DO NOT JUDGE, AND YOU WILL NOT BE JUDGED
As we travel through the gospel of Luke together, I wanted to backtrack this week to revisit the heart of Jesus’ teaching in ch. 6. This passage is one most of us have heard before. And as clear cut as it may seem, I found I really struggled this week with how to expound on what Jesus is really trying to tell us here. This is one of those passages that I almost wish a pastor could just stand up and say, “Alright, now go do it!” But things are rarely that simple. Not because God makes things complicated. God, in his infinite grace and unfathomable depth of love has made it so that the Gospel message is the easiest thing in the world to grasp and follow. And yet, a person can spend their entire life studying it and never fully plumb its depths. No, we are to blame for overly complicating it. If there is one thing about human ingenuity and human sinfulness, it’s that we are adept at applying both to misunderstand and misconstrue the simplest of Christ’s commands designed to teach us to be unselfish, and turn it into an essentially selfish precept.
This is exactly what our culture has done with the precept, “Do not judge.” We tend to apply it to mean we should not attempt to discern the morality of the actions of others, with the implication that we are being hypocrites for doing so. The problem is, everyone judges! On a very basic level, it’s part of our natural instinct to discern potential threats in our environment. When someone approaches you on the street, whether you fully realize it or not, your brain is already beginning to register their gait, what their eyes are focusing on, where their attention lies, all of that. That is because someone approaching you with the intent to harm you or rob you, is going to give off very different signals than someone simply out for an evening stroll.
We do it when we choose our doctors. We want to know they are trustworthy and knowledgeable and will come to the right diagnosis and treatment. If a doctor has had a slew of malpractice suits levied against them and has a suspended license, do we want them in charge of our cancer treatment? Of course not! Now, imagine you told such a doctor that you’ve decided to see a different one because of his conduct, and he retorted with, “Don’t judge me, man!” That would be ridiculous, right?
And yet, we (as a culture) do that very thing anytime someone challenges any aspect of our way of life, but maybe most especially in the arena of morality. Take the issue of abortion, for example. Culturally, it is a hot button issue, but unfortunately this may be less true now than it was in the past. For those of us who are pro-life, and yes, anti-abortion; we perceive a moral mandate to preserve the beauty of life expressed in the unborn and we affirm that fetuses are just as valuable, just as much alive, and just as much loved by God for being who they are, as the wonderful mothers who bear them. Yet the first reply we often get when we stand up for the rights of the unborn and assert that we shouldn’t kill them, is that we “shouldn’t judge others” for the decisions they make regarding their own bodies.
DISCERNMENT VS. CONDEMNATION
And this is the problem with our culture’s appropriation of Jesus’ teaching. It is almost as if people are saying we have no right to discern right from wrong in the public sphere, or in other people’s lives! But that is not what Jesus is talking about at all. In fact, Jesus makes it clear just how essential discernment of right and wrong, and specifically of other people’s motives, is to the Christian walk when in Mat. 10:16 he says, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”(1)
Discernment is essential to our faith, so that we are not deceived by every eloquent teacher who comes our way or every new philosophy and system of morality which appeals to our culture. Instead, what Jesus is talking about here is made clear in the second part of this verse, “condemn not, and you will not be condemned.” By using a common Hebrew rhetorical device, Jesus frames his saying in a parallel structure, where the first part is essentially equivalent to the second part. This happens over and over again in Hebrew scripture, especially in the Psalms and Proverbs, but also peppered throughout the rest of the Old Testament. A great example is Ps. 24:1-2, “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, and the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”
Or Gen. 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Notice how in each example, the writer says the same thing twice? And in v. 37, Jesus does the same thing when he says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned.”
But Jesus isn’t just doing this because it sounds poetic (though that does help his sayings stick in the minds of his listeners), he’s also clarifying what “judging” really means in this context. It doesn’t mean discerning right from wrong. That is a skill which the Holy Spirit desires to cultivate in each of us. It doesn’t even mean asserting that we should do what is right and refrain from what is wrong. What Jesus is saying is that we must not judge a person’s worth or value simply because they are a sinner. Even when a person does what is wrong, they are still loved just as deeply by God as the person who does right. And this is something our culture doesn’t understand at all. I have friends who in one breath will say that we Christians “shouldn’t judge,” and in the next breath will ridicule us for believing that even a condemned murderer who repents right before their death can be saved. They cannot fathom how someone like the infamous cannibal, Jeffry Dahmer, can receive Christ while in prison and still be considered a brother to us. Though to be honest, I suspect that even most Christians may have trouble fathoming that!
