SERMON ON THE MOUNT
JUDGE NOT
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 7:1-5
DECEMBER 2, 2001
In Afghanistan, there are thousands of caves. Apparently, Osama bin Laden is in one of them. Our government seeks desperately to apprehend him and bring him to justice. Therefore, we are using high-resolution photos from spy satellites to try to identify all the caves. We are using low-flying drones like the Predator, seeking to identify all cave entrances. We are using F-18s and helicopters equipped with thermo-imaging devices and infrared sensors, trying to identify those caves that are emitting heat, knowing that the caves that emit heat have people in them, probably members of Al-Qaeda or Taliban soldiers. We are using F-18s and FF-15s with precision-guided bombs to destroy entrances to some of the caves. On the ground we are using explosives and even bulldozers to block entrances to other caves.
We know that we’re going to have to go into those caves where Osama bin Laden might be. It’s going to be dangerous. The military says that it will begin with tear gas, and they’ll use fuel air explosives that take oxygen out of the air. They will fire these into the caves first, seeking to disarm and disable people who might be within the cave structure. Then they’re going to send de-mining teams into the caves because most of the caves are booby-trapped. That’s a slow and tedious process of disarming the explosives within the cave.
Then the soldiers will go in at great risk to their lives. They’ll go in with night vision goggles and with special breathing equipment. They will not be able to use hand grenades because of blow-back within the caves. They’ll not be able to use automatic rifles because the bullets ricochet off the hard cave walls. The soldiers are going to be going in with knives, with blowtorches, and with single-shot weapons. They’re going to be prepared to engage in hand-to-hand combat, seeking to arrest and to seize and capture Osama bin Laden.
It’s all kind of a massive effort to bring him to justice, to bring him and other members of Al-Qaeda to judgement. Perhaps in a military tribunal, perhaps in a court of international law, perhaps in a court of civil law, he might be “judged” for the crimes, for the sins that he has perpetrated on the earth. The Bible tells us that it is right that earthly governments seek to deter evil. The Bible tells us that it is right that earthly governments “bear the sword” in an effort to deter evil on the earth. Therefore, earthly governments must establish courts and judicial systems, judicial justice systems. They must render verdicts. They must make judgements. They must pronounce sentences. This is all part of the biblical purpose of government as revealed in Romans, chapter 13, and in the book of 1 Peter. But no earthly court can judge the soul. No earthly court has the power to determine eternal destiny. Earthly courts can judge the body, they can incarcerate the body, they can terminate the body, but they cannot judge the soul. Only God can judge the soul.
The Bible tells us that the Father has given all judgement over to the Son. Therefore, in the scriptures, Jesus Christ says, “The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son, that all might honor the Son in the same way that they honor the Father.” Now, what does Jesus Christ say to us with regard to our role in judgement? The message is pretty simple. “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
In this statement, Jesus is not speaking governmentally, as we have seen. The Bible certainly teaches that governments must judge and render verdicts to keep order in society and to deter evil on the earth. In this statement, Jesus is not even speaking ecclesiastically, as churches sometimes must exercise self-discipline. He’s really not speaking of the workplace where employers must evaluate the performance of employees. He’s not even speaking to parents where discipline must be administered. Jesus is speaking to us individually and personally in terms of our personal relationships as we just go about daily life in this world. He’s not saying we can’t discern between right and wrong. He’s not saying we can’t disagree with something, even disapprove of something, but He’s saying that we must not condemn. The Greek word here is “krino,” and its primary force is condemnation. “Condemn not, that you be not condemned.” Why is this? Why are we to be so careful with regard to judgementalness?
Jesus gives us two reasons, and these comprise our two teachings. First of all, we’re not good enough to judge. We’ re not good enough to condemn. Jesus said, “How can you notice the speck, the little piece of sawdust, that’s in your brother’s or sister’s eye and not notice the log, the plank, that is in your own eye?” You see, we’re not good enough to condemn another person, not good enough to judge.
