The Lutheran Hour
-
"Wearing a White Hat"
- Download MP3 Reflections
-
Text: John 3:5
-
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed. On the cross Jesus carried humanity’s sins; at His resurrection He showed those sins were gone. Now, because of what the Christ has done all who believe in Him shall stand guiltless before the Lord. God grant we be born again with such a faith in the Savior. God grant this gift to us all. Amen.
On October 12, 1940, the newspapers reported that Tom Mix, the movie cowboy who had starred in 370 films, had been killed while he was driving to Phoenix, Arizona. Mix was behind the wheel of his custom-built Cord Phaeton, a flashy roadster with longhorns mounted on the radiator. He was almost flying when he came over a hill and saw a road crew directly in front of him. Mix literally stood up on the brakes so he might avoid slaughtering the crew which was working on a broken bridge. His car swung into a gully where his heavy aluminum suitcase flew forward, hit him in the back of the head, and broke his neck. Mix got out of his car, walked a few steps, and fell over dead. Amazingly, the newspapers, who reported the story, also felt it their duty to add, and I quote, “Mix was wearing his trademark ten-gallon, white, Stetson hat.”
Why did they bother to report that? Of course Mix was wearing a white hat. He was a movie cowboy, wasn’t he? Everybody knows movie cowboys must live by certain rules. “What kind of rules?” you ask. Well, rules like this. In a cowboy movie: if four men are playing poker, one of them will be dressed real fancy and one of them will be drunk and gamble away the deed to his farm which he apparently carries with him at all times. Finally, the good guy in a movie western must wear a white hat. His sidekick is allowed to sport a dirty, grey hat with holes in it, but the hero has to wear a white hat which is always pristine.
Now the reason for all these clichés is obvious. When western movies were first being made, they were silent. Using clichés was the easiest way to convey information to audience members, the easiest way to let them know: “This is the good guy, this is the bad guy, this is the farmer whose homestead is being stolen by an unscrupulous and dishonest banker, this is the dancehall girl who has a rough exterior, but a kind and gentle heart. Oh, if she falls in love with the hero during the first half of the movie, don’t bet she’s going to be around to see the closing titles. So there you have it: the good guy wore the white hat to help you know: this guy is a good guy.
You know, when I read the Bible, I sometimes wish the Lord would use some kind of method to help identify the characters for me. You see, I think it would be of assistance if the good guys wore a white hat, and the kinda good guys wore a grey hat, and the really bad guys were compelled to wear black hats. Now you may not think it necessary, but there are times when it’s easy to get confused. For example, was Noah a good guy entitled to wear a white hat? True, he did preach a word of warning to the doomed planet, and he did build an ark at God’s command, but then, after the flood, he got drunk. How about Abraham? There are any number of nations who trace their ancestry back to Abraham. Should we give him a white hat? Yes, he was the Lord’s chosen father of nations, but he also fathered a child with his slave; he let his wife be taken into the homes of fellows who found her attractive; he almost loved his son more than he did the Lord. I don’t know if Abraham should get that white Stetson. Maybe David should be the spokesman for white hats. He was God’s chosen king; he slew the giant Goliath; he wrote a lot of good Psalms. On the other hand, David was an adulterer and murderer. How about if we go to the New Testament? Who gets the white hat there? Peter? He made a tremendous confession of faith when he said Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. He spoke wonderfully well when he witnessed, ‘Jesus was the Son of God Who has the words of eternal life.’ On the other hand, Peter denied Jesus in the High Priest’s courtyard; he fell asleep when Jesus asked him to watch and pray; and he ran away when Jesus, the Savior, was arrested.
Who is the good guy? Who gets to wear a white hat? Maybe Nicodemus. Nicodemus was an incredibly good man. You see, Nicodemus was a Pharisee and Pharisees made it their stock-in-trade to keep the rules and be very, very, very good. Now understand, we’re not just talking about keeping the Ten Commandments. No, the Pharisees didn’t hardly worry about them. True, they followed the Ten Commandments given on Sinai, but they also added 633 other rules from the Old Testament. You see, these Pharisees were serious about their goodness. But there’s more. Every one of those 633 rules they added had to be interpreted. How did the rule change if this was happening, or if that was happening? Now if you do the mathematics, that means Nicodemus was doing his level best to live up to a few thousand rules.