PRESSED DOWN, SHAKEN TOGETHER GRACE
And yet, that is exactly what Jesus is saying here. Every single person on this planet was created in the image of God, and in spite of our sin and no matter how badly we twist and distort that image, it is still there. No one is beyond the reach of God’s love. No one is too far gone for salvation. But when we judge that they are, when we condemn them and declare them to be of no worth; we are putting ourselves in the place of God, and even worse we become blind to our own shortcomings, because whether we recognize it or not, we have all sinned and are in need of the grace which God freely offers us.
This is why Jesus links giving and forgiving in the same way that he linked judging and condemning. Just as much as God desires that we shouldn’t be condemned, He desires even more that we receive from the abundant grace He has prepared for us. He uses the image of a buyer who has gone to market to buy grain to drive the point home. In the first century, and even in many places in the world today, people tended to wear long flowing robes without pockets. So, when they went to the market to buy goods, they would fold over a length of cloth around their lap to make a make-shift pocket, which they would then fill with whatever they were buying in bulk.(2)
Now, as you may imagine, part of being a skilled seller of just about anything in the ancient world involved also being a skilled haggler and sometimes also being a bit dishonest. It was common practice to stir the grain and sell it by volume instead of weight, so that they could get more money in return for less product. But here, Jesus likens God to not only a good merchant, but an all too generous one. He imagines the great Merchant as filling the fold in our robes to overflowing with grain, packing it down, filling it up again, shaking it up to let it settle, and filling it a third time so that grain is spilling out all over the ground.
Unlike earthly merchants, God doesn’t have to worry about running out of the abundance of what He wants to give us. His grace is immeasurable and He is overjoyed to give as much and more than we can possible imagine. But, in His wisdom, He has also ordained that we should be a part of the distribution of that grace. He wants to teach us that by turning away from our selfishness and by giving and forgiving in abundance, we receive all the more. The more we love the more love we are able to receive in return.
One commentator noted that Jesus is the perfect example of this.(3) At the end of his life, Jesus had no possessions to bequeath his followers, no roof over his head, and certainly no money. All He had to give was His love, and He gave it in such abundance that He even gave His life for us. And in return, no one has ever been loved as much throughout the ages as Jesus. There have been many powerful men and women through the millennia between His time and ours. There have been many who were rich. There were many conquerors, many great architects and builders, many inventors, many wise philosophers. But none are adored the way Jesus has been adored. None are remembered and revered by so many as Jesus is remembered and revered.
We may lack power. We may lack money. We may even lack wisdom and common sense. But if we give the love and grace we have received in abundance, pouring it out into the lives of those around us every day, we will never ever run out.
BLIND MEN, STUMBLING OVER PLANKS AND SPECKS
And Jesus continues this train of thought with the parable in vv. 39-45. Let’s read that again together. He also told them a parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. 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? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
At first glance, this parable may seem unrelated to the passage above. What do blind teachers have to do with judging, condemning, giving, and forgiving? Well, the answer is they have everything to do with it! In Jesus’ day, this parable was most probably meant as a jab directed at the Pharisees, who taught strict adherence to the tiniest details of the Law, and yet had no compassion on those who were suffering and struggling to survive each day. They were blind to the goodness, the grace, and the mercy of God and because they were blind to the good things of God and unable to see His grace, they could not possibly teach their followers to find it either.(4)
They would point out the tiniest faults in their neighbors, unfeelingly calling them “brother” with a false sense of superiority, while ignoring the dangerous rot in their own hearts. And since a teacher can only teach what he or she knows themselves, they could not teach their disciples how to be gracious or merciful, because they had never experienced God’s mercy.
Even though the Pharisees are long gone, we still have cultural influencers and teachers who are just as blind and yet just as ready to offer their “wisdom” to those hungry for guidance today. We’re all familiar with the penchant many celebrities have to use their fame as a soap box. Most have never studied politics, religion, or philosophy in depth and yet they will readily tell others how they should think and vote. I occasionally tell people that I received degrees in the two subjects that everyone I meet automatically believes they already know more than me: politics and religion.
But it isn’t just celebrities. Social media, TV, movies, music, language, story, and culture all shape how we think and feel regarding any given subject, often without our fully knowing it. And it isn’t just the forces of culture either. We do it. We are often as bad as the Pharisees of Jesus’ time. There’s a certain amount of irony in the fact that so many of us read these passages and nod approvingly when we might as well have massive planks sticking out of our eyes while we try to do so!
