Judgment, It's All Around Us

[HKHaugan]

Judgment, It's All Around Us

After arriving in New York City part of my initiation into gang mentality came when I was accepted to be part of a work crew at a Summer Camp in Connecticut. I was fourteen. I immediately recognized I was the smallest and the least physically able of the rest of the crew. I learned quickly in the city that that could be a real liability. I had to prove myself at some point. That point came when I realized one of the crew had a 'walleye' as it was known back then. It made him stand out. He was taller than me and a year older. But I knew that if I could shift the heat from me to him in some way my size and ability would be overlooked by the 'big guys' in the group. One day he made a remark that I used to challenge him to a fight. I met him alone in the cabin we stayed in and we traded a few meaningless punches. But neither of us was into it so we just stopped and felt kind of stupid but we accomplished the goal of acceptance. We fought and never had any other confrontation from anyone else all that Summer. When we got back to the city and high school the pressure to conform continued in a different context but the dynamics were the same and sometimes brutal and vicious. Shifting residence from North Carolina to New York City brought a shift in judgment styles. But at the bottom of daily living, judgment was an unwelcome but constant companion. It doesn't stop. However, when you become a disciple of Jesus the whole issue of judgment takes a different and far more comforting shape.

Jesus shows us that there are really only two bases for judgment, the world and the Word. In John 7:14-24 Jesus amazes the Jews with His teaching in the courts of the Temple. People are quick to judge Him so He starts with their minds and shifts their thoughts to circumcision done on the Sabbath in order to get them to look inside and see their attitudes.. “Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment (Jn.7:23-24)." Note how Jesus gets to the attitude conditioning the heart. He aims not simply for the mind but for the heart because what is in the heart determines the thinking path, judgment and its resulting behavior.

The key part of this passage is vs.24, “Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.”

How do we make a right judgment? We need to differentiate right from wrong judgment. The world’s standards of judgment are based on externals; how we look, how we speak, how we play the games of conformity, ethnic heritage, political and social memberships. All of this is founded in hearts and social forms arrived at by fear, pride and the need to conform to whoever has the power. No matter where you go there is always something that demands you be right according to standards that change from one person to another and one place to another. Being right is elusive and no one ever measures up. Rightness is elusive.

Let's look at that for a moment.

Could it be that love is not our deepest need? Could it be that being right is really the paramount desire in our heart? Just thinking about love; we want to love right, be loved right, love others in the right way. Then we want to be right in how we present ourselves, have a right attitude, feel right, always do the right thing. We want to live in a right neighborhood, associate with the right people, have the right profession, have the right family and, when all is said and done, have “He lived right” on our tombstone, at least the 'right' legacy we want others to see we left behind. What drives the engine of this kind of rightness? You got it---fear!

At work you are judged by a set of standards that, if not met, mean the loss of job and financial security. In society the standards are set by whatever group you belong to. They are your social judges. In a family you are conditioned by the values and behavior of parents. In self you try and find the balance to keep order and satisfy the requirements of the world around you as you see them. In the world you are surrounded by an atmosphere of fragmented judgment, its fear pressure and the agony of feeling alone within it. Fear in the background. In reality world judgment is motivated by the spirit of fear.

Now let's look at right judgment. God has one standard of judgment, His Son Jesus revealed in His Word. It is personal, relational and spiritually motivated by His love for each of us. Therefore it is singular, secure, plain, never changing and starts with Him. Judgment is alive and true. Jesus is always the measure in all judgment. With Him it is always a relational experience wherein His Holy Spirit reveals, inspires and employs the Scripture, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart (Heb.4:12).”

The Cross was the ultimate right judgment. Jesus lived by faith not fear. Faith is the opposite of fear. Jesus bore His Cross by faith. The Cross was where, by faith, Jesus bore the fear based judgments of the world and the penalty they demanded. Why? Because death is the measure of human judgment without God.

The world is secular society, a world without God. Secular society is death in action. It's judgment is always rejection, unfulfillment, frustration and ultimate aloneness which death promises. If Jesus bore that death then He bore death for all of us. His Resurrection proved it. On the Cross He exposed the evil of injustice that a fear led world imposes. His Resurrection through faith overcame it. That world injustice is experienced every day by all of us. His Resurrection is our resurrection in this world. It could be the pressure of conformity in a teen gang, a subtle pressure from a boss at work, watching an unjust encounter and doing nothing about it, bowing to political correctness, gossiping to appear superior, giving in to a temptation, manipulating a social occasion for power, going along with the crowd to 'fit in', and just plain doing anything just to get by regardless of the way you do it. His Resurrection has made every day a new day. So when Jesus tells us to take up our cross He is telling us to take up faith in Him in our every next moment regardless of circumstance. He is our right and the Holy Spirit is the power of right. When we are faithful we are experiencing His Resurrection and therefore His presence in our lives.

Jesus established that there is only one judgment that really counts and that is His. His judgment has been declared and by faith in Him we are found right before Him. He was right for all of us when we couldn’t be right for ourselves. He was true when we couldn’t be truthful, holy when we thought only of ourselves, spiritual in thought when we were motivated solely by what we could see, interpersonal when we were alone and humble in obedience when fear drove us to take control apart from God. The Resurrection of Jesus is the seal of God's judgment on the world and the seal of our being saved from death to live eternally with Him. We have been made right through Him and in Him. When we think and act by faith in Jesus we are right. Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.

Paul certainly spoke rightly when he said, “For you did not receive a spirit of fear that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are God's children, then we are heirs---heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory (Rom.8:15-17).”