Apparently, he did a pretty good job of it. I say that because he was so respected at doing good that he was one of the 70 special elders of the Jewish nation. He was a card-carrying member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish version of our Supreme Court. Further, he was a Teacher of Israel which meant he had the credentials to interpret and teach others what the Holy Scriptures were saying. Now if you take all of that, add it up, you’re going to agree Nicodemus was a first-class, A #1 good guy. If anybody was qualified to wear a white hat, it had to be him.
Which is why, it’s just a little strange to find super good-guy Nicodemus coming to visit Jesus in the middle of the night. Still, according to the 3rd chapter of John’s Gospel that’s what happened. It says, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night…” Was Nicodemus’ calendar so packed that the middle of the night was the only time they could get together; maybe he was afraid of what his fellow Pharisees would think of him if they ever found out he had visited with Jesus. I mean, most Pharisees saw Jesus as a Troublemaker, a corrupting Influence, an all-around general Nuisance. Those mainstream Pharisees might have tried to kick Nicodemus out of their fraternity if they thought he was fraternizing with the Enemy.
Sadly, the Apostle John doesn’t give us any glimpses into Nicodemus’ heart. We can’t see his motivation, all we know is he came to visit the Savior in the middle of the night. He came and began to ask a question. His words show Nicodemus spoke sincerely and in a most proper way. That means, according to custom, he started up gently and flatteringly. Nicodemus said: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Nicodemus might have been more specific. Just looking at Jesus’ ministry up to that point in time, the Pharisee might have started this way: “Jesus, we’ve heard how You turned water into first-class wine when You were in Cana. That was pretty impressive. You drove those money changers and sheep sellers out of the temple. Many of us were hoping somebody, sometime would get that long-overdue job done…”
No matter how Nicodemus began, it was obvious he felt pretty secure in making some judgments about Jesus… and God. Why wouldn’t he? Nicodemus was a good guy. He wore a white hat. He and his friends knew all there was to know about God and how to lead a good and acceptable life. After all, weren’t they the ones who went to worship every week; didn’t they fast; didn’t they study the Scripture; didn’t they give more than a tenth of their net, not their gross, but their net income? Yes, Nicodemus thought he was qualified to wear a white hat and ask Jesus some questions. The questions never came; they were never asked.
Nicodemus’ questions weren’t asked because Jesus interrupted the venerable sage of the Jews. Jesus stopped Nicodemus and said something like, “Nicodemus, you’re quite right in saying the things I do point to the fact I come from God. Now, as a Person Who represents the Lord, I want you to know: ‘Unless a person is born again, he won’t be seeing the kingdom of God.’ That Nicodemus was taken aback is obvious from the rest of the conversation, for the scholar asks questions like, ‘How is it possible for a grown man to enter into his mother’s womb and be born again.”’
Yes, it took some time before Nicodemus figured out the point Jesus was making. Many people still miss the Savior’s point. That’s because Jesus’ idea of being born again is so strange, so contradictory to the way we think. Most of us like to believe that we can, without any outside assistance; be good enough to make God say, “Wow! You really do deserve to wear a white hat. You really are a good guy. You, sir, are impressive. I’m so overwhelmed by the way you’ve lived your life, I’m going to invite you right into heaven.” And if you’re thinking, “I never knew anybody who believed something like that”, I’d reply, “Oh yes you do.” Almost every religion in the world says you have to do this or that to work your way up to God. Look at the Hindu who pierces his flesh to show his god he is saddened by the wrongs he has done; observe the faithful follower of Islam who is commanded to obey the five pillars of the faith if he wishes to be accepted by his god; go to the temples of the world and watch the sacrifices and offerings being made by pilgrims who are trying to earn their god’s approval. All of them are trying to earn their white hat.
And if you aren’t a follower of these faiths or any faiths, you still probably believe in a cosmic karma where a person who does good receives good and a person who does evil receives the same in kind. You’ve watched such folks on TV. Usually we see them while they are being interviewed after some kind of tragedy. Don’t most of them say something like, “I don’t know why this has happened. I try to be a good person; I try to mind my own business; I try not to hurt anyone else? Why has this happened to me? I don’t understand. It’s just not fair.” They think they’ve got good things coming because they’ve earned their white hats.
