Hilton Head Island, SC – October 11, 2020
The Chapel Without Walls
Romans 12:14-21; Matthew 7:1-5
A Sermon by John M. Miller
Text – Judge not, that you be not judged. – Matthew 7:1 (RSV)
Judging and Being Judged
Throughout his short span as a public preacher and prophet, Jesus was accused of many things. His most frequent accusers were his primary theological enemies: the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the priests, and the scribes who wrote commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. Many ordinary Jews were drawn to him, but not the most powerful and influential religious Jews. They declared Jesus to be a heretic, a sinner, a hanger-out with sinners, an ignorer of the Torah (the biblical law), a blasphemer, and an all-around Enemy of the People of Israel. For all I know, they also accused Jesus of torturing small dogs and obnoxious children, but no Gospel ever mentions that.
The Sermon on the Mount comes early in the Gospel of Matthew. Presumably Jesus preached this sermon only a few weeks or months after he began his public ministry in the region of the Galilee. Luke includes some of the same sayings of Jesus as are found in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount, but they come more toward the middle of Jesus’ three-year ministry, and Luke does not collect all the sayings together in one place as Matthew does.
I give this background because it may be that Jesus had heard enough harsh criticisms of himself early on that he also wanted to address that issue early on. He may have bristled at the argumentum ad hominem criticisms of himself rather than the theological differences he knew existed between himself and the “scribes and Pharisees.” Therefore we shall quickly look at each verse in this five-verse capsule about negative judging.
The first verse is our sermon text: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” We will come back to that, so we move on to the second thing Jesus said about judging others. “For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” If we judge other people harshly, rather than their views or their behavior, we probably will also be harshly judged by people. No one warms up to someone who constantly cuts others to pieces, and in fact the cutters may be cut to pieces themselves by those who see them cutting.
“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” Jesus asked. That isn’t a side-splitter of an observation, but there is a bit of biting humor inserted into that thought. The same is true for the next two verses, which expand on the original metaphor. The basic point Jesus makes is compelling. Who are we to judge the character of anyone else when we ourselves have more than enough of our own questionable character?
Having mentioned the word “character,” we need to make an important distinction in the topic of judging others. Jesus was not advising us never to judge the actions of others; he was telling us we must never judge the essence of others. We can and do make judgments about what people do, but we must never make judgments about who, in their essence, they are. You may have observed that when we are exasperated with someone, we might call into question the nature of their parental lineage. We have expressions readily available for that. The words or thoughts or actions of such a person might cause us to erupt, but we must never direct our wrath toward the person who says or thinks or does those things. Jesus himself not infrequently attacked the ideas of his enemies, but he never attacked their personhood, and there is a very big difference.
In recent years, terrorists or government operatives who work against the interests of the United States of America are often referred to as “bad guys.” Only God is capable of knowing who the bad guys are, if indeed there are any truly bad guys. People who engage in bad behavior do bad things, but that doesn’t automatically make them bad. Besides, those who may be inclined to call others bad guys also do bad things themselves. That is what Jesus was talking about in the Sermon on the Mount. He was not suggesting it is unacceptable to judge bad actions as bad.
One of the oldest academic discussions among psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers is the “nature/nurture” controversy. In other words, how much of human behavior is determined genetically and how much environmentally? In a family where there are three or four children, one may turn out “bad,” and the others “good.” Is the “bad” child the result of what is called “the bad seed,” meaning that he was born bad, or did he become “bad” because the parents spoiled him, and they were more judicious in how they raised the others?
There was a long story in The New York Times Magazine four weeks ago about homeless children in New York City. There are more than 100,000 homeless boys and girls who attend New York public schools every year, which is 10% of the student population. The story told the hardships faced by one such family. They have moved from one shelter to another dozens of times during the brief lifetime of their son, and he attended several different schools just in the first grade. New York is the only city in America that by law guarantees a “right to shelter” to all homeless people, but trying to find space for them can be a bureaucratic and personal nightmare. You can imagine how hard it is for anyone to cope with homelessness, but especially children or teenagers. How can Prince, the boy featured in the article, ever escape homelessness when he is constantly dragged from pillar to post? Regardless of “nature” (whatever genetic strengths he might have in his life), “nurture” is stacked against him. The unstable environment he lives in will make it very difficult for him to become a productive member of society when he is grown.
A sizeable number of adults had childhoods which were very similar to Prince’s troubled upbringing. How can we expect such folks continuously to behave well and to follow all the rules and to become admirable members of society? When Jesus said, “Judge not, that you be not judged,” he was talking about judging people like Prince, who did not ask to be born into the world, nor did his Bangladeshi immigrant mother ask to be brought to America by her parents. The behavior of poorly educated, poorly housed, and poorly equipped children or adults may need to be critically judged, but the people may be trying to do the best they can in almost impossible circumstances. Judge the actions, not the people.
