Upside Down Living #18 - Tolerance in a Time of Judgement
Message Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund continues Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7:1-6 looking at the topic of judgement, the different ways we judge the people around us that we may or may not realize, and what it would look like if we took Jesus' words seriously to not judge others.
Message Transcript
Wow, what a week we have had in our country. I had somebody ask me just this week, "Do you think we'll be in our worship center at our Wexford campus in Orchard Hill, or will we know who our President is first?" It's kind of a funny question. We're planning to be in our Worship Center the weekend of December 5th and 6th. We have a great event coming December 3rd and 4th, and so we'd love for you to be a part of that for the opening. There are so many great things happening around Orchard Hill right now, but it's a challenging time also in our country. So, I just wanted to take a moment and pray and just remind all of us that God is still in charge.
Whatever else is going on in our world, whatever seems to be happening, it has not escaped the hand of God, so let us just take a moment and pray together. Father, we thank you for the knowledge that there is nothing in this world that is beyond your hand. And, God, we affirm today that you are in charge and, God, we rest in that. God, I ask that for those of us who have believed for a long time, that we would let the core of our faith inform the way that we respond to all that happens. Father, for those who are new to faith, or maybe haven't even crossed the line of faith yet, I pray that the discovery that you do hold things in your hand would become a real comfort in these days.
Lord, I just pray for our nation, that you would bring us through this time to a time on the other side where we as a nation could thrive and all people would be able to experience the freedoms and the goodness of what this nation has been and will be. Father, we pray for this time that you would work and speak to all of us. I pray that my words would reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
So, we started a series in the summer that we called Upside Down Living, and we decided we were just going to simply work our way through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' most famous teaching. What that means is that you say, "Here's where we're going to start." Then I just take the text and say, "Here's where they break up." And you plop down the text on the date that it's coming. So, this message was planned. Obviously, we knew there would be an election, but we didn't know what things would be like. And so, when I first saw the topic and kind of thought through the day, I thought, "Ah, this doesn't have anything to do with what will be going on in the country," which might be kind of a respite. Might feel good.
Yet, as you heard this passage read about Jesus' words about do not judge lest you be judged, I wonder how it struck you considering everything that is happening around us. Not just in the election, but this entire year, we have seen racial tension that has created people who say, "Listen, there are such things as," and they will fill in their blank with statements. Then there will be people who say, "Oh, there is no such thing as," and they will say these things back. And if you hold an opposing viewpoint, you are quickly categorized. You see this when it comes to the COVID response. There are people who say, you're selfish if you don't wear a mask, and others who will say, you're bending your knee to powers if you do. There are all kinds of thoughts around this, and certainly it's true with our elections.
And as I came to this passage, I realized that for years in our country this has been one of our country's favorite passages. Meaning, whether you're a person of faith or not, people love the idea of do not judge, especially when it applies to them. It's like, you know what? Jesus said, "'Do not judge.' That's my favorite verse. You have no right to ever say anything to me about anything, because Jesus said, 'Do not judge.'" And yet this is largely ignored when it comes to others. And what I mean by that is although we love it to say, "Listen, don't judge. Don't judge. Jesus said, 'Don't judge.' You have no right to judge." That there is another piece of us that is very quick to look at other people and make judgements about them, about the way they do things, about who they are.
My guess is every one of us has felt the sting of judgment at some point in our lives. We felt that from people who have made very direct comments to us, maybe it was a mom or a dad as you were growing up, or maybe it's your spouse today. Maybe it's a coworker or a boss. Maybe it's some friends who are constantly coming to you and saying something, and there is a little piece of you that when you have experienced it, it says, "What if we all took Jesus' word seriously not to judge? How would the world be better?"
Maybe it's a look that you experience from time to time. You know the look. You have given it, undoubtedly at times. Where somebody says something, at a family gathering and there is a look that kind of goes from one person to another, like, "Can you believe they just said that?" Or, "Can you believe who they're associating with in that," or, "The way that they're dressed," or whatever it is, and there's just this look that you give. It's like the knowing look between two people who say, "Oh yeah, they're the crazy one." And maybe you're the person who has watched somebody give that look. And maybe you've just had that moment of saying, "What if we all took Jesus' word seriously not to judge?"