Some of you have heard of Pelagius. Pelagius was born in what is now the United Kingdom. He was born in the year 354. He became a monk. This British monk, in the year 387, came to the city of Rome. In the city of Rome, Pelagius taught what historians and theologians now call Pelagianism. He taught his own brand of theology. He told people they could earn their own salvation. They had no need of mercy or grace. He told people that they were born innately good and that their will had the power to maintain goodness throughout the course of their lives so that they could earn their own salvation. No need of mercy. No need of grace.
Pelagianism continues to influence the thinking of many in this world. But the church of Jesus Christ has condemned Pelagianism because the Bible tells us that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” The Bible tells us, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” The Bible tells us that before a holy God, all of our righteousness is like filthy rags.
In each of you, there is both good and evil. In me and within my heart, there is both good and evil. Good because we are created in the image and likeness of God, the imago Dei. Evil because we are fallen. The human race is fallen, and we have all sinned. We have good and evil in our hearts. It’s important for you to acknowledge the sin that is in your life and to acknowledge the evil that is there.
In the State of Florida, there lives a man named David Wells. He is trying to sell video tombstones. You can purchase a video tombstone for $6,000. It’s made out of stainless steel, and it’s guaranteed for 500 years! The screen is made of bulletproof glass, and it is weatherproofed. If you push a button, it will play a 10-minute video, summarizing the life of the deceased. David Wells says that he’s tired of going to cemeteries where you just see tombstones that give such little information, where you really don’t know anything about the person who died. He said, “How wonderful it would be if you could go to a cemetery and there would be these video tombstones and you could just push buttons everywhere and get 10-minute summaries of everybody’s life?” But you can’t summarize a life in 10 minutes. I can’t summarize my life in 10 minutes. You can’t summarize your life in 10 minutes. Those summaries would tend to just be eulogies anyway. You know what eulogies are. We hear them at funerals.
The word eulogy comes from the Greek word “eulogia,” and it literally means “good word.” A eulogy is an expression of good words about a person’s life. That’s generally what you hear at funerals, no matter how the person lived. Surely that’s what you would see on a video tombstone. You would see a eulogy, good words. There is goodness in all of our lives, but it’s important for you, it’s important for me, to not only see the good that is in us. We must be honest with the bad, the evil that is there. It’s only as we do this that we recognize our need for mercy. It’s only as we do this that we’re likely to give mercy to other people.
The Bible tells us about the woman caught in the very act of adultery and how, as described by the Pharisees, many of the people wanted to stone her to death because of her sin. Jesus was there. Some of the Pharisees decided to put Christ to the test. They said, “It’s written in the law that such a one as this who has committed adultery, caught in the very act, is to be stoned to death. What do you say?” Jesus knew it was a trap. If He said, “Stone her,” He would alienate the common people. If He said, “Don’t stone her,” He would violate the law. Jesus knelt down, the Bible tells us, and He scribbled on the earth. We don’t know what He wrote, but He looked at the crowds and He said this: “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone at her.” What was His message? “You’re not good enough.” I mean, isn’t that His message? You’re not good enough to throw a stone! You’d have to be without sin to throw a stone! We’re not good enough.
Some of you watch Jay Leno on the Tonight Show. If you watch Jay Leno and you stay up for that, you know that sometimes Jay Leno does “street interviews” and you’ve seen some of those. One night recently, Jay Leno decided to test people’s knowledge of the Bible—something he doesn’t normally do. He went out and he asked a few questions on the street. He particularly wanted to see whether young people in this culture and in this country know anything of the Bible.
He went up to a young man. He said, “Who in the Bible was swallowed by a whale?” The young man clearly did not know and ultimately said, “Pinocchio.” He went up to two young women who were college students and he said, “Can you name one of the Ten Commandments?” They couldn’t do it. Finally, one woman said, “Freedom of speech?” Freedom of speech. College students. Then Jay Leno said to the other woman, “Complete this sentence for me. ‘Let he who is without sin…’ complete the sentence.” She thought. Finally, she said, “Have a good time!” “Let he who is without sin have a good time!” What a tragic ignorance we have in our culture, in our time, in our nation with regard to the teaching of Holy Scripture.
