Sermon - Trinity IV 2020 - Luke 6:36-42

Jesus says: “Judge not.” Yet, the Lord spoke through the prophet Zechariah, saying: “Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace.” St. Paul later writes to the church in Corinth: “The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.” Jesus Himself, later in His sermon on the mount, just shortly after saying ‘judge not’ says: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits.”

Since the Bible doesn’t contradict itself, clearly Jesus is talking about something a little different than what we typically assume. Jesus isn’t telling us not to judge between right and wrong, truth and lies, good and evil. Even at the most basic level, staying alive necessitates judging between the good and the bad.

For example, the good is that my body should be healthy, the bad is that my body should be unhealthy or injured, thus when walking across the road it is bad to walk in front of the semi and it is good to wait until I can cross without injury. This is why parents teach their children to look both ways before they cross the road, and if the children are playing in the road the parents judge their behavior as bad and discipline their children to teach them that playing in the road is bad.

Our worldly rulers are expected to do the same thing. God instituted our rulers to praise and promote the good and punish the bad. So if you vandalize or damage your neighbor’s property, our rulers judge your behavior as bad and punish you in order to teach you that it’s bad and deter others from doing those bad things too.  

Another form of judging, which is even more necessary than judging in the home or in the state, is judging in the church. Afterall, “the spiritual person judges all things.” The christian is called to have no other gods and only fear, love, and trust in the true God. God’s Word is true and is good, anything that opposes God’s Word is false and is evil. For example, if someone should say that there is some other way to heaven outside of Christ, we reject that as false since no one comes to the Father except through Jesus. Every christian must judge between right and wrong, truth and lies, and if you refuse to make any judgements then you’re confessing that God’s Word is no better than Satan’s lies.

When parents don’t judge their children, or rulers don’t judge their citizens, or Christians don’t judge teachings, then you have chaos caused by an absence of authority; we call that anarchy. Jesus teaches us to judge between the good and the bad, right and wrong, truth and lies. He wouldn’t have bothered coming to be the way, the truth, and the life, teaching us so many things, if none of it mattered and we weren’t to make any judgements.

Therefore, we must judge. Rightly understanding what Jesus means when He says “judge not; condemn not” requires us to read what Jesus says right before and right after. He says “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful… Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Jesus is instructing us to bravely speak the truth with mercy.

Why should we be merciful? Why should we forgive? Because God is merciful and forgives us. Instead of focusing so intently on other people’s sins, Jesus turns it around on us. “Why do you see the splinter that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the beam that is in your own eye?... You hypocrite, first take the beam of your own eye.”

We must all learn to examine ourselves according to God’s holy Word and only then will we begin to recognize the hunk of sin dwelling in our bodies, clouding our vision. We ridicule someone else for being a fool with their money and having no savings, but who among us isn’t guilty of loving money, our material possessions, being greedy, or spending it recklessly? We look down on those with drug or alcohol addictions, but who among us isn’t addicted to our computer, TV, coffee, car, books, boat, hobbies, drugs, or alcohol? We scowl at those who seem to hardly work, but maybe we’re the ones who have made an idol of our work. We ridicule someone for being promiscuous, but who among us is totally free of perverse thoughts and behaviors? 

Everyone of us has our sins, be they secret or obvious, culturally approved or verboten. “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Each of us is a lost sheep or coin that God has mercy upon and finds. We’re all the wickedly deviant prodigal son whom God forgives and warmly welcomes home with arms wide open. Each and everyone of us is a sinner, whose sins separate us from God, who deserve only wrath and punishment, for whom Christ died to forgive. 

Do you ever ruminate upon the stupid and hurtful things you’ve said? Do you ever get stuck dwelling upon your past mistakes, either accidental or intentional? It hurts when someone reminds you of that failure and rubs it in. Your heavenly Father has mercy upon you, He has compassion for you and loves you, and even if you and others have a hard time forgetting your failures, God doesn’t. He forgives you your sins and then forgets them.

In John 8 Jesus comes across a woman caught in adultery. Adultery is very serious,  a terrible thing, and according to the Old Testament law of Moses, the punishment for the man and woman caught in adultery was death. Jesus said to those who were about to administer the death penalty by stoning, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” One by one they all left, realizing their sin. Jesus says to the woman: “Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”

Like that woman, we have all been caught in our terrible sins, deserving of the death penalty, and Christ shows us mercy and sets us free to go and live a new life. This new life that Christ gives you to live is that you would show mercy to others just as God shows mercy to you! Confess your sins so that “then you will see clearly to take out the splinter that is in your brother’s eye.

When Jesus says judge not and condemn not, He’s not saying that you shouldn’t point out sin and judge between right and wrong, good and evil, because that’s not what He does with us. Rather, He shows us our sins, not because He wants us to die, but explicitly because He wants us to live. The only way we sinners can live is if we recognize our sin, repent of it, and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s not merciful to let a blind man walk into a pit because you didn’t want to judge him; it’s not merciful to leave a splinter in someone’s eye because you didn’t want to judge them.

The judgement that Jesus is condemning ultimately takes place in the heart. When you judge someone’s sins because you hate them and want bad things for them, because you think that you’re better than them, because you want to hurt them and see them suffer, you want them to be ridiculed and mocked and mistreated to make you feel better about yourself; Jesus condemns that. But when you judge someone’s sins because you want them to receive the same mercy that you’ve received, that is to be commended.

Once someone has been merciful with you, helping to remove the beam of sin out of your eye so that you can see and believe the Gospel, the merciful thing for you to do is to help others see who are still blinded by sin. If you see a blind man, someone caught up in sin, headed towards the pit of despair, the only merciful option is to help them see the pit ahead of them so that it can be avoided.

One of the most helpful things that you can do to help you be merciful with others, is to stop seeing it as an “us versus them” thing. Jesus talks about two blind men, he talks about two brothers with splinters in their eyes. All of us sinners are people created by God, He loves all of us and Jesus shed His blood for everyone. Instead of looking at others as “them” or as “those people,” we need to look at each other as our brother or sister for whom Christ died. Labels are helpful to differentiate between right and wrong, good and evil, but when dealing with others personally it’s better to see them as a person, like you, whom God loves and for whom Christ shed His blood.

This is all a very hard thing. It’s hard to rightly judge right and wrong. It’s scary to speak the truth. It’s tough to be merciful. But be brave and speak the truth in mercy, because the truth became incarnate in Jesus Christ who showed us mercy while we were still sinners by bravely dying for us.