Or maybe it's the backhanded compliment that you've experienced, where somebody says something and it's kind of a compliment until you think about it for a few minutes. Then you realize, "Oh, that's not really a compliment. That was a backhanded compliment. "I had somebody who I was talking to a while ago and they were talking about Pittsburgh and they said, "Oh, that's fairly stylish for Pittsburgh." And I thought, "Wow, is that a loaded comment." And it's like, I love Pittsburgh. I live in Pittsburgh, it's my city. And this person was just slamming it. And I was like, what? That kind of hurt. And I had that moment where it was like, what if we took Jesus' words seriously, not to judge.
Maybe you've seen it with all the issues in our nation, people not getting along with family members, saying, "I'm not going to talk to so-and-so because of where they are on this." Friendships breaking up, people leaving long-term friendships, relationships, church communities, other groups, because they don't like the views that somebody else has and saying, "You know what? I'm just done." What if we all took Jesus' word seriously and said, "We're not going to judge."
But you know, it isn't just those kinds of things. There are things that we feel that sometimes go to the goofy level in terms of judgment. And here's what I mean when I say the goofy level. I was thinking about this the other day, and I was seeing some stuff about this, a couple of different churches, and one of the churches was called Real Life Church. I'll just tell you what my reaction was. I was like, "So any church that's not called Real Life Church has fake life?" And I had that moment where I was like... and so, I made a snap judgment.
Then I saw another church that was called Relevant. And I was like, "So every other church is irrelevant?" And then I saw a church that had their name, then they were using a motto of a university kind of that they'd blatantly ripped off with a hashtag. And I was like, "Okay." And I found myself kind of being like, "We're not like that." And then I thought, "What if we took Jesus' word seriously? What if instead of making ourselves feel better by making snap judgements, we said, 'You know what? Jesus says, don't judge, because the judgment you use on others is the judgment that will be used on you.'"
Maybe it's something like what somebody wears. If you ever found yourself in the conversation, "Can you believe what she wore?" What that is, is it's a way of saying I would never do that. I'm better than that. I can't believe that she would, or that he does. I mean, what if we took Jesus' word seriously and said, "Don't judge." Maybe it has to do with how other people spend their money. You ever found yourself watching somebody do something and saying to yourself, or to your close friends, "I would never do that. I can't believe that they've done that."
And what that is sometimes, this is a way of saying I'm better than them because they're doing things that seem foolish with their resources. I would never do that. What if we took Jesus' word seriously and we didn't judge? Or maybe it's something goofy still like this, and that is one that I've been guilty of. That is, when I'm driving on a highway with multiple lanes going the same direction and I pull up behind somebody in the left lane going way below the speed limit, and I have a moment where I'm thinking, "Don't you know that it's not just morally compromised to drive in the left lane slowly, but it is illegal?" Like in the state of Pennsylvania, if you're not passing, you're required to get over to the right.
And I have a moment where I'm where I'm like, "I want them to know the law," but what if we took Jesus' words seriously, and we didn't judge? Now you may be asking, okay, well, those are light issues, but here's what judging really is. That is, it's making ourselves feel superior to other people because we apply a standard to them. Maybe it's a fair standard. Maybe it isn't, but we come to a negative conclusion about people.
I have a little chart here that maybe shows this, so here's a look at this chart. This chart shows a person that aligns themselves with God and then puts another person on the other side. And maybe it isn't God officially, because a lot of times we assume that judgment comes from Christian people to non-Christian people. But I want you to know, if you're not a person of faith, you can be just as guilty of being full of judgment as a Christian person.
And here's why I say that, because what you'll do is maybe not say, "It's me and God against you," but you'll say, "It's me and what's good. It's me and what's right. It's me and what's cool against somebody else." And this is the judgment that we ignore in our country today, and there is an insidiousness to this when it becomes tied to our spiritual lives, because what we start to do then is say, "I'm standing up for God. I'm fighting for something that really matters here, and I want everyone to know that I'm on the side with God and you are not."