Which is why every one of us needs to stand alongside Nicodemus and listen as Jesus says: No matter how good you are, you’re not good enough to enter the kingdom of God; no matter how hard you try, you can’t try hard enough to be acceptable to the Lord. Frightening? Absolutely! Still, that is what Scripture teaches. In Ecclesiastes (7:20) it says, “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins”; the book of Romans (3:12) says the same: “All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one”; and in that same book it declares, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
That’s the point Jesus was making with Nirodemus. He was letting the scholar know that he wasn’t qualified to wear a white hal… or a gray hat. Nope, Nicodemus’ hat, and yours, and mine is jet black. And you do know what happens to the guys who wear black hats, don’t you? You don’t? Well, the Bible tells us. In Ezekiel (18:20) it says “The soul who sins shall die”; and Romans says (6:23a) “the wages of sin is death.” Does that seem harsh? It isn’t. It’s just. It’s fair because, “whoever keeps the whole law but breaks it in one spot, he ends up having broken the whole thing.” (See James 2:10) In short, we’re sinners and we can’t get into heaven on our own.
A few years ago, Pam and I went with some of our grandchildren to Disneyworld. We had a grand time … at least most of us did. Our youngest grandson, Tray, was about 40 inches tall. At the Magic Kingdom some of Disney’s more exciting, faster rides call for a person to be 44 or 48 or 52 inches tall before they can get on the ride. Now Tray tried to stand on tip-toe; he asked if he could wear his cowboy boots to add an inch to his height. He tried to ask the manager of the ride to make an exception. Sadly, no matter what he did, Tray couldn’t ride the rides; which is why he had to stand with a grandparent and watch as the rest of the crew had their fun.
When it comes to getting into the Kingdom of Heaven, none of us can make the cut. We miss and we miss by a country mile. And that’s sad. It’s sad for us; it’s sad for the Lord Who truly does love us; Who wants nobody to be shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven. It’s so sad the Lord decided to set a plan in motion which would allow us to be reborn. A spiritual rebirth, that’s what Jesus called it. And what could a person do to get reborn? Absolutely nothing. Let me ask, what did you do when you were born into this world? You didn’t do a thing. You were a spectator. You were helpless, helpless as, well, helpless as a baby. Others did all the work, had to do all the work so you could be born. So it is when it comes to your spiritual rebirth. Somebody else had to do all the work.
And Jesus is the Somebody else Who was entrusted with the job. He is the only Person Who could have done the job. So that you might be reborn He came into this world as One of us. His entire life, from start to finish, was spent doing all that you could not do for yourself. You couldn’t attain the perfection a perfect God demanded, but Jesus could and did. You, like the rest of humankind, couldn’t resist every temptation the devil and this sinful world threw at you, but Jesus could and did. Weighed down by your sin, you had no chance, opportunity, or power to defeat death, but Jesus could and did. Having given up His life for you on Calvary’s cross, three days later, Jesus rose and came out of His borrowed and now empty tomb. Now, all who believe that Jesus has done the work to bring about their rebirth are sure and certain the Christ has given them a white hat and the blessed gift of eternal life.
In very practical, incredibly real terms let me tell you what all this means. It was a number of years ago that I sat beside the sickbed of a young girl who was dying. The most wise and caring of doctors had reluctantly confessed they were helpless in the face of her illness. Watching a burdensome sadness settle in upon the room, upon parents and grandparents and friends, there was no denying I was witnessing a great tragedy. How could it have been otherwise? These folks were saying an earthly farewell to their darling, the baby of the family. But you should know the room did not have a feeling of desperation, of everlasting loss. That is because everyone in that room knew their child was also Jesus’ child. They knew that through water and word, through the calling of the Holy Spirit, their child had been reborn as God’s child. Everyone knew Jesus had carried this child’s sins to the cross. There, on Calvary’s crest Jesus had died and with Him died any accusations any condemnation which those sins might have made against this child. All of us knew, this child, because of Jesus, wore a white hat. We knew, because of Jesus, she was one of God’s good children; because of Jesus she had been declared innocent of all sin and wrongdoing.
That was the truth which made the child say, “I’m not afraid.” That was the reality which allowed her to witness to us when she said we weren’t to cry because she knew her Savior was coming and He would keep her until the family was reunited. We cried when she said that… but the tears of sadness were mixed with tears of hope and joy and the knowledge this child had been saved. She had been born again. That was the comfort we had … that we still have. It was the comfort which inspired St. Paul to write: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
This is the comfort God holds out to you today. To that end we are prepared to help you. If you need any assistance, please, do not hesitate, not for a moment. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers)
March 20, 2011
Topic:Lingering GuiltAnnouncer: Now, our Speaker Emeritus, Pastor Ken Klaus answers a question about lingering guilt over sins that have already been forgiven. I’m Mark Eischer.
