation. Satan, sin and the world all work to make us unequal. Nationalism, racism, sexism, socialisms, classism, ageism, and all the other ‘-isms’ that are all clear cut to the world. Yet it is Jesus who is the great Equalizer who makes us all equal before our God.
Being equal does NOT mean that we are all the same. God created us as His highest and best creation and each of us is unique and one-of-a-kind, but we are all equal. That equality does NOT come from any document like our hallowed Declaration of Independence, not does it come from any fiat by governmental or political powers, that equality comes to us from God Himself. It is sin that messes up that equality, sin that controls the affairs of this world and makes us unequal.
Jesus, our Equalizer, made it all right one day on a hill outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem, on a hill overlooking the Valley of Gehenna, the towns dump. Someone aptly described the ground around the cross as being level and all who stand before the cross stand as equals. In our present world the harsh reality is that inequalities abound—economically, physically, educationally, emotionally, et al. Each person brings into our world his/here own set of assets and liabilities that help or hinder. But for things that matter for all eternity, we stand on equal footing and we stand equally as sinners—whether we be a banker or beggar, janitor or judge, teacher or student, parishioner or pastor, Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female—there are no distinctions, different but equal—equal in sin and condemnation and equal in God’s grace and salvation.
It is at the communion table on this Worldwide Communion Sunday that we are reminded that in our spiritual warfare Jesus is our great Equalizer and that before Him we all stand as equals—sinners saved by grace. As we partake of the Lord’s Supper let us humble ourselves before the Lord. Let us offer our puffed up pride and self-importance to be deflated by the prick of His double-edged sword. Let us remember that there is no glory except in the glory of the cross.
This morning as you hold the elements in your hand allow your eyes to wander over the people seated in this sanctuary. Note the tremendous diversity of God’s family: the young and old, the financially secure and the financially struggling, the mature Christian and the baby Christian, the white-collar and blue-collar folk, the professional and the laborer, the many various language, racial, and ethnic groups. In some ways we are an Acts 2 body of Christ.
Let us praise Jesus this morning that He is the great Equalizer that brings us all together at the foot of the cross and then as we leave that cross as new creations in Christ to be His light and His salt in this dark and decaying world.