Of course, the statement of Christ, “Let he who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her” is such an important statement because Jesus is telling us we need to acknowledge our sin and our need for mercy and then to give mercy to others. We’re not good enough to condemn other people. We’re simply not good enough, and Jesus tells us in this passage of scripture (Matthew 7:1-5) that if we condemn others, because we are sinners, that makes us hypocrites. Hypocrites. If while being sinners we condemn others, we are hypocrites. That’s strong teaching, and there’s a little hypocrisy in all of us—maybe a lot.
I know many of you have heard of Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf. He used to play basketball for the Denver Nuggets. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf had a tremendous jump shot. He could just drain shot after shot after shot. He was really fun to watch. He got in trouble in the Denver community because he refused to salute the flag of the United States, refused to sing the National Anthem, refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance. When the media asked Mahmoud, “Why? Why do you refuse to salute the flag of the United States?” He said, “Because that flag represents oppression.” The media said, “How are you oppressed? You’re a millionaire in the American world of sports! How are you oppressed?” He said, “I’m oppressed as a Muslim because, in America, Muslims are oppressed.”
Certainly, Muslims should not be oppressed in this country. We don’t want to oppress anybody. We believe in civil liberty. We believe in democratic freedoms, and we believe in freedom of religion, but the newspaper and the media rightly pointed out that there was hypocrisy in Mahmoud’s statement. And why is that? Because nowhere in the world is there more oppression than in the Muslim world and in those 49 nations of the earth that are Islam.
Of course, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf is not really responsible for the oppression in Iran or Iraq or Saudi Arabia. If somebody from Iraq were to call America oppressive, that would really be hypocrisy. But, you see, it’s convenient to look at other people and their hypocrisy. The reality is there’s hypocrisy in all of us because we’re sinners. And yet we condemn other people for their sin. And so, we have this warning from Christ, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” You’re not good enough. Don’t throw stones! Don’t even throw stones verbally. Don’t slander! Don’t gossip! “Judge not, that you be not judged.” We’re not good enough.
There’s a second teaching. The second teaching is we don’t know enough. This is the second and final teaching in the passage. Jesus said we should not judge, we should not condemn, because we’re not good enough and we don’t know enough.”
Haddon Robinson was the President at Denver Theological Seminary and then he took the Chair of Homiletics at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary outside of Boston. Haddon Robinson is a good friend of our church. He’s told a story that I just love. It’s a story about a woman at an airport. She arrives early. She knows that she’s going to have to wait for quite a while before the boarding call comes, and so she brings a novel to read. While she’s there, she thinks she would also like something to eat, and so at the airport little snack shop she buys a package of cookies. Then she sits down in the waiting area to await the boarding call, which she knows will be awhile, and she tries to find a little space, a little bit of privacy. She sits down where the nearest person to her is two seats away. There’s an empty seat between them.
She begins to read her novel. She really gets into it. She’s really enjoying it. She’s focused on that and suddenly she notices that this man two seats away is reaching down into the empty seat and grabbing hold of her package of cookies. He grabs hold of her package of cookies before she’s been able to even have one! He tears open the package of cookies, takes a cookie out, and begins to eat it. She’s offended. She’s stunned. “This guy is stealing from me!” She’s so stunned that she’s speechless. Then she thinks, “Well, he’s just going to eat all my cookies.” So, she reaches down, and SHE grabs a cookie just so he doesn’t get them all.
He looks up at her and smiles and grabs another cookie. Then she grabs another cookie, and they just take one cookie after another. She’s enraged. Finally, there’s one cookie in the package. The guy reaches down and takes the last cookie. He smiles at this woman, breaks the cookie in two and gives her half. He gives her half of her OWN cookie! Well, she’s just really upset and still speechless when the boarding call comes, and she heads onto the plane. She finds her seat and sits down and thinking about this horrible man.
Suddenly she opens her purse, and what does she see? She sees her package of cookies! Suddenly she realized that this guy had the same package of cookies she had bought, and she had misunderstood the facts! She had judged him wrongly! In fact, he wasn’t eating HER cookies. SHE was eating HIS cookies! This guy wasn’t a thief. He was the most generous person in the world!
