“Jesus answered them, “I did one deed, and you all marvel. 22 “For this reason Moses has given you circumcision (not because it is from Moses, but from the fathers), and on the Sabbath you circumcise a man. 23 “If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses will not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made an entire man well on the Sabbath? 24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
There is something I’d like to bring out to you before we get into our text today that might be easily missed, but I think it makes a helpful point for us to consider.
Chapter 6 of John’s gospel says in verse 4 that the Passover was at hand at the time Jesus miraculously fed the 5000 in Galilee. You may remember that the next day following that miraculous feeding, Jesus teaches in the synagogue in Capernaum and gives His Bread of Life discourse, at the end of which He loses most of His followers. He makes difficult statements. He obviously isn’t going to feed their stomachs again like He did the day before, but now He likens His body to bread and says that people must eat His body and drink His blood, and they grumble against Him and turn from following Him.
So now Jesus has His 12 disciples, and if there are any others we aren’t told about them. However the wording of His question to the 12 in chapter 6 verse 67, when He asks “You do not want to go away also, do you?” seems to indicate that they were the only ones left.
In any case, Jesus has lost the popularity He had with the multitudes when He was healing them and feeding them, and He probably has a lot more free time on His hands.
Now look at chapter 7 verse 2 and you’ll see that John says the Feast of Booths was at hand. So what does this tell us?
Well, Passover is in the Spring of the year. For us it would fall somewhere around the last part of April and the first part of May. For the Jews it was the month of Nissan, the 14th day.
The Feast of Booths is a Fall feast, and it took place around mid October of each year. So presumably, for about 5 months and maybe closer to 6, Jesus has been in Galilee just waiting for the Father’s timing. Now of course it would be foolish to say that Jesus was doing nothing. I don’t mean to imply that He was wandering the hillsides of Galilee moping because He lost His congregation.
But the text of the Gospel makes it pretty clear that the year of His favor with the people was over, and the folks in Jerusalem wanted Him dead, so He is now in sort of a waiting mode, whatever He might be doing in Capernaum or wherever it was He spent those months.
So Christian, don’t get depressed or distressed or downhearted when it seems like God has you on hold. If you belong to Him He has His plan for you and you will be plugged in where and when He needs you. That means very different things for different people, but we all serve the same God who does not change and who knows the number of hairs on our head.
So pray and be patient, work when you see work to do, and while you make your plans He will direct your steps.
JUDGING UNRIGHTEOUSLY
Now the title of my sermon is “Judging Righteously”, but we’re going to spend a large bulk of our time looking at three groups of people who judged Jesus unrighteously, before we get to look at the counsel of Jesus to judge righteously – or rightly.
I may be getting a little ahead of myself here, but I want to draw your attention to verse 24. Jesus is talking, and we’ll get a more in depth look at His response to the people, but for now look at the wording of verse 24.
“Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”
That word that is translated ‘appearance’ in this verse is used only a couple other times in the New Testament. It is ‘optis’, so you can imagine that it has a connection to our word ‘optic’ or ‘optical’, and in other places it is translated as ‘face’, or ‘countenance’.
As it is translated here though, and in the context in which Jesus uses it, I think you’ll see that He employs this term in reaction to the various forms of unrighteous judging we’ll witness in these groups.
In other words, Jesus is telling them that they shouldn’t judge according to the over all impression they have of someone that is based upon their preconceived notions, but that they should seek the truth in the situation and draw their conclusions on the facts.
So let’s go on down through this chapter and see more specifically what Jesus was talking about.
JUDGING WITH DERISION
Now the feast of the Jews, the Feast of Booths, was near. 3 Therefore His brothers said to Him, “Leave here and go into Judea, so that Your disciples also may see Your works which You are doing. 4 “For no one does anything in secret when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world.” 5 For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
Ok, let’s get the picture fresh in our minds. Jesus has lost favor with the people of the region of Galilee and yet He has kept Himself to that region and avoided Judea until the proper time.
His family at this point does not believe in Him. That is a mystery to me. I’ve often wondered what Mary said to her other children about Jesus. Did she go through a period of unbelief because the events of His birth had faded into the past and she had begun to see only a son who often spoke and acted in confusing ways?
In any case, His half-siblings had not believed; that we are told so we needn’t speculate on that part.
So how did they interpret this 5 or 6 month period of down time for Jesus and perhaps His seeming lack of activity? Did they see it as failure? Oh, the great Rabbi had His day in the sun but He took it just a little over the edge and lost everyone?
