Luke 6:37-40

Luke 6:37-40 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” He also told them this parable: “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.

Jesus was warning his followers not to become like the Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes who were experts in judging. They seemed to feel their primary purpose in life was to tell others what they were doing wrong. These religious leaders were so bound by judging that they even had the brashness to criticize Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. Often the earnest followers of religion accentuate laws and devalue mercy. When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan, religious zealots perused the crowds daily to see if anyone was violating Islamic laws as they interpreted them. If they found an offender, he or she would be quickly punished. In Jesus' times, the defenders of the laws were the religious leaders who followed him around. They were there to judge him rather than to rejoice in the good things Jesus was doing. They were concerned about judging rather than accepting Jesus' teaching.

If we don't watch out, we can be in the judgment crowd and not in the mercy crowd. If we don't watch out, we won't recognize the good things Jesus is doing and just perceive those things we don't like. Some Christians move from church to church, criticizing everything they think is wrong, not entering into the good things that God is doing in the congregations. Humans have a fatal flaw in them, the perception that they are correct and others are wrong: "Why don't people see things as I see them? If they would just realize I am the container of absolute truth, everything would work out much better in the world." Usually, if there are twenty people in the room, there will be twenty people with that endemic fault present. Jesus says, Don't judge, listen. Don't criticize, hold your tongue. Don't walk away mad, forgive. How hard that is for most Christians.

This ideal of loving your neighbor, loving your enemy, does not work too well for most of us. But Jesus said, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. (Mark 11:25) He also said, if you display mercy, you will not be judged, you will not be condemned, you will be forgiven. What marvelous promises! However, our flesh is very strong, and for most of us, we still persist in judging, condemning, and not forgiving. Of course when we function that way, that is when we need Jesus the most. That is when we need to hear his voice and be convinced by him to be good sons and daughters. That is when we need to know that if we give our lives to him wholeheartedly that He will give back to us an immeasurable amount of care and love: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. But if I am parsimonious in my giving, if I am reluctant to forgive, to care for others, to overlook shortcomings, I will get the same measured to me. The Lord said we should pray, Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12) That is our reasonable service, a reasonable expectation from those who have received so much.