Bible Text: St Luke 6:36–42 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
There’s a temptation not to take Jesus’ words here to heart, and instead concentrate on all the ways people misuse and abuse them. “Judge not, and you will not be judged.” This is the most misquoted verse in the Bible. Jesus says don’t judge, so you can’t tell me that my homosexual lifestyle is wrong, you can’t tell me not to live with my boyfriend instead of marrying him, you can’t tell me whether to keep or kill my baby, you can’t tell me my belief that all religions lead to the same God is wrong. Judge not! Jesus said so. So you need to approve of whatever I do, whatever I say, whatever I believe. The simple answer to all these complaints is that I’m not the one telling you you shouldn’t do these things or believe these things. God is. That’s the whole point. Jesus forbids you, as a child of God, to judge by your own standards, to make yourself god and set your own rules. That is what is happening when people make their own standards of right and wrong. They’re pretending to be god. God determines what is right and wrong, what is true and false, what is good and what is evil. And if we take it on ourselves to say this is good or that is good, because I like it, because I want it, then we’re acting like we’re gods, and this is the essence of sin and pride and rebellion against the Creator of the universe. God is right, He is good, He is the source and being of everything true. So we sinners don’t get to have our own truths. You’ve heard that I’m sure. That’s your truth, but I have my own truth. No, as St. Paul says, let God be true and every man a liar. The Word of God is the source of truth, and if the Bible says it, and we confess it, then it’s not you or I doing the judging. It’s God. He is the judge and thank Him for that, because He is a just judge and above all a merciful judge.
So that is the first beautiful lesson Jesus teaches us today. Judge not by your own standards. Judge by God’s Word. That’s how Jesus ends his sermon from which our Gospel comes. Whoever hears my words and does them, I will liken him to a man who built his house and dug deep and laid the foundation upon the rock, and the flood came and beat violently on that house and could not break it, because it was founded on the rock. So judge. Judge every single day of your life. It’s the duty of a Christian. Judge sin to be sin not according to your self-determined standards, but according to the ten commandments. Read them, memorize them, learn them, confess them, because they are God’s commandments, and they apply to you and to every single person who lives on this earth. And judge what is true to be true, again, not by your standards, but by God’s Word. Confess the beautiful truth that God created you and all that there is. Confess that the Father sent His Son to become a man and live for you and die for you and for all the world. Confess that Jesus is Lord and His resurrection from the dead proves it. Make these judgments and build your house on them, your life on them.
Second, Jesus says judge not because He’s explaining what it means to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It hurts when you’re judged. You know that. You don’t want people judging you for your weight or your looks or the clothes you wear or the words you said that maybe could be taken the wrong way (and in my experience, just about everything someone says can be taken the wrong way). You don’t want to be gossiped about behind your back. You don’t want people putting the worst construction on what you did or what you said. The fact is, we could judge each other all day long, there is always something wrong, some personality quirk, some nerdiness for this guy and some crassness from that guy and some absent mindedness from another guy. Some people are too orderly, some people are too messy, some people talk too much, some people don’t talk enough. And you can criticize and judge all day long. But do you want to be under everyone’s constant scrutiny? Do you want to go through life, walking into church, thinking people are judging you for this or that, going to work, thinking they’re looking for something wrong with you? Suspicion and paranoia and distrust. No one in his right mind wants to live like that. But if you’re constantly judging others for petty little things, then that’s what you can expect. And you’ll deserve it.
The fact is that in the vast majority of cases, you have no right to judge your brother for what you’re judging him. I think his kids are too loud. Are they? Are you the only one who knows how to raise children? Have you talked to him and given him your advice in a loving way? No? Have you instead judged and complained about him behind his back? Why don’t you tell him to his face? As Luther says, Do you smell the roast? This is where Jesus’ command in Matthew 18 is so important. If you actually have something against your brother, if it’s serious, if you think it’s an actual sin against God and others, then tell it to him between him and you alone. And if you haven’t done that, keep quiet, don’t judge, let it go, forgive it if it needs forgiving.