Klaus: Hi, Mark. Tell me about this listener.
Announcer: He’s in his mid-forties, he’s been a church member for most of his life, attends worship regularly, but he’s just not sure that going to church is doing him much good.
Klaus: I’m sorry to hear that. Why does he feel that way?
Announcer: He goes to church and hears how Jesus died on the cross for our sins. And each week, he hears the pastor announce that those sins are forgiven.
Klaus: All well and good. Are we making progress toward the problem now?
Announcer: Yes. About ten years ago, he committed a particular sin which is a clear violation of one of God’s Ten Commandments. He hasn’t repeated that sin, but it
continues to bother and worry him. He knows that God wants us to obey these
Commandments, including that one that he very deliberately broke so long ago.Klaus: OK, I would hope our listener is not saying that he feels he’s perfectly kept the
other nine Commandments and it’s just this one time where he messed up. That would
be a whole ‘nother discussion. Does our listener ever say what that sin was?Announcer: He does, but he’s also asked us not to reveal the details on the air.
Klaus: Well, we certainly won’t violate that. Another question: has he ever thought of confessing this particular troubling sin to his pastor?
Announcer: He has, but he doesn’t know if having private confession with his pastor, would run the risk of having this sin be made public, which would be very embarrassing for him, his family, and his business,
Klaus: Mark, something needs to be said here, Obviously I don’t know this man’s pastor or priest. But I do know this: every pastor or priest that I have ever met takes private confession incredibly seriously, What is said in the confessional booth stays there, It’s not something you tell others about. That would be, I think, the most grievous thing a clergyman could do, In one fell swoop, he would wipe out any trust he has with his congregation, Unless this minister has already proven himself to be untrustworthy, I would encourage our listener to make that private confession and hear his pastor pronounce the words of absolution regarding this sin that troubles him so very much,
Announcer: Our listener is also worried that this sin will keep him from going to heaven,
Klaus: Yeah, and our friend, Mark, is asking the wrong question,
Announcer: But that’s the question on his heart.
Klaus: I agree, but even so it is the wrong question,
Announcer: And what would be the right question?
Klaus: The right question is this: “Is Jesus his Savior?”
Announcer: Because”,
Klaus: Because, by trusting in Jesus as his Savior from sin, he’s trusting that that sin of his was forgiven 2,000 years ago when Jesus died on Calvary’s cross, Jesus forgave Peter for denying Him three times, He forgave the thief on the cross, He forgave the woman caught in adultery, He forgave Saul who had been involved in the murder of the first Christian martyr. Jesus forgives, Now, I don’t know what our listener has done, but I do know what Jesus has done, and that was to atone for the sins of the whole world, That includes you, me, and our friend here,
Announcer: So what really is the problem?
Klaus: The problem is this: in contrast to those people whose consciences have become, you know, deadened by disuse–folks who think sin is no big deal–this fellow’s conscience has gone the other direction, it’s kicked right into high gear.
Announcer: It keeps nagging at him,
Klaus: Yeah, There are two dangers here: the first danger is to ignore your conscience when you have sinned,
Announcer: And the second danger?
Klaus: “.is letting your conscience continue to make you feel guilty even after God announces to you His forgiveness, Those are opposite sides of the same coin”, and both sides of that coin are not, I want to underline that word, are not the will of God, God calls us to repent of our sin and He grants forgiveness on account of Christ. He delivers that forgiveness to us through His Word, through the absolution of the pastor, through the bread and wine of Holy Communion, He gives it to you and He doesn’t snatch it back, Case closed, mission accomplished,
Announcer: It’s just as simple as that?
Klaus: It’s just as simple as that.
Announcer: Thank you, Pastor Klaus, This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour
MinistriesMusic selection for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” From O Lord, Open My Lips by the Children’s Choirs of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Ft: Wayne (© 1995 St. Paul’s Lutheran Church)
“The Gospel Shows the Father’s Grace” arr, Henry Gerike, Used by permission,
“Jesus, Your Blood and Righteousness” arr, Chris Shoemker, Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Ach, Herr, lass dein lieb’ Engelein” by J,S, Bach, From Werke fUr Blechbliiser von Bach, u,a, (© 1988 Hiinssler Verlag, Stuttgart)