I’m exiting the freeway and the off ramp has a red light. As I’m waiting for the light to turn green I look around. Along the off ramp is a bunch of trash. Cigarette butts are all over the place. Some soda cans and retired big gulps are here and there. There is all sorts of trash along the side of the road and I can’t help but wonder what these people are thinking. What motivates someone to use the freeway off ramp as their own personal trash can?
I’m sure there are a variety of reasons but I’m going to stick to one, “Someone else will clean it up.” Knowing that tax money will be spent, knowing that some poor slob or someone who cares about the state of the off ramp will come by and clean it up, they toss their garbage out the car window without a second thought. No big deal. Someone else will clean it up.
Do we do this in the church? Is there a “Someone else will” mentality? Is this the mode of operation for our generation? So there’s an announcement, “LWML is getting together his Sunday…” and some of the ladies might think, “Someone else will be there.” Pastor says that bible study is important. “Someone else will go.” Stewardship reports that we’re not meeting the budget, “Someone else will give.” Someone hasn’t been around for a couple months, “Someone else will call or visit.” Why is it someone else? Are we too busy? Are we too tired? Are we too lazy? Here’s the reality, what we spend our time on most, what we think about most, what we will change our calendar around for most, that is our priority. So the question is this, do our priorities line up with God’s priorities? Will we count on this mysterious “someone else” so that what we find most important is accomplished? You and I, we are selfish sinners. Our priorities are messed up. So often we expect someone else to do the job and then we blame someone else when it’s not. If you are not willing to do something about it (whatever “it” is) then do not blame someone else. If you expected “someone else” to do it and did nothing about it, you are just as guilty.
Jesus condescended to our human level. Can you imagine what the world looked like through His human and divine eyes? It would be like pulling up on one of these onramps and you couldn’t get through because of all the garbage. There’s an adulterer over there and a liar over there. On the other side is a thief and right next to the murderer is a drunkard. Piles and piles of sin and decay were strewn all around. Our own works are like dirty rags (Isaiah 64:6) and the things we place over Jesus and His work are garbage (Philippians 3:8). As He saw our death in sin, Jesus didn’t look for someone else. He is the “someone else”. Where we looked inwards, He gave. Where we served ourselves, He washed feet and fed the hungry and healed the sick and had no place to lay His head. This divine “someone else” came here to pour out His gifts of mercy and forgiveness and it all came through an outpouring of blood. It was there as He poured Himself out that we were cleansed. Through His precious blood we were made clean. Through this “someone else” comes life even to those who would litter on a freeway off ramp, who would ignore pleas for help, who would place the secular and temporal over the sacred and eternal. It is only through Jesus and Him alone that we can once again be forgiven. It is through this “someone else” that we can be motivated to do anything good. Through Jesus the Christ you are forgiven. It could only be Him the entire time. He changes our gaze away from our belly buttons and toward the cross where we see what someone else can do and continues to do. Through Jesus you are now “someone else” who forgives, who prioritizes what is holy, who does what is good, right and salutary in faith toward God and fervent love toward one another. All of this because, thank God, someone else did for you.
Rev. Nava