" Being the Judge, Jury, and Executioner " Luke 6: 37-42

In the United States, we are unique because of our method of justice and the assumed "innocence" of the accused. In fact an accused is said to be "Presumed Innocent until proven Guilty". While that sounds really good and it gets quoted a lot, the truth of the matter is once accused, an individual is fighting an uphill battle to defend their good name and their innocence. I once represented a client that was convicted because two (2) police officers testified that he swung a baseball bat at their heads twice. It is easy to understand the conviction, even though his wife testified that he did not swing the bat at the officers and in fact only swung the bat in any direction just once. It is easy because we have the police and the accused's wife saying two different things. I mean who would you believe? The problem was the facts that the officers testified to were physically and logically impossible (and I will be happy to explain sometime after class). Obviously, the prosecutor and judge found it easier to believe the police officers than the accused's wife. The jury was initially split but after the judge's late night instruction that they were not going home until they came back with a verdict (which this judge had dozens of convictions overturned later for improperly instructing juries). In light of the judge's instruction, the jury came back and convicted our client.

When Jesus spoke about judging in the sermon on the mount he was not talking about civil judgment. In fact that would be a contradiction (see 1 Peter 2:13, 14; Titus 3:1; and Romans 13:1). He also was not intending his followers to not make determinations on the correctness of actions and matters. In other words, Christ was not telling us to ignore sin or sinful people. I have heard the expression "do not judge, lest ye be judged" to tell me that I should accept others' sin or sinful nature. However, that flies in the face of what Christ says in the same portion of the sermon "Do no give what is holy to 'dogs' and do not throw pearls to 'swine'". Also Matthew 7:15-20 warns of false prophets and that we can know them by their fruits.

So what did Jesus mean. If we look at John 7:24 it says: "Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment." When we take all of this together the direction Jesus is giving is not "do not judge" but do not judge harshly or unfairly - lest you will be judged harshly and unfairly.

What are your thoughts on this? One commentary that I enjoy reading suggests that Jesus was condemning:

1. allowing background and prejudices to affect our judgment
2. judging hastily without hearing the facts
3. judging motivation
4. putting the worst possible spin instead of giving the benefit of the doubt
5. being harsh, bitter, hypercritical in our judgments rather than showing mercy and love

Jesus's promise: Matthew 7:2 "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

Ouch - I definitely need to work on my cynicism and my preconceived ideas so that I will not be brought to judgment under these same standards.