It’s interesting how often the bible passage I’m preaching
on will pop up in different places during the week…
I opened my email on
Monday morning to find a post in a Facebook group I’m part of, called
Christianity discussed… it was set up by
a friend from when I worked at the university… It’s a place where people can
discuss Christianity and he posts a question each week to stimulate that
discussion… this week it was the verse about not judging from Matthews gospel
and the question that people often ask about it… does this mean we shouldn’t
judge between good and evil? Is there such a thing as good judging?
I got Lee Child’s latest book ‘Make Me’ for Father’s Day… It’s one of my guilty pleasures that I’m
a Jack Reacher fan… In a discussion in the story about a website that sells
drugs to enable people to commit suicide in as painless way as possible a
character says to Reacher … ‘Who am I too judge. They’re meeting a need.” And it for me summed up the way some use this
saying of Jesus in our society today… to abdicate making moral decisions.
I had the privilege of having Steve Farrelly who runs the
break club in schools in Manurewa and Glen Innes speak at our Living Well
retirement seminar on Friday. Steve talked about people coming to him and
asking him to pray for them. He talked of being approached by a woman who is
like the community leader. Her lesbian relationship had
broken up and she and her young child were needing Housing New Zealand to
provide them with accommodation. She asked Steve If his God could help her?
Steve's an honest guy and dmitted to us that his theology got a bit challenged by this and he wondering if
God could… But decided he would not judge and would leave it up to God to
decide… So said he’d pray for her. She said great let’s do it now… Steve
prayed for her to get a house in the middle of a school playground with the
kids swirling around them. That afternoon she got a phone call and was in a
place right away. Steve says since then people have said well justmaybe Steve's God can help me... That sounds like the way people responded to Jesus revolution of grace as well doesn't it?
‘Judge not’ is one of
Jesus most well-known sayings and its one that we do wrestle with understanding
and applying in our lives. So this
morning I want to unpack this plain talking from Jesus. How does this fit into
the sermon on the plain and Jesus call to show exceptional love in light of
God’s gracious offer of blessing? In what ways can we apply it in our lives
that will enable us to follow his footsteps more clearly?
This may sound like
rather a strange place to start but…Sometimes giving titles to sections in our
Bible’s is not helpful. We can split up parts that actually go together and
while the titles are there to help with understanding they can get in the way. This
is one instance where it happens…. The Niv splits this off from whats gone
before but in Luke Jesus teaching on “Do not judge” fits with Jesus teaching on
love your enemy that we looked at last week.
It’s not a new section. While Luke is a gentile and a greek, the thought
structure of this sermon is very Jewish… It is a saying of Jesus. The main
point is in the middle and then on either side of that is teaching that mirrors
each other. In this case the central
important focus is ‘be merciful just as your father is merciful… and as Joel
Green summarises the command to judge not is nothing but the command to
love ones enemies stated negatively ‘. It follows the same logic as Luke’s
version of the beatitudes where to help people understand each blessing is
mirrored in a corresponding woe. ”blessed are the poor, theirs is the kingdom
of God, woe to the rich, you have already received your comfort… “ Love your
enemies, do not judge.
Leading up to Jesus
sermon Jesus ministry had been to show mercy and God’s blessing and liberation
to people that the religious people of his day had written off as being outside
and beyond the scope of who was acceptable to God, of who could be blessed by
God. They had judged them… It lead Jesus revolution of grace more and more into
conflict with the religious leaders of the day, in this section of his sermon
Jesus is telling his disciples that they should be like their father rather
than the religious leaders around them. Not to judge but to show mercy and forgiveness
and generosity to all.
To judge not is not a
command against discerning what is right, but not to write people off. Jesus
follows it up by saying do not condemn, forgive, be generous these are all a
reflection in our life of the Love that the Father has shown us in Jesus
Christ. God loves us, God does not write us off, god forgives, god generously
blesses … at the centre of the gospel
message… God sent his only son into the world not to judge and write us off but
to save us and restore us to wholeness in Christ. The mercy and justice of the
father is shown most clearly in the cross. In fact In John’s gospel john says
Jesus did not come to condemn but that we condemn ourselves by walking away
from that great offer of grace and love in Christ. NT Wright comments on this passage by saying
this is a list of instructions based on which God you believe in… a gloomy God,
a penny pinching God a God who only came to make life more difficult and
salvation near impossible… or a God that is gracious and generous and willing
to forgive and how we live is how we reflect that belief to the people around
us.
