Trinity 4 2021
Rev. Thomas Van Hemert
St. Luke 6:36-42
Trinity 4
June 27, 2021
In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The Christian way is the way of mercy. For God did not send His Son, His only-begotten Son into the world to condemn the world. He sent His Son into the world to save the world. God has had mercy on us. He has mercy even on those who are the worst sort of sinners imaginable. Jesus went willingly to Golgotha, after being tried as a criminal for sins He didn’t commit in order to redeem even the worst sort of sinners. Jesus was shown no mercy. Upon that cross, He was surrounded by dogs who waged their fingers at Him and shouted blasphemous things at Him, “Oh you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, come down from the cross!” “Look at Him. He saved others, but He cannot save Himself.” He was shown no mercy. But in this vile act of torture and murder, Jesus demonstrates for us the greatest act of love and mercy that can ever be imagined. Thus, the Christian life, the Christian way, is the way of mercy. We love because He first loved us. We show mercy because Jesus first showed mercy to us.
Now the Gospel text for this day includes quite a few imperatives, that is, commands. These are what we call “Law statements.” Since we’re all Lutherans, we love the distinction of Law and Gospel because the Bible can be divided into Law statements and Gospel statements. Law statements are things like “Do this___. Do that___.” They’re commands. You shall have no other Gods. You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery or steal or slander your neighbor or covet anything. Specifically, we have the commands from the Gospel reading: Be merciful. Judge not. Condemn not. But also, within Holy Scripture are Gospel statements. These include things that God has done for us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” “The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.”
Perhaps the most misunderstood Bible passage is one we hear today: “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned.” Now the statement is true. This statement comes right out of the mouth of Jesus and His point is that all Christians, as much as is possible, must show mercy, rather than judge and condemn others. Of course, this is difficult. Most of the time, it’s much more difficult to show mercy to those who have sinned against us than to judge them. Because its much easier to judge them, condemn them, and write them off as fools and jerks because it seems as if they don’t care about us.
Now this phrase, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” is one of the most beloved Bible passages and is the most quoted passage of Holy Scripture in pop culture today. As the world and our culture become more and more entrenched in open and manifest sin, the most common response of those who are living in sin is what? “Judge not, lest ye be judged” that is, “Don’t judge me even though my sin is harmful to myself and to others! You just take care of yourself. You do what you want and I’ll do what I want. Don’t judge me.”
What this phrase truly means, however, is that if we as Christians are not given the authority to judge someone, we must refrain from it. Certain people, based upon their vocation are to judge people. When someone who has been given the authority to judge someone, judges someone, he is given to do this, not out of malice or hatred, but out of love.
God has given to us positions of authority. The men and women who sit in these positions of authority, such as a teacher, or parent, or boss, ruler, or even a judge, are to make judgements. Sometimes, these judgements result in punishment because of sinful behavior, such as when a parent punishes his child for being naughty, or when a teacher punishes her student for being unruly, or when a boss reprimands his employer because his employer is being lazy, or when a judge condemns a criminal to the death penalty or life in prison because he murdered 5 people. This is not done out of anger, or malice, or hatred. Even the act of administering judgment is an act of mercy—because it hopefully will lessen the amount of sin that a person will commit (such as going to jail stops someone from going out into town and killing 10 more people). The act of administering judgment is a result of someone’s sin. But it always carries with it the hope that the one who has been judged would realize the seriousness of sin and in the end, receive forgiveness.
What this phrase, “Judge not, lest ye be judged,” does not mean, however, is that if you never judge anyone, if you withhold judgement your entire life and let people wallow and rot in their sin, then God will never judge you. That’s absurd! The point Jesus is making is that as long as we are able to not judge someone, even though someone has wronged us, it is preferable and actually much better to show mercy than to judge someone and condemn someone else when we have been wronged and sinned against.
But at the same time, Christians are actually called upon to make judgements. For example, if Jimbob steals your bicycle and rides it around town as if it’s his bicycle and claims that it’s his bicycle, even though everyone in town knows it’s your bicycle, the correct response would not be, “Well let’s not judge Jimbob. Let’s live and let live! Don’t condemn him! Judge not, lest ye be judged!” The correct response would actually be to admonish him—to warn him that unless he repents of his sin and returns the bicycle, if he remains in his sin, then he will be judged guilty by God as a sinner.
Now let’s say that Jimbob comes to his senses, realizes his sin, repents, and returns your bicycle, and asks for forgiveness. The Biblical response to his actions and repentance would be to not judge him and condemn him, even if you’re still angry at him. The loving response would be to show him mercy and to not sue him or press charges against him, but to forgive him because the Christian way is the way of mercy.
Let’s use another example. Let’s say that Jimbob, because he’s such a scoundrel, let’s say that he cheats on his wife and not only once but is currently having an open, ongoing, public affair with his mistress. Or another example, let’s say that he’s living together, he’s cohabitating with his fiancé before they’re actually married. In both of these examples, Jimbob is committing adultery—both are sins that are clearly and obviously condemned as sin by Jesus in the Bible. What would not be loving would be to say, “Judge not, lest ye be judged! Don’t judge Jimbob. Don’t point out his sin to him. Let’s just let him be. Don’t judge him because you don’t want God to judge you!”
If Jimbob isn’t brought to repentance, if he isn’t shown his sin, he will die in his sin. Remaining in sin, sinning without care, without repentance and without receiving absolution, is actually harmful and dangerous to faith. There is no such thing as “once saved, always saved.” That is false teaching. The loving and merciful thing to do would be to admonish him and to show Jimbob his sin, in a kind and Christian manner, and explain to him that what he’s doing is harmful to himself and to others. Now let’s say that Jimbob, after realizing his sin, repents. He confesses his sin, receives absolution, he moves out of the house until he and his fiancé are married. Well then Christians are to be merciful and to not judge him because he is forgiven. His sin is no more. We would celebrate with him, along with the angels in heaven, because this sinner has repented and God does not count this sin against him. It’s forgiven. So, do you see how it would actually be the loving thing to admonish him and rebuke him for his sin? Because remaining in sin is damaging to faith.
“Judge not, lest ye be judged,” does not mean that if we never judge anyone concerning anything if we never point out anyone’s sin to them, God will never judge us. God will judge us. He will judge everyone on the Last Day. Because on the Last Day, the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead, as Luther points out in the Small Catechism. All of the dead will be raised and will be presented before the throne of God. He will open the books. He will separate the sheep from the goats. The sheep are judged. But they’re judged to be faithful. Likewise, the goats. They’re also judged. But they will be judged unfaithful and will be sent to hell. Everyone will be judged. But for the Christian, that Last Day will be a joyful day.
Because we have been given Christ’s own righteousness, all by grace through faith, we want to be judged. Jesus has reconciled us to His Father. We Christians will not be judged guilty. We will be judged and will be determined to be sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. And that is a reality that is already true even now. We are sons and daughters of the King. God loves His children. He loves us as His children because He loves His Son. Jesus was faithful unto death. His Son was condemned and judged guilty on our behalf on the cross, and then was vindicated by His Father in the Resurrection on Easter morning. There is nothing to fear. We look forward to being judged because we will be judged innocent, sinless, spotless, and free.
In +Jesus’ name.
