“Because We Are Judged, We
Conquer”
October 27, 2013
Joel 2:23-32 & Luke
18:9-14
Stephens City UMC
Grace and peace to you
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I.
It was an unusual
experience I had yesterday afternoon.
A. It happened because my wife, Jan, is very good at
Wheel of Fortune.
1.
90% of the time
she solves the puzzle before the contestants so I have often said to her, “You
should go on Wheel of Fortune!”
2.
As some of you
know Wheel of Fortune has a team in Woodbridge yesterday and today to
“discover” potential new contestants so I drove her to Woodbridge.
3.
The process
involved standing in line with approximately 2,500 other people, filling out a
form, depositing it in a clear plastic cylinder that they spin from which they
pull out the names of five persons at first, and then 40 in an hour period, for
a tryout.
4.
Unfortunately,
Jan’s name never got called even though people immediately in front of us and
to the left of us and to the right of us and right behind us got called.
5.
Anyway, the crew
is filming the entire time and the master of ceremony, not Pat Sajak but some
guy named Marty, is up front about how they are looking for interesting
persons.
6.
Quiet humility
doesn’t impress them; such behavior will not cause them to open the door for
you to get on the show.
7.
Before they even
crack the door they want to learn a number of things about you including what
you will reveal about yourself to the public.
8.
Therefore Marty
asks a number of leading questions and one seemingly innocent question is “What
do you do for a living?
9.
Several people
brought derision from the crowd upon themselves when they admitted that they
worked for the IRS.
10.
Immediately Marty would instruct the crowd not
to judge.
11.
Marty did the same when a later contestant
shared that he was a lawyer, however, Marty was slow in cautioning the crowd
not to be judgmental when one contestant confessed that he worked for Congress.
B. None of us like to be judged.
1. That’s because most of the time judgment is negative.
2. Right now I have a negative judgment about the
football teams I cheer for so I’m looking forward to the beginning of
basketball season.
3. And whenever I think about basketball and being
judgmental I think of Bobby Knight.
4. When he retired from coaching he had more wins than
any other coach in the history of college basketball.
5. Eventually Pat Summit of Tennessee on the women’s side
and Mike Kyzyzewski of Duke and Jim Boeheim of Syracuse went past him.
6. Now days Bob Knight is a color commentator on
television which is probably a good thing for college basketball players
because he makes astute comments about the game instead grabbing players as he
did when he coached, even choking one, he once grabbed his own son, and the
chair throwing incident is legendary.
7. So I couldn’t
play for Coach Knight.
8. All players
need correction from time to time but I wouldn’t play well for a coach I
considered to be that judgmental.
9. I’d function
better with an encourager for a coach.
10.
How about you?
11.
If I played for Coach Knight I might need
protected from him.
II.
The importance of
someone making a judgment about the need for protection is one of the themes of
yet another television show, this one being “Person of Interest.”
A.
This show isn’t
looking for contestants, although it is looking for persons.
1. This show is about a machine that was built for the
government by Harold Finch, played by Michael Emerson who was Benjamin Linus on
the television show “Lost,” and through information gleaned from omnipresent
surveillance this machine can predict future terrorist attacks.
2. Plus, it can predict ordinary crimes as well.
3. The government isn’t interested in ordinary crimes so
Finch steals the machine in order that each week there can be a show where the
machine alerts him that some seemingly ordinary person is in danger and needs
help.
4. Even with the machine Finch can’t do this life saving
work by himself so he enlists the aid of John Reese, a former CIA officer, played
by John Caviezel, who is best known for portraying Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.
5. I mean, if your character has to save people, what
could be better than to cast an actor who portrayed Jesus?
6. Now the machine only informs Finch that a crime is
imminent and does not let him know if the “person of interest” is a victim or a
perpetrator, so Finch and Reese have to start out non-judgmental as they become
involved with the person of interest.
