God's Favor

Have you ever asked God for a favor? What did you ask for? Have you ever asked God to look past your naughtiness – just this once – and to give you something nice anyway? Have you ever bargained with God, promising that if he’ll just give you this job or this raise or this jackpot, that you’ll give a good chunk back to him? Have you ever promised God that if he takes away your sickness or disease, you’ll live for him? I bet you’ve all asked a favor of God. Maybe this is a better question: do you have favor with God? Are you in God’s favor? In our Old Testament reading we heard that the boy Samuel grew in stature and in favor with the LORD and men. In our Gospel reading and sermon text Luke tells us that the boy Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. Today, I pray, you too will grow in favor with God as he does you a favor and shows you his favor through Jesus.

Do you even want God’s favor? It seems to me like most of us seek favor with men more than we seek favor with God. We care more about what other humans think than what God thinks. We want to be loved by men more than by God. Children seek the favor of their parents. As they get older, they won’t admit it, but all children want their parents to love them and approve of them. Parents seek the favor of their children. Sometimes to the child’s detriment, parents will give anything, do anything for their kids so that their children will love them. We all seek the favor of family and friends. We need a place to belong. We want to know that people like us and enjoy being with us. Oh, we seek the favor of the opposite sex. By fifth or sixth grade, even children are already looking for love in all the wrong places. And we seek the favor of the world. We want to be cool and do what everyone else is doing.

Unfortunately, we don’t get the favor we seek from men or at best it lasts only a little while. It doesn’t matter what you do, you’re parents are still going to get angry with you. It doesn’t matter how much you give them, your children will still disrespect and disobey you. It doesn’t matter how well you do, your family will still be disappointed in you. Your friends will still betray you. That special boy or girl will still dump you. The world will still dump on you. As long as you seek favor from men, you will always come up short. You will never stop chasing. You will never feel complete.

We can’t just blame everyone else though. We also have to admit that we often seek the favor of other men for our own selfish reasons. We think that other people can make us happy. We expect our spouses or parents or children to meet our needs. We think that other people will make us feel good. We want our family and friends and especially special friends to praise us and do favors for us to make us feel good. And we want to look good. So, no matter how much the world mistreats us, we’ll do whatever necessary to fit in. But it doesn’t work. Nothing works. We can never find enough favor with men.

We may think that we want favor with men but what we really need is favor with God.

Of course, God has no reason to show us his favor. He can’t show us favor for who we are. We think that we’re such great people. We want God to love us for being kind and generous and loving. But at our core, we’re all selfish sinners. We’re selfish parents who just want our kids to be perfect so that we don’t have to actually parent. We’re selfish children who expect our parents to do everything for us so we don’t have to do anything ourselves. We’re selfish friends and neighbors who don’t want to give any of our time helping others. We’re selfish workers who don’t want to share our hard earned money with others. God can’t show us favor for who we are.

And he can’t show us favor for what we do either. Oh, we think that we do so many good things. We come to church. We give offerings. We volunteer. We do take care of our kids and we do listen to our parents. We do help our neighbors and all kinds of other good things. And Isaiah says that even our righteous acts are like filthy rags because everything we do is tainted with sin.

We can’t even live up to the example of a twelve year old boy. We don’t sit and listen to God’s word as we should. We don’t think about it and ask questions. We don’t teach others. We simply don’t keep God’s law. And anyone who does not keep God’s law does not deserve God’s favor.

So, is there any hope? Will we ever be in favor with God? While we cannot find favor with God ourselves, God shows us his favor through Jesus. Even without our asking or deserving, God did us a favor – a big favor. He promised a Savior from our sin. And he did an even bigger favor by keeping his promise and sending his own Son to be that Savior.

Jesus did us a favor by coming to be our Savior. Jesus did us a favor by earning God’s favor for us. And that all started with his birth. From the moment Jesus was conceived and born he began to carry out his Father’s mission; he began to earn his Father’s favor. We sometimes forget that Jesus didn’t go directly from the manger to the cross. Before he died for us, he spent 33 years living for us. Luke records the only event we have of Jesus’ childhood. But even as a twelve year old boy Jesus was earning God’s favor for us by his life of obedience.

Luke shows us how many ways Jesus was keeping God’s law for us. He kept the Old Testament law by celebrating the Passover. He kept God’s law by listening to God’s word, thinking about it, asking questions and teaching others. Though it appeared that Jesus was disrespectful, even disobedient, to his parents, that wasn’t the case at all. Jesus was carrying out his Father’s will; and God comes before parents. But Luke records that Jesus also went home with his parents and was obedient to them too. Throughout his entire life Jesus kept God’s law and earned God’s favor. At the end of his life, Jesus offered his perfect life as payment for our sins. In life and in death Jesus earned God’s favor. As God twice said, “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22 and Matthew 17:5).

Because Jesus earned God’s favor, God shows his favor to us. Favor is just another word for grace, which is God’s undeserved love. Though we don’t deserve it and can’t earn it, even though God has no reason to love us because of who we are or what we do, God shows his favor to us through Jesus. Because Jesus died on the cross, God forgives our sins. Because Jesus lived a perfect life, God credits us with holiness. Because Jesus rose from the dead, God promises that we too will rise from the dead to live with him in the eternal glory of heaven.

Jesus grew in favor with God and men. Not all men liked Jesus. Many men rejected Jesus, despised him, and eventually killed him. Yet, other people recognized Jesus as different. They saw his respectful attitude toward others. They saw his obedience to his parents, the government and God. They saw his unselfish love, how he helped others and gave what he had including his life. When you seek favor with God, and find it in Jesus, you might also find favor with men. That doesn’t mean that everyone will like you. It does mean that some will see you as different. When they notice your respect, your obedience, your love, they might ask you about it. And you can tell them about the favor you have from God in Jesus.