Judging like Jesus
“Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you
believe me?” (Jn. 8:46). This bit of dialogue is in the middle of one
of the most heated conversations that Jesus had with the Pharisees. Jesus “laid it on the line” with them,
calling them “slaves to sin” (8:34), sons of Satan (8: 38, 41, 44), and
liars (8: 55). This
“interaction” comes on the heels of
another “scene” that Jesus had recently had with the Pharisees and teachers of
the law in which they brought to him a woman caught in the act of
adultery.
When I was reading this passage, I couldn’t help but changing the setting of
this conversation to today. Jesus
talking to certain church leaders,
calling it like it is with many of them.
In a day and age in which
“judging” is the ultimate (and practically ONLY) sin (akin to “intolerance”) in
our world , would Jesus be accused today
of “sinning”? I found it interesting as
I was reading the quote at the top of the article by Jesus, “Can any of you
prove me guilty of sin?” In spite of ALL
the judgments he had made of these men, not one of them then turned and said,
“Yes – it’s a sin to judge, and since you are making all kinds of judgments
about us, therefore, you are a sinner!”
Certainly if they had said so, it would have been important enough to have been
included. But its conspicuous absence speaks volumes, or should, to our
generation.
The Jewish leaders asked Jesus
once, “Who do you think you are?” (8:53) but that was in the context of his
claim that “if a man keeps my word, he will never taste death.” (8:51) They
were taken aback that he could make such a claim since Abraham and the prophets
all died and he was saying that if anyone believed in HIM, they would never see
death”! (Radical statement indeed). But it was the next claim that caused
outright pandemonium: “I tell you the
truth, before Abraham was born, I AM!” (8:58) It was here that they picked up stones to
stone him to death.
Today, when anyone mentions the “I AM” statement,
we’re told by New Agers that Jesus was just referring to the “I AM Ascended Masters”
and how he was being our model and we were to be -and could be if we just
awakened our consciousness to be on that wavelength - just like him.
But once again, this is taken out of context and without understanding
of the historical implications of the
statement. He was not talking about being a model for people in this statement.
He was saying two things: 1) that he came (in years and preeminence) before Abraham, and 2) that he referred to himself as
“I AM WHO I AM.” (Exo. 3:13-14) The understanding by everyone from Moses to the Pharoah to whom He told this, was that this was the name of God by God Himself.
Therefore, when Jesus made the statement, “Before Abraham was, I AM,” the
implication was understood by the Pharisees to mean that Jesus was claiming to himself
be God. This was the reason for their stoning attempt! It was considered
blasphemy for a man to call himself God.
Many people today prefer for the sake
of not hurting anyone’s religious sensibilities, to steer clear of a Jesus that
made waves. They would rather believe in
the Jesus who stilled the storm. But the
Jesus of the New Testament was not an either-or
Messiah – He was ALL of those things he said about himself (for a sample, check out John's Gospel, chapters 5-8 for starters) – and so much more.
They say that this (Biblical) view of Jesus is “narrow” and “exclusivistic
,” and edit his quotes out of the Bible or disregard him altogether as
unhistorical (in spite of other extra-Biblical writers of the time who wrote
about him, such as Josephus who was not a Christian, and others).
The Jesus of the Bible is not small
but HUGE – far beyond what our puny little brains can wrap around! Many people of ALL nationalities and
religious backgrounds (including former atheists) have come to follow Jesus over the centuries. He speaks today in a
myriad of ways – mostly through people in relationship with other people, sharing
their experiences with Jesus, but also
through the Bible, physical healings, miraculous life-changing events, and even
through dreams and near-death experiences – whatever ways people need to meet him.
He is the SAVIOR of ALL people – IF
we accept His judgment – that we are sinners who the God of all creation deemed
worthy enough to move heaven and earth to become a baby born not in a rich man’s
palace but in a dirty barn, his first cradle an animal’s feeding trough, giving
up his unfathomable glory as the ultimate deity to show us OUR worth – that God
would become one of us and DIE to take on our sins so that we might – if we
choose – come back into a right relationship with Him and live forever. Now THAT is some judgment and some basis for self-worth!
If only all of us could be that judgmental.