What if we took Jesus' word seriously not to judge? I think our chart would look a little different. I think it would look more like this. And this is when you put yourself, not with God, but with other people. So, it's me and you and God is on the other side or the good or the right is on the other side. Now, I'm not saying that you're never on the right side, never on the good side, never on the side with God and never anybody on the other side, but what I'm saying is the essence of judgment is saying, here's a standard. I know what the standard is. And I'm going to reach a negative conclusion about you because you don't agree with me, live like me, or do like me in life.
What if instead of always running to that as a people, we instead said, "No, you and I, we both come short of God. We both need God's grace." Would that change the way that we live? I think that it likely would. You see, one of the problems with judgment is that we think we know what's going on with somebody else, because we assume that we have knowledge into what's really going on in their minds.
I experienced this years ago, I was in my early 20s, and I got on an airplane. When I got on the airplane, there were some kids that were unruly. They were changing seats, jumping up and down, all this stuff. I kind of got on the airplane, and I was like, "Aw. No. This is going to be a lousy flight." I don't know if you've ever had this happen. And you had that moment where you'd make eye contact with other people on the plane. Like, "Can you believe this man over here is not controlling his kids?" And I got annoyed and had the whole moment of like, "Ah, this guy is not disciplining his kids. They're out of control." And soon we took off and the kids sat for a moment. Then they were still making noise, just kind of going on. He just sat there, like completely oblivious.
And finally, one of the other people, not me, but one of the other people said something to him like, "Hey, do you think you could like reign your kids in a little, some of us want to rest a little, have a little quiet. And I'll never forget, the guy turned, he kind of looked stunned like he hadn't even noticed, and he said, "Oh, my, I'm sorry." He said, "We're flying to see their mom who's just died." I just had a moment where my whole perception changed. See, we think we know what's going on with people, but what if we took Jesus' word seriously and instead of judging, we didn't assume that we knew what was going on with everybody else, and every time they do something, believe something, say something that we don't like, we actually said, "I may not understand all that goes into why they are, where, or like they are."
Maybe one of the reasons that we judge is not just because we think we know, but it is because we really want to assign motives to somebody. I think this is what Jesus was getting at with this whole log in the eye and the speck in the eye. Here's what he says, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way, you judge others, you will be judged, and the measure you use, it will be used to measure you." Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your own eye, and all the time there's a plank in your own eye. You hypocrite. First, take the plank out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly and remove the speck from your brother's eye." And I think the whole image here of this log in this spec has to do with obviously our perception.
But it goes deeper because again, the eye has just been used in the text in Matthew chapter six to talk about a healthy eye and an unhealthy eye. In other words, it is part of how we see, and what he is driving at is you are blinded to this other person because you are not seeing yourself. In other words, you're able to say, "I'm with God, they're over here," rather than being able to say, "You know what? I need God just as much as this other person, and it may not be in the same area, but I need God just as much." So, what we do is we assume that we know. We assign motives, but what if instead of assigning motives and assuming that we knew, we chose to say, "I'm going to deal with me and my issues, my motives, rather than being incensed about the other person."
So sometimes, maybe the issue is that as we think about how we relate to other people, we use standards that are somewhat arbitrary. What I mean, when I say that is, we have a set of standards that changes based on the situation. So earlier this summer, I went golfing with one of my sons and I'm not a good golfer. I golf twice a year, so you can't be good when you golf twice a year. And I think if I golf 20 times a year, I still wouldn't be good. So, I'm one of those people when I go out and there's good golfers behind me on the course, they're really annoyed because it's like, "How can you take that many shots? How did your ball end up over there? And then over there, and then over there, and you're still not close to the green? How did it take so long?"