7. Maybe there’s a tax collector or a lawyer or even a
congressional aid that needs to be saved or maybe there is another person who
needs to be saved from the person to whom they have been alerted by the
machine.
8. That’s another way to get the show to last one hour
every week and the show is now in its third season.
9. So Finch and Reese always start out non-judgmental but
eventually they have to make a judgment because that judgment dictates how
involved they will get.
III.
Based on our
Gospel lesson I wonder if that’s a little bit like Jesus.
A. Jesus tells a parable about two men who go up to the
Temple in Jerusalem to pray.
1.
So as we hear the
story there are two persons of interest for us.
2.
One is a Pharisee
who may very well be genuine when he says, “God, I thank you that I am not like
other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers.”
3.
Hey, those things
aren’t on my list either and I’m thankful.
4.
That would be bad
stuff to have on one’s resume and if you did have that stuff on your resume
you’d need more than protection, you’d need to be saved.
5.
But this Pharisee
takes his religion seriously so he fasts twice a week and he tithes and we
pastors are all for tithers.
6.
Basically this
man of faith is saying, “God, you don’t have to judge me. I’ve made it easy for
you because I’m doing everything right. I’ve got this religious faith stuff
down pat.”
B. Well, enough about that guy – let’s consider the other
man.
1. We learn very little about him because he doesn’t say
as much as the Pharisee.
2. He doesn’t run through a litany of positives about
himself.
3. Instead he refuses to even look up to heaven because
he knows with his list of sins he can’t look God straight in the eye.
4. Rather, he pounds his chest as a sign of repentance and
revealingly calls out for God and everyone else to hear “God – you have a right
to judge me. I’ve done terrible things. I’m a sinner so all I can do is ask for
mercy.”
5. Now normally folks don’t want to be judged, but he is
admitting that God has a right to judge him.
6. Could it be that he is actually pleading for God to
judge him?
C. And after observing and listening to the two men I
imagine Jesus may have thought “Very interesting.”
1.
Both men have in
essence been on stage in front of an audience and one man doesn’t feel the need
to be judged because he thinks himself so righteous that there can’t be any
judgment against him so why even get into it?
2.
Just open the
door and let me into the big show.
3.
His ego is so
large it is like he is saying, “You’d be ‘fortunate’ to have me.”
4.
The other man is
rather humble and not only recognizes that any judgment against him would be
justifiable but seems to be requesting that a judgment be rendered.
D. And this is where our actors from Lost and The Passion
of the Christ come back over the last Person of Interest.
1. According to Luke Jesus expresses more than interest
towards the person who asks to be judged.
2. This man knows he is guilty.
3. This man knows that his righteousness is inadequate.
4. This man, like the Machine, knows that he needs not
only protection and rescue, he needs saved.
5. And somebody else has to do the saving.
E. And Jesus makes a judgment.
1.
It is like he is
saying, “My, you are a bad man. I do judge you to be totally sinful. But
because I so judge you I bestow upon you grace which shall not only protect
you; it shall save you as only I can do.”
2.
And not only is
the man able to go “home,” but from the depths of honest humility he is lifted
up and exalted.
3.
Maybe nobody else
clapped for the man but Jesus gave him a round of applause and more.
IV.
Now I’m not
encouraging you to go out and get into any more sin than you’ve already gotten
into.
A. Let suggest that you cease and desist.
1.
But, given the
situation you are already in, some honest humility would go a long way to
saving you.
2.
Rather, than
playing the game of self-righteousness, “Oh, don’t judge me,” instead even
though the Lord already knows the truth about you, be revealing and say:
“Jesus, do judge me because only if you judge me and then render upon me the
needed grace can I be rescued from my sin and saved.”
3.
I know that is
counter intuitive but I think that is one of the lessons from this story.
4.
You want to take
steps in your life so you can conquer your sin and be lifted up to being
exalted and even celebrated by the Lord?
5.
If you do, then a
first step would be to call upon Jesus to judge you because he is more than the
door to appear on a television show, he is the door to righteousness.