Help for the Helpless: Romans 3:28-30, 5:1-11 - Sixth Sunday of Easter

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”

Unless you haven’t watched television for 40 years, you will recognize that line from the commercials for Life Alert™, an emergency communications device for people who live alone. If you’re in a medical emergency or someone’s breaking into your house or there’s a fire, you press the button on the transmitter you wear on your wrist, and emergency responders will be dispatched to your home right away. 

Life Alert didn’t pay me to say this, but I know many individuals whose lives were saved by these devices. If there is an emergency, you are not left helpless and alone. 

Helplessness is the worst thing you will ever experience in life. To be helpless is to be unable to take care of yourself. You have no power or control over people or forces that are working against you.

I once heard a retired seminary professor describe the helplessness he felt when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Before the diagnosis, he was standing on solid ground, but when the doctor spoke those terrible words, the ground fell out from underneath his feet. The only thing he (or anyone in this situation) can do is to go along with the treatment plan and pray.

Helplessness is just part of being human. Regardless of how strong or mighty you become in life, you were born helpless, and you will die helpless. 

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You are helpless against your sin. At the beginning of the service, we spoke the words, “we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves.” In other words, no matter how hard you try to do good, you will be a sinner as long as you remain in the flesh. You will never be perfect. You are a helpless sinner.

But who wants to admit helplessness? Who wants to be dependent on others? Who wants to admit that you cannot control everything that happens to you? That you cannot make people love you or respect you? Who wants to admit that you cannot be perfect?

As human beings, our pride is our strength. Helplessness is our shame. We go to great lengths to hide our helplessness from the world.  We don’t want people to judge us as weak. To be strong is to belong. 

Let me be clear: There’s nothing morally wrong with helplessness. But shame happens when you let helplessness define you. It deceives you into believing that you are not worthy of love and belonging, so that you reject the help God provides. 

We are so conditioned to despise our own helplessness that we believe God despises it too. Have you ever believed that God caused your suffering to punish you for something that you’ve done, but you don’t know what for? Do you believe that God is refusing to answer your prayers because you aren’t praying hard enough, or because you don’t have enough faith? Is it true that God only helps those who help themselves?

Let’s pretend that you have done something terrible, and you know 100% that your suffering is a consequence of that sin. You committed a crime, and now you’re in prison. Or you abused your body by your bad habits and now your body’s broken. Yes, God disciplines his children—but not to condemn. Not to push you away. Only to save. 

If you are helpless because of something that you’ve done, because of something someone’s done to you, or because of something that happened, one thing remains the same: God is the help of the helpless. 

In fact, helplessness has an important place in God’s plan of salvation. Salvation begins in helplessness. Why? Because Jesus emptied himself of all his divine power, and the life that was rightfully his by his holiness. Jesus suffered helplessness at the hands of sinners like you and me. He died in helplessness. He descended helplessly into hell. 

Therefore, if you’re going through hell, Jesus descends to meet you there. Whether it’s the hell of sin, the hell of suffering, or some combination of the two (it doesn’t matter), God’s power to save reaches to the deepest depths of hell. As a matter of fact, the more helpless you feel, the closer Jesus is to you. You are nearer to salvation than someone who is riding high in health, wealth, and prosperity. For when you glory in your own achievement, when you have power to control circumstances and people, when the strength of your flesh is sufficient to meet any challenge, what do you need a savior for?

When you are falling into the abyss of helplessness, you are falling into God’s mercy. God helps those who cannothelp themselves. And God blesses those who help the helpless because that is what discipleship is all about. We are helpless without each other. Sooner or later, you are going to be helpless. But you will not be without help—because you belong to the Body of Christ. We share together in the help God provides. 

What we are helpless to do, Jesus does for you. You are made righteous before God through his body and blood. Blessed be the helplessness where God’s mercy is shown, where Christian love prevails, where salvation begins.

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