Creekside Church Sermon of November 21, 1999 "Judge Jesus" Matthew 25:31-46	Rev. David Bibbee
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These TV judges are portrayed as fair, but tough and not afraid to dispense the stiffest sentences. These judges are a tougher breed than the TV judge I watched growing up. Every Tuesday at 6 P.M. I turned to channel 10 to watch Traffic Court. The bailiff would begin, "Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Traffic Court of the city of Columbus, County of Franklin is now in session, the Honorable Judge Robert Merrill presiding." Judge Merrill was big and bald and had the personality of a grandfather, Ann Landers, and Perry Mason rolled into one. The judgments of Judge Merrill were sometimes lenient, and sometimes stiff, but always fair, and at the end of each episode he would close with a fatherly chat about safe and responsible driving.

Today's gospel lesson is about a judge who will preside over the greatest court in history. At the close of history, after every human endeavor has run its course, this judge will gather before him a number no one can number. In the words of the Apostle's Creed, "He will judge the living and the dead." From his throne he shall separate humanity like sheep from goats. We typically don't see this judge in a judge's role. We think of him more as a teacher, a good shepherd, a friend of children, a healer of our ills and the hope of our hearts. We seldom think of him as our judge. We would rather Jesus be the great affirmer of our lives, not an eternal being who scrutinizes our thoughts and acts and the motivations which fuel them.

We face judgments every days of our lives. We make them of ourselves. We make them of others. Others make them of us. We are judged by the decisions we make as well as by the decisions we don't make, and the judgments we make of others will themselves be judged. Making final judgments is not something we are qualified nor entitled to do. "Judge not, lest ye be judged," Jesus said. "There are weeds in the wheat, master. Do you want us to pull them?" "No," Jesus said. "You can't tell them apart. Pull the weeds and you kill the wheat." Judgment is the prerogative of Judge Jesus.

The Bible teaches that there is but one judge who is credible to scrutinize us. Only one who has been given the authority. Only one who by his obedience and sacrifice has been given the legitimate right and insight to judge us most finally. He is the one God has highly exalted and upon whom he has bestowed the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father.

It seems that for the most part, people today live as though they are not subject to anyone nor accountable to anything. We make a big deal of personal freedom. Freedom to do as we please, when we please. We are independent, autonomous beings. We don't impose our standards on others. "To thine own self be true," the saying goes, but which self will we be true to? How often have you heard it said that believing God is at work in the world is a crutch...that God doesn't intervene in human affairs? There is a self-fulfilling quality to this belief. Where God isn't acknowledged, God will not intervene. At several points in scripture it says that God judged the people by "giving themselves over to themselves." If we want to run our lives, we can.

In one of Dostoevski's novels, there is an arresting verse that says, "Where there is no God, everything is permitted." In other words, when God is not acknowledged, there is no limit to what people can do. Teenagers go on rampages killing all the classmates they can. The Fox Television Network gives us a game show called Greed and a freak show hosted by Jerry Springer which is considered entertainment. When God turns us over to ourselves, we get humanity at its worst. Sex is reduced to gratification between consenting adults. Years ago Bob Dylan wrote a song that captures what this sort of life is like, "How does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone."

Someone said, "The best way to convince fools that they are wrong is to let them have their own way." Christians know better. We are conformed, not to the world, but to Christ. The standard by which he will judge us is not how we compare to others. It is not being a good citizen, a good Rotarian, or even a good church member. Look at the parable of the last judgment. And notice you don't find anything about judgment on the basis of your views concerning the inspiration of scripture or whether you ascribe to the adoptionist or substitutionary doctrines of the atonement. We are judged by Jesus. We are judged by the person he was. Our goal is for Jesus to be so much a part of our lives that what we do flows from who he is. It is Jesus abiding in us in such a way that we see him in the hungry, the sick and the imprisoned.

But what sort of judge is Jesus? A "no tolerance" judge? A hanging judge? Somebody said, "The worst sentence Jesus can pass is that we behold the suffering which he endured for our sake. Our sentence is also our acquittal."

When he was fifteen, Elie Weisel was imprisoned in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp where he was subjected to unspeakable horrors. His entire family was killed. In his book called Night he described an incident involving an eleven year-old Jewish boy. He and two adults had been caught hoarding weapons inside the camp, and all were sentenced to death. Three gallows were erected, one for the boy. The camp stoolies refused to assist in the execution, so the SS had to perform the execution themselves. The three prisoners stepped on the chairs. The nooses were placed around their necks. The two adults cried, "Long live liberty!" But the boy was silent.