That’s how pastors are judged in the church and in their denominational circles you know. “Oh, he took a church and blew out half of his people or more in the first 6 months. Failure.” Truth be told, a good friend and wise counselor might tell that pastor to be ready because he might have to blow out the other half before he can begin building a real church; but that’s not the way it is usually viewed. If you have people you are successful. And by that standard, if we’re to judge the validity and accuracy of a man’s ministry by the size of his church, I guess that would make people like Joel Osteen right – instead of false teachers and devouring wolves.
Anyway, we kind of get the picture here that Jesus’ brothers are having some fun at His expense. Maybe they’re saying these things to Him in a very sincere tone, but inside they’re having the laugh of their lives. Little do they know that they are making fun of God, who knows their every thought and intent. Was one of them James? Maybe Jesus was thinking, “Go ahead, brother of the flesh, and act the fool now; I have plans for you later”.
They were judging Jesus unrighteously – or unrightly – based upon their own notions of who He was. If you’ve read Mark 3:21 you might remember that early in His ministry Jesus’ family tried to keep Him from leaving home because they thought He had lost his mind.
So where were they during all the subsequent public appearances? Isn’t it strange, to think that Jesus was going about doing all that He did in those northern regions, occasionally going to Jerusalem during the feasts but mostly ministering so near their home, yet they don’t seem to know Him at all?
He’s just crazy ol’ Jesus – having His delusions and getting people all stirred up! But now He’s virtually alone, and all He has left is this same motley group He started with and a lot of help they’ve been.
“Hey Jesus”, (wink, wink, grin…) “Feast of Booths coming up. Everybody’s headed to Judea, even your twelve sidekicks. Hey! Jesus, why don’t you go down to Judea also and do some miracles there? After all, nobody gets famous by hiding in a corner. Right? You gotta strut your stuff, Jesus. Think outside the box. Pull a rabbit out of your hat.” (snicker, snarf…)
But in their derision they were judging unrightly and thus remained blind to the truth. Notice that Jesus doesn’t do anything to prove Himself to them. God doesn’t reward unbelief.
To the believing He is quick to let them see truth, to open the eyes of their understanding in order to take them deeper in and higher up. But be warned, unbeliever; God doesn’t just ignore deliberate unbelief. He makes you blinder and deafer. Jesus quoted Isaiah in Matthew 13. Listen.
“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13 “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’ 16 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 “For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it”
I wonder how many times Jesus was the butt of their derisive joking while they were growing up. What kind of homelife did you have? Were you one of those children who was a little bit different? A little bit slower than the rest maybe, or with some birthmark or defect that made you the butt of your siblings jabs and jesting? Well just remember that you have a High Priest who sympathizes with your weakness; who has been tempted in all things that tempt and try men except without sin (Heb 4:14), and He is able to give you the comfort of One who empathizes.
“No, you guys go on without Me. It isn’t time yet for Me to go” and of course Jesus was talking about the Father’s perfect timing which Jesus always kept perfectly.
“The world cannot hate you” why did He say that to them? Because at that time they were ‘of’ the world. They were unbelievers. They were part of the world system and the world system loves its own. They not only do their evil but they give hearty approval and encouragement to those who practice the same evils.
That’s why President Clinton could be impeached for his lewd behavior in the Oval office and instead of his approval rating going down it went up.
It’s why an entire municipality can spend millions of dollars to advertise on television that what happens there stays there, encouraging you to go there with your money and spend it doing any debauched thing that your mind can conjure, and my, isn’t that a cute and clever way to say ‘we’re tolerant and we’re open-minded and enlightened and you can just come in here among us and leave your stuffy morals behind.
So go down to Judea. Go up to Jerusalem. Party hearty and unhindered. You’re one of them. I am not. I am the true Light which coming into the world enlightens every man, and they hate My Light, for their deeds are evil.
Oh, I’ll bet they had some great laughs on the road to Jerusalem, to celebrate the Feast of Booths…to commemorate the time God preserved their ancestors during their wilderness wanderings and brought them to the promised land so that generations later they would be alive to go down to Jerusalem and celebrate joyfully after having treated their brother like a donkey… They judged with derision. They judged based on their preconceived notions about who Jesus was. They looked at the whole picture and saw a loser. They judged unrightly.
JUDGING WITH DOUBT
Well, the next group we come to consists of what the text labels the ‘crowds’. In John’s Gospel when he uses words like ‘multitudes’ or ‘crowds’ or just says ‘the people’, he is referring to the common folks; the masses; the general population. When he says ‘the Jews’, he is talking about the religious establishment; those of the ruling class, consisting of the Pharisees and Scribes primarily.