So, I got out golfing with my son and we got behind this group of people that were worse than me, took longer than me, and I got so annoyed. I was like, "Come on, just play the game, let us play through." And what am I doing? I am applying an arbitrary standard. And I'm saying, "I'm better than you because you're a slow golfer and I'm not as slow as you," but it is arbitrary, because if there's good golfers behind me, they are going to have the same experience of me. And that is what we often do when we judge. What if we took Jesus' word seriously? And we said, do not judge, because the measure that you use will be used on you.
So, we assume we know. We assign motives, we use an arbitrary standard, then it appears to me, but then we like to comment on it. See it isn't enough for me when I'm playing that golf game, just to say, "Wow, these guys are kind of slow in my own head. I have to talk to my son about it, tell him how slow they are, how they're not using proper golf etiquette," and go through a whole litany because there's something in the speaking of it that brings about the moral superiority. But what if we weren't searching for the moral superiority? What if instead we were saying what I would really like is I would like to be a person who does not contribute to the discord that exists in our world, but I would rather be a person who contributes to people really loving and creating a safe space for others.
Now, I was thinking about this and reading a couple of commentaries on this passage. One of the commentators, a man named A.B. Bruce said this. He said, "Censoriousness," which is a word for being quick to judge, "Is a Pharisaic vice." Using the idea of a Pharisee. Pharisees in the new Testament were hypocrites. People who, because of their use of the law and righteousness, always thought of themselves as being better than others. So, he says, "Censoriousness is a Pharisaic vice, that of exalting ourselves, disparaging others." And then he says this, and I love this line. He says, "It's a very cheap way of attaining moral superiority.”
You see, here's the real problem with judgment. Yes, it creates discord externally, but it does something internally that is negative too. And that is every time that I give into it, every time that you give into it, what we are doing is we are in a cheap way, garnering something that says, I feel superior to somebody else because of this judgment that I just made. And the reason that is damaging is because it is the fruit of self-righteousness.
And again, this does not have to just be church people. It exists among church people, but you do not have to be a church person to experience this. When you start to look at other people and say, "Their motives are bad, I know their motives," and we know all about them without knowing them. And we have a judgment toward them, and we must talk about it. What we are doing is in some sense, we're saying, I am better than they are. But what if we took Jesus' words seriously? What if you, what if I, took Jesus' words seriously?
So, here's what we see. Here's the challenge about this, and that is some of you are listening right now, if you have made it this far, and have not judged this talk as being too tolerant, what some of you are doing right now is you're saying, "Well, what about discernment? Don't we have a need to discern? What about speaking into other people's lives? Isn't that a thing?"
And I would say it is absolutely a thing. This text is not saying that we never discern. This text is not saying that we don't come to a point of reaching a conclusion and even drawing a boundary around ourselves from other people. In fact, I think that is the whole point of verse six, "“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
Now, why does that verse appear here? I think it appears right here because Jesus is saying, I want you to understand that I do not want you to judge, but there is a time when you do not take what is sacred to you and give it to people who are going to simply trample on it. In other words, there is a time to say, "This person isn't safe. This person is going to be filled with judgment. They are going to take whatever I give them and they're going to use it in a despicable way before God. And you have the right to say, "You know what? I can just walk past." That is what Jesus is saying.
But the log spec imagery here is also talking about this idea of helping. He says, "Deal with your own log." Then what does he say? "Take the sawdust out of your brother's eye." So, he does not say never deal with anything. What he says is avoid judgment. In other words, making much of ourselves at other people's expense. There is a difference between that and saying, "I want to help other people."
I was reading and I saw a story about Jim Morrison. He was the lead singer of The Doors. Last week I talked a little bit about maybe songs dating you. I actually had to look up The Doors' music. It predates me a little bit. Their biggest songs, Riders in the Storm and Light my Fire. But Jim Morrison said this at one point... he was their lead singer, this is the 60s, mostly, maybe a little bit of the 70s, says, "A true friend is one who lets you have total freedom to be yourself. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That is what real love amounts to, letting a person be who he really is." What do you think of that?
