Judging Like Jesus

 

            

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.