A cry was heard from among the anguished spectators who were forced to watch. "Where is God? Where is he?" The chairs were kicked from under the prisoners and the weight of their bodies yanked the ropes taut. Then the prisoners were forced to march past the gallows. The adults had died. Their tongues were sticking out, swollen and blue. But the rope which held the boy was still moving. He was so light he was still alive. The prisoners continued to file past as the boy hung for half an hour before he died. Weisel wrote, "He was still alive as I passed in front of him. His eyes weren't glazed." Then someone cried, "Where is God now?" Weisel writes, "I heard a voice within me answer him: 'Where is he?' He is here---he is hanging there on the gallows."

When the Son of Man comes he will sit upon his glorious throne. He will assume his rightful role as judge of the nations. But where did he come to the throne from? The gallows. "Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood! Hallelujah! What a savior." Our judge is our redeemer. He took our sentence upon himself. Our sentence was rescinded.

History cannot forgive us. Principles cannot forgive us. Standards and goals cannot forgive us. The only one who can do that is Judge Jesus. All that is asked of us is that we accept it, and be on the lookout for all the guises by which he presents himself.

The thought of standing before the judge who holds our destinies is enough to make us tremble. In a moving essay called, "For Behold, The Day Cometh", Walter Wangerin tells of the terror he felt at age eleven when he heard admonitions about judgment day. The minister didn't need to add commentary. The scripture was sufficient to frighten him with its depictions of tribulation and affliction. "And then he shall send his angels and shall gather his elect from the four winds, from the utter most parts of the earth to the utter most part of heaven." He wondered how many people were between the two utter mosts. A trillion? How many more trillion from the scene of the last judgment in Matthew 25?

Then he devised a plan. Part 1, An Early Warning. "Then they shall see." Part 2, The Mob. During the sermon he made imaginary plans. He sat by a window. If he saw a cloud touch the ground, he would dive under the pew. When he felt the mighty footsteps of the Son of Man shaking the church, he would crawl under six pews, break for the basement and hide in the boiler room. With trillions of people to go through, God wouldn't miss one sinner.

Two years later Walter was playing football with friends on the field at a college where his father was president. The playing field had stones in it, and whenever Walter found one he would throw it off the field toward the floodlights high on the poles. He always missed. Missing was a tradition. One day his father observed him from a distance "What are you doing?" "Nothing." "Walter!" "What?" "What are you doing?" "Winging stones." "At expensive six thousand watt light bulbs." "But I never hit them." "Don't throw stones at the lights again," his father sternly said.

But he always missed, so he continued winging. Then one day he threw a rock and he knew the second he launched it, it was a perfect shot, his first ever. The rock hit the bulb followed by a shower of glass. He thought he saw the cloud of judgment touching the earth. He hid in the boiler room while his father was occupied with the multitudes at the college. A part of himself was hidden from his father. And as the days passed he couldn't stand the isolation. He would come out and tell the truth. Somehow God's judgment day seemed easier than Walter's own.

The next day he went to the administration building and walked toward the holy of holies. His rear end tingled and talked to him. "You got us into this, but I get the licking." He tapped on the huge oak door. "Come in." He peeped in. "Wally, what do you want?" His presence behind that large desk was imposing. Unable to look his father in the eye, Walter said, "I...I..." "You?" "I...well, you know those six thousand watt light bulbs? "Yes." "Well, that's what I want to tell you." "Yes..." "I broke one." "Did you climb the pole and bump it accidentally?" "No." "Ah...then what did you do?" "I...I threw a stone." Slowly his father arose. Slowly he rounded the desk. Slowly he walked toward Walter. Judgment cometh. The order would be righted by punishment. But he was unprepared for what his father did. He wouldn't have cried if his father spanked him, but he knelt down, took him in his arms and hugged him. Walter began to cry and he couldn't stop.

Wangerin writes, "Love killed me. I hadn't expected love. I hadn't expected the most undeserved thing, to be forgiven. The fire of my father's love melted me...reduced me to a little mess. How God-like was my father's love fore me. If my father forgave me the light bulb, what would God not forgive me too?"

It is by Jesus' standard that we live, not by our own devices. We cannot generate goodness. It is the result of Christ at work within us. It is not to ourselves that we are finally accountable for all we have done and not done. We are accountable to Jesus. Jesus is our judge. But it is also true that our judge is Jesus. The one on the throne was also on a cross. His judgment is his incredible love...if we would but receive it.

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