There is a wonderful
picture here of the generosity of God in showing mercy…in this passage. Where
Jesus uses the picture of a grain merchant in the market place who is not only
not stingy but unfair to himself in his generosity. Grain merchants would use a
measure to sell to the public. The picture here is of a grain merchant not just
being willing to fill a container but after it has been filled to the top
pressing the grain down to make sure that the air pockets and spaces between
the grains are compressed so the container is full, but more than that instead
of simply then filling it to be level with the top continues to pour out more
until it is heaped up and spilling down the sides. This is the generosity that
God shows, and this is how we too should show generosity and love to others.
Rather than to be stingy with God’s love and limit it to those we judge as
being deserving of God’s kindness and ours.
We find it hard to
deal with the way that Jesus says we will be treated in the same way as we
treat others in this section. If we see this section of the sermon mirroring Jesus earlier teaching on love your enemies then to judge least you be judged is a negative application of 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. It is true that the person who is harsh and
critical in the treatment of others will find that people are likely to treat
them in the same way, likewise generosity and kindness can be contagious. It hard
to say it but also to judge and not love and not forgive just might be like
holding a mirror up that shows we do not have the love of God in our hearts’.
Jesus follows this
further reflection on loving ones enemies with two parables. They are part of
another section of his sermon looking at choosing carefully which teacher you
will follow, but they help us to understand Jesus teaching on not judging. They both have to do with spiritual eyesight.
The blind leading the blind and someone trying to remove a speak from someone’s
eye without being aware of a log in their own. We’ll look at them a bit more
fully next week, but they speak to us of the fact that to judge we actually
need to have our eyes wide open and un affected by any impediment. We are
limited in seeing the outside of human beings or just the little bit they will
allow us to see of who they really are, but God looks on the heart and sees the
all and is still merciful and generous and kind. We look with very human eyes
and categories and understanding, but God who is merciful looks and see all,
sees with the eyes of Christ.
Ok how does that work
itself out in the world today… I’ve thought of that mainly in terms of our
celebrating humanity as God’s creation today… a couple of big scale things…
… One of the ways we judge each other in the world today is
along racial lines… This passage speaks to us in a world where we wrestle with
racism and racial stereotyping that in God’s kingdom we are to show exceptional
love. The church is to be a place where all are welcomed and valued… It is one
of the biggest challenges for us in our increasingly multi-cultural twenty
first century how we can be a truly multi-cultural family together. It is going
to take not judging, forgiveness, generosity of spirit and resources, dominant
cultures learning to give away space and time and power. It’s a jounrey I think
we are just starting along and we can’t afford to live in a city or society
where Sunday morning is the most segregated time of the week…
Secondly, We are called in scripture to make moral
judgements weather something is right or wrong. In some cases that is a hard
and exacting and challenging process. We can find ourselves going against the
flow of popular belief and society as a whole. But that does not mean that we
do not show kindness and compassion and seek justice for people we disagree
with or believe do those wrong things.
Gay marriage is one such issue for me at the moment… I believe that
God’s design for the expression of human sexuality is within the confines of a
loving mutual marriage between a man and a woman, but I am pleased to see that
we have addressed some of the injustices those in long term same sex relationships
faced. That they can be recognised as next of kin…that they share some of the
benefits and the responsibilities that we have in our secular democratic
society. It is a hard road as well but we are called to journey with people
with some sex attraction in what it means to be a follower of Jesus and true
brothers and sisters in Christ… It is a journey I think we are only beginning a
church in western society to walk. It is a road of sacrificial love, it one
that will call us to put into practise as a church that wise saying…In the
essentials unity, in the non-essentials liberty, and in all things love.
Lastly, I found this
wonderful line drawing by Peter Berkin called ‘Eyes wide open’ which he
graciously allows people to use and copy which sums up Jesus teaching about
loving enemies and not judging in terms of our vision. That we view people with
love in our eyes… no not that batter your eyelids, pupil expanding stare for a
long time and longingly into someone’s eyes, with a goofy smile on your face
and that pounding, pounding in your heart.... your breath getting heavier... as you lean in and... well not that kind of love in youeyes rather the lens of the exceptional love
God has shown us in Christ. I am always
aware that we have tactile learners amongst us, so I’m going to invite us to
finish today with an illustration of what this means. I’d like to invite you to make some binoculars with your
hands shaped like a heart and to look through it. We don’t judge because we
look with the love of Christ. WE don’t write off but show exceptional love no
exceptions… we show kindness, forgiveness and generousity as we would want to be shown, as God has shown us...
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