Reflection: "Who Are We To Judge?"When we look at actions of others, that we believe to be inappropriate, there’s a temptation for us to become judgmental, telling them how we believe they’re wrong, and thus worthy of being punished for their terrible actions.
We know that this sort of attitude is nothing new - but is it really our place to do so? From his writings, we can see that Paul encountered the same problems back in his time. To the Christians in Rome he writes: "Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarrelling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them." Clearly, in what he writes, Paul shows echoes of some of the arguments he must have encountered over his years as a pastor, when creating new churches. It’s easy for us to become judgmental when we’re convinced that the way we do things is right and the way others are doing things is wrong. Of course, there are times when things are clearly wrong, and Paul isn’t shy about letting the fledgling churches know when they’re straying from the teachings of Jesus. But let’s listen to Paul's example again, because in many ways, this controversy sounds very modern. Some folks eat anything, others eat only vegetables and those who eat anything shouldn't despise the vegetarians. Also, the vegetarians shouldn't despise those who eat anything. Nowadays, some people are vegetarian to varying degrees, and may look at the rest of the world, or at least the non-vegetarian portions of it, as somehow inferior to themselves, or somehow morally deficient for eating meat. Still others have rules, usually religiously based, as to what types of meat they can eat, or how it was killed and prepared. It might be a bit surprising to find this very similar argument dividing the church at the time of Paul. But perhaps it shouldn't surprise us at all. After all, people don't seem to have changed their ways all that much since then. In Paul's day, the issue revolved around the fact that the meat usually came from an animal that had been sacrificed to a pagan god and, therefore, in eating the meat from that animal, a person was thought to be worshiping the god to which the animal had been sacrificed. Christians in that time denied the existence of these other gods and some of them had no objection to eating the meat, arguing that it was, after all, only a dead animal. Others had trouble with this theological concept and so they only ate vegetables - just to ensure they weren’t inadvertently worshiping some pagan god. The reasons for selecting a vegetarian diet may have changed over the years, but basic dietary positions seem to be much the same now as they were twenty centuries ago. Paul felt that it was necessary to point out to the Roman Christians that it was not really their place to criticise another person, just because they had different opinions from their own. Another way we can get into trouble, is when our opinion is that God agrees with what we believe. This leads us to conclude that God disagrees with anyone who has a different opinion/alternate view on the matter. This particular idea leads people into all sorts of problems, both in the church and even in the secular world. An example of the strife this attitude can cause, is the history of the Crusades, when some Christians claimed that God must want various sites in the Holy Land freed from being controlled by non-Christians, who believed that Allah – their God – wanted them to stop the infidels from invading their lands. Some years back, we saw another example of the belief that God is on one side only, in the conflict in Northern Ireland where Catholics and Protestants both believed that they had God on their side. In the military, there is a concept called the chain of command and it makes the process of action/response quite clear and easy to understand. The person in charge gives an order and the people who are under their control carries out the order. In the rest of the world, we’re not usually involved in something quite as strict as a chain of command, but we do have to follow the laws of the land. Unfortunately, some of us think that we’re in charge of our own lives and can just do as we please. We need to remember that, as Christians, we’re all servants of God, each having a unique relationship with God, and thus, each following our own instructions from him. It is, as Paul reminds us, not for us to judge the relationship others have with God. A third judgment problem is the natural tendency of all people to avoid the consequences of their actions. We can sometimes live as if we expect there to be no judgment, and that we have no responsibility for our actions. Some people even try to avoid the consequences of their actions, especially when it looks like they’ll end up in some sort of punishment for whatever it was that they did. Consider the story of a university student whose father had high expectations, perhaps too high, for his son. When, at the end of the year, the student found that he had failed all his subjects, he sent his mother a quick e-mail: "Mum, failed everything. Prepare Dad." His mother sent the reply: "Dad is prepared. Prepare yourself." This ominous message serves to remind us that, in life, we can’t avoid the responsibility for our actions. The student probably had the ability to avoid failure by applying himself more diligently during that year, but instead tried hard to avoid the parental response to his wasted time. Possibly the father could have been more understanding of the pressures modern students are under and supported him better during the year. Paul emphasised to the Roman Christians that everything we do, we do for the Lord, not for ourselves. His clear message is that: “Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” On judgement day, we’ll all stand before him and, faced with a detailed inventory of our sins, we might all be tempted to crawl under a bed and hide. So, what makes us think that we have a right to judge others? Obviously, the only one qualified to judge us is the one who is without sin - and that person is Jesus. He came to earth to show us how to live blameless lives, however none of us will ever be able to emulate his blameless life. We shouldn’t judge others. When talking to an angry crowd, who wanted to stone an adulterous woman, Jesus said to them: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” In today’s Gospel reading we even hear Peter asking Jesus how many times he had to forgive someone who had wronged him. Peter seemed to think that seven times will be sufficient, but Jesus was thinking of more like seventy-seven. In other words, way more than Peter could ever imagine. Jesus wants us to put grievances behind us and get on with the important tasks that he has asked us to do. Things like loving our neighbours and spreading the gospel throughout the world and making disciples of all men. You know, the sort of stuff that can make a difference. When it’s time for us to stand before him, we shouldn’t let our bad attitudes towards others be another negative in our book of life. Let’s focus on the positives in life so we’ll be happy to see Jesus when the day of judgement arrives. Pastor Rick
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