Isn’t it true that sometimes we’re operating on misinformation? We just don’t know enough. In our passage of scripture for today, Jesus tells us because of the log in our own eye, we really can’t see clearly the speck in the other person’s eye. We can’t see clearly. It reminds us of the passage of scripture in 1 Corinthians 13 where the Apostle Paul tells us that “We see through a mirror dimly, and our knowledge is imperfect.” Isn’t that true? We see in a mirror dimly and our knowledge is imperfect. We don’t REALLY know anybody! Only God knows us.
In 1934 in Kansas City, Kansas, a 22-year-old woman died. The police found her body, but she had no identification. They didn’t know who she was. She had red hair. She had a freckled face, blue eyes. She had a unique scar on one ankle. They sought the help of the community to identify this 22-year-old woman who had been shot to death. They sought the help of people in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, people throughout Kansas and Missouri. One hundred and fifty people came forward to identify her, and they identified her as 26 different people. One hundred and fifty people identified her as 26 different people. After six months, law enforcement officers in Kansas City, Kansas had found all 26 of those people and they were fine. After six months, they still didn’t really know who this 22-year-old girl was. They buried her, and to this day she remains buried in Kansas City, Kansas, and nobody knows who she is. It’s the greatest case of mistaken identity or unknown identity in the history of America.
There’s a sense in which all people are like her. We’re all unknown. We’re all mistaken. People don’t really KNOW you. People don’t really know me. Only God knows us. “Before Him, no creature is hidden, but all are open,” the Bible says, “to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Only God really knows us.
Sometimes we can be frustrated because people have misinformation about us. People are making judgements based on misinformation. That happened to Barb and me recently. We were seeking to get Barb a new car. Her Buick is 10 years old, and things were beginning to wrong. We went to get Barb a new car. We wanted to finance the car. They said they had a great interest rate as long as our credit rating was good. We said that our credit rating was great and that there was no problem. They said, “Okay. You ought to be able to get this great interest rate on the car then.”
They checked our credit rating out and they said, “You’ve got a bad credit rating.” They said, “Mr. Dixon, you’re the one with a bad credit rating.” I said, “A bad credit rating? I mean, we’ve never had a bill we didn’t pay, and we’ve always paid them promptly.” They said, “Well, according to your credit rating and according to your credit record, when you turned in the last car that you leased, you turned it and did not make the settlement payment and you were delinquent. Now you have a bad credit record.”
I said, “Well, that’s not true. As soon as we got the bill, we paid it.” They said that they were going to have to “check that out.” You know how it goes. To check something like that out, you have to call one person who has you call another person who has you call another person, and the calls just keep going and no one seems to know what to do. No one is able to help you. Finally, we found out what had happened. They had billed me with my last lease. We had paid the bill immediately, but they had made a mistake. It took them 7-1/2 weeks to bill us. As soon as we got the bill, we paid it, but they reported us as delinquent after 3 weeks. They reported us as delinquent after 3 weeks even though they didn’t bill us for 7-1/2 weeks.
They admitted their mistake. They didn’t apologize, but they admitted their mistake. A week later, we were thinking that we needed to refinance the house because the interest rates were so low. We thought we might be able to save a little money on the house and use it for something good. We went to refinance the house. They said, “We’ve got great interest rates as long as your credit record is good.” We said that our credit record was good. They checked it out and said, “No. Your credit record is not good. In fact, it’s horrible. You’re delinquent on nine different bills.”
“Nine bills? We cleared this up just a week ago.” They said, “No, you’re delinquent on nine different bills.” We began to check into that. Phone call after phone call. You know how it goes. Turns out that there is a guy in California named James Wright. He has a Social Security number almost identical to mine. Only the last number is different—only by one digit. He’s been delinquent on bills everywhere, and somehow in the computer systems it was all attributed to me.
There were other similar things, none of which had anything to do with me. It was all misinformation, and yet it had given me a bad credit record and it takes all my time to clear it up. Once you clear all that up and you feel like they’re not going to judge you anymore… Then they say, “We want to make sure we have everything right Mr. Dixon. Now, you’re still working at Whiskey Pete’s?” I said, “Whiskey Pete’s? I’ve never even heard of Whisky Pete’s.” They had me working at Whisky Pete’s, and of course at the same time we got a letter from the IRS. The letter from the IRS said we owed money because they claimed they had no papers in their records and nothing in their files about my ordination and my 501 C-3 status, my ability to claim housing allowance. They had it all wrong. Of course, we had the records, and they did too. You just have to picture a big room where a whole bunch of people are working. There are a whole bunch of desks. Some of them know how to work their computers and some don’t. Some know how to access files, and some don’t. It just creates the mess that we’re in.
