Judge, Jury, and Jesus

Today we explore the topic of ‘do not judge’. And when I saw that this was what we were going to talk about I immediately thought that one of the verses that we were going to hear from was Matthew 7:1 where it says, ““Don’t judge, so that you won’t be judged.” Or the old but very popular, “Judge not, lest ye be judged”. And we do get Paul using this saying of Jesus in our Romans text we did hear, but this passage would have been a good one to include in what we talk about today, especially when it goes on to say that we should not take out the splinter in our neighbor’s eye, when we fail to see the log in our own eye. The reason why this is so helpful for us in our conversation is because it helps us bring to the forefront that Jesus isn’t condemning any and all forms of judgement. Jesus is calling for fair and equal judgement under the law, whether that is God’s law or the laws that our world establishes. The kind of judgement that Jesus is warning against in all of the passages we heard today and that Paul reiterates is the kind of judgement that is meant to be one sided, the kind that benefits or at least excuses me from any ownership while making sure the other person gets what we think or feel they deserve.

And boy are we good at judging. I mean after all, once we put people in boxes and stereotypes we sometimes feel that we can get as judgey as we want about a person. If you were with us last week, we started a nice laundry list of how we and the world put people into stereotypes and label them based on many different factors. Then once a person fits within that label and stereotype, judge away. I mean lets be honest, how many ethnic jokes are based on stereotypes? All of them. Like, my friends favorite one, “How many Lutherans does it take to change a lightbulb? Ch-ch-ch-change???” Or Pollack jokes, or blonde jokes…you know what I mean. The problem is that once we see a stereotype that we’ve heard of be played out by a person of that group, that then reinforces that label and that stereotype. The more it happens to more we are convinced that every single person is like that. Just this last Monday I made some over generalizations and someone in the Bible study shared their personal experiences that were counter to what I said. I really appreciated it because it helped to ground me and pull me away from doing things like that especially when I haven’t had the opportunity to experience myself.

But, boy do I have a judging moment from my past that I have talked about multiple times because I don’t think I have ever been so judgey in my life. In college I was coming out of a store behind this little old lady in a walker. Both our cars were parked up against the shopping center shops. I went a little to the left toward my car and she veered right toward her car. I’m not sure what the reason was for keeping my eye on her but I did and as she approached the curb to step down to her front door I saw this guy who was probably also college aged walk very quickly up toward her. He was wearing typical goth clothing. All black with black hair, tattoos, a large chain wallet, piercings, the works. He walked up so quickly toward her that I was convinced that this goth guy was going to steal this ladies purse right in front of me. As I turned to be prepared to defend this little old lady I was quickly put to shame as this man gently grabbed her by the fore arm and helped her down the step of the curb and then into her car.

Not only had I judged this guy as a thief and thug because of how he chose to dress, I also failed to do the very kind and thoughtful thing that he did. As a Christian I am called to care for the poor, the lost, the the alen, the elderly. I am called to help that woman and yet I stood there and did nothing to help her. And to make it worse I pre-judged this guy who did help her. In that moment that guy was a better person, a better citizen, a better neighbor, and a better Christian than I was. Luke records Jesus as saying in Luke 6:35 “Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.” I neither loved my enemy. You might think that enemy is the wrong word here since we never met, but I judged him as not like me and treated him a a possible hostile person before I even knew him. If that’s not one way to look at and define an enemy then I don’t know what is. I also didn’t do good. I knew the lady was using a walker. I knew she was having a hard time. I could have helped her into her car or at least offered, but I didn’t. I chose to just watch and go about my day.

And to jump to that Matthew 7 verse, I was more focused on the speck in that man’s eye, which ended up being no speck at all and instead I should have focused on the log that was in my own eye. And I very quickly experienced what it meant to be judged with the same judgement that you judge. We might not always experience it that quickly, but in that moment my judgement back was instantaneous. I had this stereotype judgement in my mind and he fit it to a “T” and even though I didn’t act on it, I definitely thought it and was prepared to act on it. And this theology of not judging really stuck with me. In fact, it stuck with me so much that I did the opposite for a long time. I refused to judge anyone for fear of being judged. But that’s also not what Jesus is getting at either. You see just as there is good anger and bad anger like we talked about earlier this summer, there is also good judgement and bad judgement. Bad judgement is the kind of judgement I shared with you. The kind that tries to make us right and them wrong. The kind of judgement that is one sided so that I benefit and you lose. The kind that tries to play into stereotypes and labels so that we can appeal to another person.

Jesus is instead calling for two other kinds of judgement. First the good kind in our interactions with each other that I just alluded to a moment ago. I would call that kind of judgement accountability. We need to judge people and hold them accountable for their actions or lack of actions. If someone genuinely does something wrong that goes against the law of man and/or that of God we need to hold them and one another accountable for their actions. We might not always agree on the type of accountability or punishment, but we do need to have ways to make sure that we live in right relationships with one another. Which is probably why last week the rich man said that he kept the commandments since he was a boy. He was living in right relationship with God and with his neighbors. The other kind of judgement is that of God and to know that as Jesus says in John 12 that he didn’t come into the world to judge the world but to save the world. Jesus is in the business of saving the entire world. That is why Jesus came. His life, ministry, death, and resurrection are all there to save us. To help us reach a relationship with God who wants nothing more than to be in a good and holy relationship with us. As Paul puts it to the Romans 2:4b “Don’t you realize that God’s kindness is supposed to lead you to change your heart and life?”

God doesn’t even seem to want to talk about judgement until the last day, when everything has passed. God not only reserves judgement of faith for God to decide, but God also passes that judgement down the road because God wants to give every person every possible chance to change their hearts and lives so that they can see the love, mercy, and grace of God is immeasurable. If God is so loving, forgiving, and willing to pass on judgement, then perhaps we should do the same. Perhaps we should give the same mercy and grace toward one another as God does toward us. For God chose love and eternal life over everything else. May that love permeate our hearts and minds as we look toward our neighbors and see them as more than something to judge. Amen.