Why do all this? Because it’s the right thing to do, of course. Also because it’ll improve your life. The Bible isn’t a self-help manual, its main purpose isn’t to just give you practical life advice, but that is one of its purposes, and it does do it, read the Proverbs and you’ll see, and your life will be happier, more fulfilling, when you think the best of people and don’t judge them for what you think is annoying or whatever. But there is a deeper reason why you should follow your Teacher’s command here.
And that deeper reason is what Jesus is teaching you when He says a disciple is not above his master. And when he says be merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful. God is the forgiving God. He is the God who justifies, who takes sinners, who have done Him wrong, who deserve His anger and punishment, and calls them righteous, and loves them, gives His Son for them, and takes away all their sin. That’s God. That’s our Father. It’s what defines Him. And so it is what must define His children. We bear His name, He gave it to us in our Baptism, and we live by His Spirit, joined to Christ, we are His body, and we grow to be like Him, we are the branches of His vine.
There are those times when people will do you wrong and you will have every right to be angry with them. And here I’m not talking about public figures. This is the problem with our internet culture today. People live on the internet and their enemies are Donald Trump or Joe Biden, men they’ve never met and who don’t even know who you are. You have every right to be angry with a wicked government policy and with politicians who support it – say abortion on demand, up to the very point of birth: that’s an evil policy, it was President Biden’s policy, you can judge it as evil, tell people it’s evil (in fact, if you’re a mom or dad, you should tell your kids it’s evil), and you don’t need to confront President Biden with it. It’s public. Jesus does this all the time. He calls Herod a fox and criticizes him as a public figure, before He ever meets him or talks to him. So don’t confuse these public sins with sins committed personally against you.
When someone does you wrong and you have every right to be angry, because you know the ten commandments, and you have judged by them that the slander against you or the stealing from you or the unfaithfulness against you, was according to God’s own Word, evil, then it is your duty to confront your brother with his sin. But before you do it, Jesus says, pull the plank out of your own eye. What does that mean?
It means you get down on your knees, literally or metaphorically, it doesn’t matter, you get down on your knees and you confess from your heart that you have sinned against your God. You have judged people unfairly. You have thought evil of them in your heart and put the worst construction on what they said or did. You have been prideful, you’ve worried as if God isn’t in control and as if [you’re irreplaceable and] everything depends on you, when it doesn’t, it never does, you’ve let hate rise in your heart instead of love and forgiveness. And there’s a lot more. Confess it all to God, who has every right to judge you and cast you away from His presence. And plead for His mercy. And He gives it. Full measure, poured out into you, pressed down, so that it penetrates into your heart and your mind, and then into your hands and your feet and into your tongue, that organ of your speech, this mercy of your Father who put all your sin on His Son, the eternal God, who willingly bore it, poured out His blood for you, suffered the pains of hell for you on the cross, to win you a forgiveness so true and real and beautiful, that your sin is simply not seen anymore before God in heaven. It’s gone, washed away. And the blood poured into your mouth confirms it to you every Lord’s Day. And the Spirit pours the love of Christ into you, not only to forgive you, to have mercy on you, but also to make you merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.
And then when you have received this great mercy of your God, then you can with humility and with a desire for reconciliation and forgiveness and an overflowing desire to have mercy, confront the one who has sinned against you, and try to remove that speck from his eye, and want for him what you have, this blessed knowledge of the God who forgives every sin for the sake of His dear Son.
One final word here. Jesus addresses this entire sermon to His Christians. Not to unbelievers. He expects His Christians to live in a totally different way from the world, where people hold grudges and judge constantly and live for themselves. Jesus calls you the light of the world. He calls you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. He gives you His Spirit to do amazing things. And the most amazing thing you do, besides receiving mercy from your Father in heaven, is to give it to those who sin against you. It makes all heaven rejoice, it crushes the head of your accuser the devil, this mercy, and it will fill your soul with the earnest expectation of seeing face to face the God who has loved you, had mercy on you, adopted you as His own child, and who will in the end give you the redemption of your body as you live under His mercy forever and ever in the resurrection. Amen.