We see these terms kind of mixed into the narrative here between verses 11-15 and again at verse 20, so we get the picture that all of them are mixed and mingled in and around the Temple during this celebration time, and John is relating the thinking and just the general flow of conversation centered on and around this Rabbi who has come to the Temple.
If you look at verse 11 you see that the Jews were looking for Jesus. They expected Him to be at the feast. They wanted to kill Him, remember, so they’re keeping their eyes peeled, but they’re a little dumbfounded that He is not there.
Then John draws back and shows us the celebrants as a throng, moving about the streets and the Temple grounds, and he says they were grumbling and they were speculating with each other who this Jesus might be.
The Jews wanted to know where He was; the people were trying to figure out who He was.
People still do that today, don’t they? Who is Jesus? Oh, He was a great teacher. He was a man of high moral reputation and a leader of people who were searching desperately for someone to show them the way.
No, He was a phoney. He was just a man and for a while He had a following, but like most men He let it go to His head and eventually went too far and He crashed and burned. They got fed up with Him and crucified Him.
Well then John comes back to the Jews and says that when Jesus finally came to the Temple about mid way through the festival and started teaching, they expressed their doubt-filled questions about His qualifications.
So in this whole picture what we’re seeing is a society of people who for one reason or another have become acutely interested in this Jesus of Nazareth, but it is a doubt-based interest. It is not a faith-based interest; it is not a seeking and expectant interest; it is a morbid and detached interest.
It was the kind of interest that gets the A&E channel broadcasting programs around Christmas and again at Easter speculating on who the historical Jesus is.
It was the same kind of interest that groups Jesus with Mohammad and Ghandi and Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. but knows nothing about Him nor truly seeks Him or wants to know anything deeper about Him than why He lived, if He lived and what wise sayings did He leave behind for us to quote once in a while when the candles are lit and we’re waxing philosophical seasoned with just a touch of spiritual.
Now that, I say, is the extent of interest in the general masses. It is doubt-based and in the end the doubts win over and the whole ‘Jesus question’ is tabled for another time.
JUDGING WITH MALICE
On the part of the Jews however, the religious elite who had so much influence and power over the people that folks were whispering their Jesus speculations so they wouldn’t incur the wrath of the Pharisees and Scribes, for their part there was nothing but malice in their judgements of Jesus.
They hated Him from the beginning and they had been plotting His murder for quite some time. They desperately needed to discredit Jesus, and if they could do it publicly in the presence of many witnesses, all the better.
Show Him to be a fraud, expose Him as a false teacher, demonstrate that He had on numerous occasions broken the Sabbath Law, anything to sway the general populace to an unfavorable opinion of Jesus.
So when they find Jesus teaching in the Temple and they ask in astonishment “How has this man become learned, having never been educated?” it was not intended as a compliment. It was a challenge. What they were really saying was, this man has no formal education. He didn’t graduate from any school for Rabbis or attend classes in the Temple or whatever else was available in those days by way of formal education.
In other words, we’re the teachers, so when He says things like “You have heard said,… but I say to you”, and He contradicts our teaching, He has no authority to do so. Who does this guy think He is?!?
Now pay attention to this and catch what Jesus is saying to them in His initial response.
“My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself.”
What was He telling them? He was telling them that His teaching was from God. So if His teaching differed from theirs, where does that say their teaching was from? If their teaching was from God, they’d be teaching the same thing Jesus was teaching and there would be no conflict; right?
But there was a great deal of conflict in that His teaching was directly opposite of theirs in every way. So if He got His teaching from God, then they did not.
Let’s not let it escape our notice that when to Isaiah God said,
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa 55:8-9
…this truth applies equally to Jesus. He is God. So whether His teaching was from Himself or from the Father, the truth remains that His thoughts are higher than their thoughts or our thoughts. Let God be true and every man a liar.
Now look at verse 19.
“Did not Moses give you the Law, and yet none of you carries out the Law?”
What an indictment! All of their trust and all of their pride in their righteousness was grounded in the fact that they had the Law of Moses. They worshiped the Law and they worshiped Moses, and Jesus came right out and said, “You have it, but you don’t do it!”
Do you know that Christians today have their sacred cows also? The Jews were guilty of worshiping the Sabbath day and worshiping Moses and the Law, and they were filled with pride that they had those things and that they were children of Abraham. There were many things they had that originally served the purpose of glorifying God and reminding them of what God had done for them, but they had turned and worshiped the thing instead of the God who gave the thing.