There’s a reason why, in a mass casualty situation, Soldiers and survivors are taught to apply First Aid to themselves first before trying to help others. If a Soldier is wounded in a battle, he’s going to be no good to anybody if he bleeds out himself while trying to put a band-aid on his buddy. We won’t be able to continue the fight, in which his wounded buddies will be killed anyway if he can’t defend them; and he can’t properly see to their injuries if he is losing the fight against his own.
It’s not that Jesus doesn’t want us to remove the specks from the eyes of our brothers and sisters. He does! He wants us to help each other and see to each other’s wounds. But He also knows we won’t really be able to help them heal in any meaningful way, until we allow the Great Physician to heal us. And we cannot be healed if we ignore our wounds, or even worse, conceal them. I know it hurts, but we have to trust Him and each other with our vulnerabilities. With our frailties. It’s the instinct of any wounded animal to cover up its wounds; but that’s how infection sets in. A wound can only be cleaned and bandaged if we expose it to the light, where it can be clearly seen and the remedy more easily identified.
TREES AND FRUIT
Here again, Jesus seems to shift gears in vv. 43-45. “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
But again, he is continuing the same train of thought. Trees and fruit may seem unrelated to blind men and planks, but what Jesus is basically saying is that our actions, how we treat others, and indeed what we teach and pass on; is all a reflection of our internal character. If we are rotten on the inside, if we are wounded and blinded by our own hypocrisy and lack of mercy; then that is what we will communicate to others. That is what we will teach our children. And that is the image of Christianity we will reflect to an unbelieving world.
It’s important to note here that the word “heart” used in v. 45 doesn’t mean the exactly the same thing in Semitic cultures that it does in ours. We tend to associate it with feelings and emotion. But as I’ve said before, true love isn’t just an emotion. It isn’t feeling affection toward another alone. It is a decision. It is a commitment to care for another, even when we don’t feel like it. And the Semitic understanding of the word “heart” reflects that. The Jews of Jesus’ time would have viewed the heart as the seat of the intellect as much as emotion.(5) Decisions are made in the heart. Wisdom transforms the heart. What we teach comes from the heart.
When we understand that, we can understand just how the parable of the trees and fruit relate to the preceding parable of the blind leading the blind. If our hearts become corrupted by selfishness, by bitterness, by a condemning attitude, it actually clouds our ability to perceive the world, ourselves, and others. It even clouds our ability to understand the heart of God!
But if we allow ourselves to be transformed by God’s grace and mercy, if we take a risk on others by giving them love and forgiving them, we will find ourselves beginning to see the world more and more the way God sees it. Is the world sinful? Yes! Is the world unrighteous and harsh and in danger of Judgment? Absolutely! But the word is also beautiful, because God created it to be beautiful and as difficult as it may be for us to see, God’s artistry is reflected in it.
And even those human beings which the rest of the world has decided are worthless and expendable: like the unborn, the poor, the elderly, and the criminal, are beautiful, they are valuable, they are loved, because they were created in the Image of God. And yes, even you. Even though you may have been taught your whole life that you are worthless, or that in order to have worth, you have to be rich, or look just the right way, or act just the right way. You are beautiful. You are valuable. You are loved.
You might not be able to see it yet, because you’ve been wounded so badly that it has clouded your vision. Trust God with your wounds this morning. Let Him shine a light on your heart and transform what He sees inside. It may be impossible for man to turn a bramble bush into an orange tree, but nothing is impossible with God. Take all the time you need this morning, and every day this week, and examine yourself. Take an honest look deep inside. Ask God to help you see that big ole plank which might be sticking out of your face. And then ask Him to remove it and heal you. I promise you, He is faithful to do it.
FOOTNOTES
(1) Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the ESV.
(2) Clarke, Adam. Clarke’s Commentary: Matthew – Acts, Vol. V, 409. New York, NY: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1832.
(3) Gilmour, S. MacLean. “Exegesis, Chs. 1-6 of Luke,” in The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. 8, 123. Ed. By George A. Buttrick, et. al. Nashville, TN: Addington-Cokesbury Press, 1952.
(4) Liefeld, Water L. and David W. Pao. “Luke,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Revised Ed. Vol. 10, 139. Ed. by Tremper Longman III & David E. Garland. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.
(5) Bowie, 126.
Delivered Mar. 10, 2019 – Cortez (CO) Church of the Nazarene.