There’s misinformation out there about all of us. By the way, you need to check your credit record regularly! There’s a lot of misinformation out there. Judgement is rendered on the basis of that misinformation. This is true in so many ways relationally, too. The reality is that we don’t really know enough to judge another person, not to condemn them. You don’t know what a person has been through. You don’t know what a person’s been through. You don’t know what a person is struggling with.
Barb and I can look at our children, at Heather and Drew… We love them so much. We thank God for them. We’re so pleased and proud, but they’re different. We could never judge them. We don’t know enough, and we’re their parents, but the reality is they’re so different. We could see that from the moment of birth. They’re dealing with different realities in their lives.
I’ve shared before how, when Heather was born, we put that pacifier in her mouth. Her jaws just bit down on that pacifier. She began to just chew it and clamp down on it with great energy, almost with tension. When Drew was born, we put the pacifier in his mouth. He just let it dangle. We can see that tense energy in Heather still today, and we can see the mellowness in Drew still today. Only God knows how the events of life are filtered through those realities. Only God can judge their emotions, their reactions, their choices. We don’t know anyone biochemically. We don’t know anyone environmentally. We don’t know what another person has been through. We don’t know what they missed out on. Maybe they received no spiritual nurture. We don’t know their nature or nurture. We just don’t know enough to judge.
As we close, I want to tell you a little story. I like the story about a woman who’s driving a classic red MG convertible. She’s driving along a city street, the wind is in her face, and she’s loving it. She’s in this great classic MG red convertible. It handles well, it looks cool, and she feels great except she’s kind of nervous. She’s kind of nervous because the MG is really kind of her husband’s car, and it’s his pride and joy. It was his childhood dream to have a classic MG. Through the years, once he got it, he polished it every weekend. He was always looking for parts to upgrade it and make it better. She rarely drove the car, but this beautiful day she was driving it, enjoying it, but also feeling nervous.
Suddenly, a little boy on a bicycle came out in front of her, just came off a side street. She didn’t really have much time to react. She swerved away to keep from hitting him and she plowed into a truck coming the other way on the street, and it just destroyed the classic MG convertible. Now, by the grace of God, she was okay, but as she sat there in the midst of this wrecked car thinking about her husband Jim and how he would feel about it, she just felt horrible. When the driver of the truck came up to her and said, “Are you okay?” She said, “Yeah, I’m fine, but this is my husband’s car and it’s ruined. I’m just worried about how he’s going to feel.
Then the police came. The police said to her, “I need to see your license, I need to see your vehicle registration, I need to see proof of insurance. She looked in the glove compartment. She found the proof of insurance in a little plastic bag. As she pulls it out, she notices there’s a clipped note to the insurance papers. She looked at the note, and it’s from her husband, Jim. The note says, “If you’re reading this, you’ve probably had an accident. I hope and pray that you’re okay, but I want you to know it’s you I love. It’s you I love, not the car. I love you despite whatever you’ve done.”
That’s kind of cool. I mean, I like that. I like it because that’s the way God views us. That’s what God has said to us. That’s why He sent His Son into the world. “I love you. I love you more than whatever you’ve done. I love you despite the way you’ve wrecked your life. I love you despite your sin. I love you.” That’s why He sent Jesus to die on the cross for us. If you’re a Christian, you’ve knelt at the foot of the cross and you’ve embraced the mercy of God, the love of Christ, and you’ve received Him as your Savior and Lord. Now you’re called to go out and show mercy to others and to say to them, “I love you more than what you’ve done,” because we’re not good enough to condemn.
We don’t really know enough to judge, and we’re called to be people of mercy. I promise you, if we would be people of love and mercy, the power of the gospel of Christ would be so great in us as we live life day-to-day in this world that the world itself would begin to be transformed. If we really would live lives of love and mercy and if we would learn that we are not to judge, we must also remember the warning that the measure we give will be the measure we get. Let’s close with a word of prayer.