Do you see any sign in contemporary Christianity of that happening? I wonder, because as I watch the news I occasionally see coverage of some Christian group picketing something or trying to bring legislation against something or to force some Christian value on a non-Christian society, and as I see them trying to force public agencies to hang the Ten Commandments in their hallways or defend prayer in schools I wonder how many of them have said a prayer at home with their family lately.
And when I hear a story about someone fighting to keep a cross up and exposed in some remote desert place where it has been for decades but someone is wanting to take it down, I wonder if the ones fighting are ready to suffer personally and physically as a follower of Christ.
And sometimes I wonder if Jesus would say to all of us, “You have the Bible, but you don’t do it.”
In what way did Jesus mean they weren’t carrying out the Law of Moses? Well, let’s see. The law said to not bear false witness, right? But were they falsely accusing Him? Yes.
The law said ‘you shall not commit murder’, but they were plotting just that, weren’t they? Sure! That’s why He asked them, “Why do you seek to kill Me?”
That’s pretty direct, isn’t it?
Now get this. It says ‘the crowd answered’. So apparently the Pharisees are just standing there in silence, probably wondering, ‘hey, how did He know that? Did someone tip Him off?’ But the people in the crowd are shocked. “What, are you demonized or something? Have you gone insane? Who seeks to kill you?”
But Jesus directs His statements at the Jews; the Pharisees..
“I did one deed and you all marvel” Now He’s talking about His healing of the lame man at the pool of Bethesda back in chapter 5.
If you remember, we talked about how Jesus came to the pool which was surrounded by a multitude of sick people, but He went straight to this one man and asked, “Do you want to be well?”, then He simply told the man to take up his pallet and walk, which the man did, and the Pharisees were outraged because He supposedly broke the Sabbath by healing on the Sabbath.
Now listen to what happens here. Jesus has already accused them of not keeping the very Law that they worship when He said Moses gave them the Law but they didn’t carry it out.
You worship Moses and you worship the Law but you bring reproach on both with your life and your actions.
Now, He will use those very things to indict them. Moses passed down circumcision, and Moses also gave you the Law that says you will remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Yet, the Law also says that a male child who opens the womb is to be consecrated to the Lord and circumcised on the eight day, so in order to keep that law you circumcise on the Sabbath and that’s ok.
But when I heal a man’s entire body and make him well on the Sabbath you are enraged enough to want Me dead.
Their judgment was unjust in that it was a judgment based on malice. Out of the hatred and evil intent of their own heart, they judged Jesus worthy of death, making their motive for killing him the desire out of their own heart, not desire to see righteousness done or God glorified.
JUDGING RIGHTEOUSLY
You see, in all of these cases – Jesus’ brothers, the crowds, the religious leaders, their perception of Jesus – that is, the way He appeared to them – was filtered through the lens of their sinful perceptions, their preconceived notions, their sinful pride and self-focus.
I think that is a very easy and dangerous trap to fall into and I think all of us, at one time or another, to one degree or another, fall into that trap.
We judge Jesus according to our fallen thinking and what He appears to be to us. That’s why people attribute actions and attitudes to Jesus that are found in sinful men but not in the sinless Son of God.
Jesus is not who we think He is or want Him to be. He is who He is, He is God, and the only way to see Him rightly is with the help of the Holy Spirit, seeking the glory of the One who sent Him.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
What is that saying to us? It is saying that it is impossible for any of us to have a right thought about God or about His Christ apart from His Spirit. The eyes of flesh cannot see and the mind of flesh cannot comprehend One who is as much higher than we as the heavens are than the earth.
The world seeks for the historical Jesus but they will never find Him in what they consider to be only a man.
The church seems often to be seeking for a denominational Jesus who will give hearty approval to all their favorite doctrines and methods.
Jesus Himself was our example and showed us that example in verse 18 of our text when He said, “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true and there is no unrighteousness in Him”
Well of course He was speaking of Himself in that context, but He gave us something to fasten on to there. As Christ-followers it is our very purpose to seek the glory of the One who sent Jesus – the One who called and justified and sanctified His church, so that going in the unction and the vision of His Holy Spirit our judgments will be righteous, and not based on appearances or grounded in our prejudices and preconceived notions, but in His Word, in His truth, in the Spirit seeing Jesus as He is until we see Him face to face.
I think that if this was the collective goal and desire of the true church in these last days, to glorify God instead of to change society; to be molded to the image of Christ instead of wanting to mold the world to our likeness – or to our approval, we would find ourselves changing and people would begin to see us as different for the right reasons.
Now, their reactions would cover the wide spectrum of wanting what we have at one end to wanting to kill us at the other, but we would know God was moving among us again, wouldn’t we?