Do you know how Jim Morrison's life ended? Drug overdose. I wonder if Jim Morrison had had a few more friends who were willing to say, "You're creating self-destructive patterns in your life, you are being true to yourself, but it's putting you in a place where you won't ever function the way that you want to function," if his life would have been different. You see, do not judge does not mean do not say anything. It does not mean do not challenge.
In fact, sometimes discernment will be a call for us to say something to somebody, but it usually should be in the context of relationship. Where judgment thrives is usually in surface relationships where it is like, here's somebody that I can get a cheap feeling of moral superiority to, because I can say, "I would never do what they do," or, "They always do that. And we just grab on to that or they believe that, or think that.
Here is how you and I can be different. Here is how we can be people who are not part of the problem, but part of the solution, and that is we come to a point where we understand what this whole Sermon on the Mount is about. If you go back to the beginning, it is Jesus giving these beatitudes and these statements of a call to perfection. And his point is, none of you are perfect. Yes, it is a call to something, but it is also to say you have not lived up to it no matter how well you have lived. And what we come to see is that the judgment that we need is to say, "I have been judged by God as being unworthy, but because of Jesus Christ, I am seen as completely worthy.”
And when that becomes the judgment that I use for myself, I don't need the cheap judgments of saying, "I'm better than somebody because I don't hog the left lane," or, "Because I don't slow down a golf foursome," or, "Because I would never wear that or spend money like that." Do you see? But if that gospel message has not rung true to the core of my soul, then what will happen is I'll go, "Oh yes. I believe in Jesus, punch my ticket for eternity, punch my ticket for heaven." But down deep, I am still going to be driving for a moral victory for myself so I can feel good about myself.
It is only the gospel that will free me to say, "Therefore, I don't need any of these cheap judgments because I have the best judgment that could ever be rendered, the judgment of Jesus Christ." See, we're all sinful. It is clear in the Bible, all have sinned and come short of God's glory, and those who call on Jesus' name can be saved and forgiven and experience grace. And when we experience grace, then we know that we are the ones that God has saved through Jesus Christ, and we have no fear putting ourselves with others instead of trying to put ourselves above others. And it changes the way that we talk about current issues in our culture, the way we interact with our families, our spouses, the way that we interact with our kids, because we're not trying to always get something out of the exchange to feel good about ourselves, because we have gotten the verdict from God himself in Jesus Christ.
That is how you and I can take Jesus' word seriously to say, "I'm not going to judge," not just by mere effort of saying, "I'm aware and I'm not going to judge," but because I have been judged and Jesus has paid the price. You can step into that today. Maybe you're here, Online, Strip District, Butler County, and you're hearing this and you're saying, "Yeah, I've never really been about church, and it's the judgmental people that I don't like." Well, that is a judgmental statement in and of itself. And what you're really longing for, even in saying that, or in having any kind of group identity is what Jesus provides. That is saying, you are valuable, you are whole, and I have made you right.
So, you can come to Jesus just by acknowledging your sin and saying, "God, I trust what Jesus has done on my behalf." And for those who have believed for years or decades, I'm amazed at how easy it is to try to get cheap judgements. What we need to keep coming back to is God's grace. It is God's grace.
By the way, when people judge you, when they give you the look or make the comment or make the backhanded compliment, or kind of cut themselves off from you or come at you straight and hard, you know the real answer to that is not to defend yourself. But it is to say, "You know what? You may be right. I may be worse than all that. In fact, I'm quite sure I'm worse than what you think I am, but God's seen me in ways you have never seen me, and he loves me because of what Jesus Christ has done. He's accepted me. So, whether you choose to accept me or not, it's really secondary because I have the acceptance that I need."
And that will free you and free me to say, "Okay, God, I don't want to live as a person who judges." So, what if church people and unchurch people all took Jesus' word seriously and said, "Not going to judge." I think our world would be a better world. It is a world I would like to be a part of.
Father, thank you that your word speaks to the places we live and move every day. God, help me, help each person whose part of Orchard Hill, to root our sense of worth, moral worth in what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf. Not on what we believe, what we do, what we don't do, but on Jesus. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