In 2019, the Times article said, 43% of homeless students in New York City were chronically absent, which is defined to mean they were absent at least for at least 10% of the school year. Thirty percent of poor students who grow up in a normal home were chronically absent, compared to only 16% of students who do not live in poverty. Is it is a surprise that the more chronically absent children are from school, the more likely they are to act up and act out when they are grown? Judge not, that YOU be not judged.
In Victor Hugo’s famous novel Les Miserables, Jean Valjean was imprisoned for years for stealing a loaf of bread when his family was starting to death. Bernie Madoff was imprisoned for years for stealing billions of dollars from unsuspecting clients in his diabolical Ponzi scheme. We become far more judgmental against a Madoff than a Valjean, but we are in no position to judge the inner ethics or values of either man. Only God can do that. The behavior of the fictional man is much less heinous than that of the actual man, but Jesus is telling us it is wrong for us to judge either of the men, because we can never know what led either of them to do what they did.
The purpose of criminal trials is to prove the innocence or guilt of people who are alleged to have broken criminal laws. We may read about such trials, and pass our own judgments about the guilt of the defendants, but if we do so without being on the jury, God may find us guilty of determining justice without having graduated from the Celestial School of Law. And in any case, the question in such a trial is whether criminal laws were broken, not whether the defendant is a good or bad person. God alone is able to adjudicate that.
I would guess that there is less wiggle room in criminal than in civil law for coming to judicial decisions. But with respect to God’s law, only God can judge whether anyone is fundamentally innocent or guilty. The rest of us neither have the responsibility nor the luxury of deciding such matters ourselves.
The apostle Paul often gave advice in his letters, and usually it is hard to follow. To the Romans he wrote, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them….Live in harmony with one another….Repay no one evil for evil….Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:14-21, selected).
Without question some people make bad decisions that injure others. But it is up to God to judge them as individuals; that is not our task. On the other hand, judicial officials must pass judgment on defendants in their courtrooms; their profession demands it. Nonetheless, we are not called upon by God or anyone else to pass judgment on those who offend us. On their actions, perhaps; on them, no. Furthermore, as people who attempt to live as daughters or sons of God, God wants us always to give others the benefit of the doubt. There may be occasions where we have done that so often that doubt can’t be granted any more, but even then when we pass severe judgment, it must be on the basis of the actions of those people, and not on the people themselves.
During political campaigns, we may be driven to the limit by certain politicians. But it is policies of politicians which should guide our political judgments, not the politicians themselves. They are who they are, but it is their ideas which should determine the candidates for whom we vote. Otherwise a candidacy is nothing more than a personality contest, and that is no proper basis for coming to a conclusion on how to vote.
In the Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere, Jesus told us it is far more prudent and important for us to judge our own actions than the actions of others. “Judge not, that you be not judged.” We have the ability to change our own behavior, but no matter what we might say, we cannot with any certainty change what others do. If we must comment on the actions of other people --- and sometimes we must ---, it is better to be lenient than to be stern. As Jesus said elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
In a time of deepening social and political polarization, we may feel compelled to speak out about what offends us in the statements or behavior of the people around us. But when we do that, we need to be very careful. As Jesus said, “With the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” Human judgment thus is a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways: toward the ones we negatively assess as well as towards us who make the negative assessments.
Thirteen men have been arrested in Michigan for a plot to kidnap and either kill or subject the governor of Michigan to a “trial” they would conduct about their assessment of her governance. These are allegedly very dangerous domestic terrorists. Are they also evil? Only God can determine that. No one else, including the people who will serve on the jury that hear their cases is in a position to adjudicate that.
Remember the man who is universally known as “the thief on the cross”? He said to Jesus on the cross on which Jesus was nailed, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingly power.” Jesus told him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus probably knew nothing about the crime for which the thief was crucified, nor did he care. What he cared about is that the thief might know before he died that he was forgiven for whatever he had done. Jesus left the thief’s judgment up to God, but he pronounced forgiveness to ease that poor soul’s pain in his dying moments.
The Rev. Dr. John Watson was a late nineteenth century minister of the Free Church of Scotland, which broke away from the Presbyterian Church of Scotland centuries ago. He was the author of fiction, of which his best known was a novel called Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush. He assumed the pen name of Ian Maclaren. As the benediction at the conclusion of each of the services in the churches in which he served, John Watson always said, “Be kind, be kind; everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
If we hold fast to those gentle words, we will build up rather than tear down those whom we encounter on a daily basis. In so doing, we will leave the world a better place for having lived in it. Judge not, that you be not judged.