Judge not and you will not be judged. In what world is that true? Have you been on social media? Do you hear the terrible things we say to each out and about each other? Do you pay attention to how we talk about those elected to serve us? Do you listen to the way we rush to judge any one for any thing and every thing? And the weird thing about it is that the people we judge actually ask for our judgement! Like those endless surveys from the places where you shop on the internet to the polls we answer about our last doctor’s visit, we beg to be judged by the people we neither respect or care about. We are the worst judges of all. Why right now you are judging me as I preach and that noisy kid fussing and the hymns we sing and the way the organist is playing them and the choir singing. We cannot stop ourselves.
It does not matter whether we are competent to judge, we are the presumed experts in everything and we feel everyone deserves our opinion on everything. And when people are offended by our judgments, we insist that we were only telling the truth as if truth justifies rudeness and self-righteousness. The sin in the world tells us that our judgment is righteous. I know; I am the same way. Worst of all, we judge God. We tell Him what part of His Word we believe and what we won’t believe. We tell Him that if He does not answer our prayers like we say, He should bother at all. We tell Him that our desires are more important than His Word and that truth is what we declare it to be.
When Jesus tells us to judge not, He is hitting at the core issue of what sin has done to our hearts. Instead of trusting and building up, we are skeptical and tear down. It started in Eden but it did not stop there. And it cannot stop until and unless Jesus takes residence in our hearts. We do not stop judging in order to be found worthy of the Kingdom but because we are made members of the Kingdom we begin to learn that such judgment is not worthy of those who belong to Christ by baptism and faith.
The sweetest words we hear is the voice of God saying “I forgive you.” And from them come the second most sweet words we hear, when those around us say “I forgive you.” This forgiveness is not something God gives because we prove how sorry we are or because we promise never to do it again or because we can or will do something to repay such forgiveness.
We do not forgive one another because they have proven how sorry they are or we trust their promise never to do it again or even because forgiveness is a strategic move that might help us. We forgive because we have been forgiven.
The power to stop judging comes only from the One who has set aside judgment for the sake of mercy, condemnation for the sake of redemption. Only Christ. He is the true Joseph who forgives the sins of His brothers. He is the true Bridegroom who forgives His bride, the Church, so that she is holy and pure before the Father. He has endured every angry word, every terrible lie, every awful truth, and every false judgment and He bore it all for us. Because He paid the price of our redemption with His own body and blood on the cross and spared us from every rightful condemnation for our sins, we are made new.
Our Lord not only removes the stain of guilt and its shame from our hearts, He replaces these with the desire to know Him, to mirror in our lives His ways, and to raise up our life and conversation to heaven. That is why we cannot be content to live in the old ways of sin and judgment and why we seek by the aid of the Spirit to a higher good and a more noble life. Is this not why St. Paul could say that he did not even know what sin was until he knew the mercy and compassion of our righteous God through His Son, Jesus Christ? St. Paul became even more aware of his own failings in the face of Christ’s goodness and mercy. And this is why the same St. Paul urges us to live lives worthy of our calling as the people of God.
As people who have received God’s mercy and grace, we live in this forgiveness and compassion. As our Lord has shown to us the true friendship of His life offered for us, we live in friendship with the poor, the needy, the sick, the weak, and the dying. We fight not for our rights but for the rights of those most vulnerable – the aged and the unborn. Though we cannot tolerate evil parading as good or immorality as virtue, to every sinner who confesses their sin we offer the grace of forgiveness as we have been forgiven. We do not ignore the speck in our neighbor’s eye but neither do ignore or excuse the log in our own eyes. All of it is laid at the cross. All of it was laid upon Jesus. All of it has been cleansed by His blood. St. Paul insists. We are not who we were but have become new people in Christ Jesus, created in Him for the good works of His kingdom.
The good works of His kingdom are not overlooking evil or calling it good or standing silently before the forces of change who trample upon God’s Word. No, while we dare not judge one another as superiors or gods above others neither dare we be quiet while evil rages around us. We do not judge people but we must judge wrong and call it out. We must stand together under the judgment of the law of God so that we might also stand together under His mercy. For has judged us in mercy so that we might judge in mercy the sinner who stands outside the banner of His love. And by this witness, those who are outside the faith will be drawn to that faith and, by the Holy Spirit, come to know with us not simply the goodness of the Lord but His mercy that does not end.
What we have to offer the world is nothing less than Christ has offered us – the mercy that does not condemn but confronts the sin and the sinner with the only power greater than sin – the forgiveness that came at great cost to Jesus but to us is free. That is not only our calling but our glory – to proclaim what God does for sinners in Christ and to invite sinners to confess their sins, repent of their wrong, and know with us the power of God’s mercy to rescue the broken, the wounded, the shameful, and the guilty. Judge not and you will not be judged. By these words God connects what He has done for us to that which we are called to do for others in His name.
God help us to do no less. For we are not nay sayers who presume evil but those who have enjoyed the yes of God’s mercy and who refuse to color the world with suspicion and judgment apart from the true judgment of His Word and truth. And we do so confident that in that Word is not only the righteous and fair judgment of God against sin but the love for sinners that saves them. In the Holy Name of Jesus.
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